Our 20 months old and is still waking through between 1 and 3 times a night. I have tried leaving him to cry but he made himself so distressed after 40 minutes I gave in… When J wakes, the only way to get him back to sleep is to take him out of his cot and usually feed him. He eats well in the day so am sure this is just a habit rather than need. I have tried watering his milk down gradually but get to a certain level and he realises what I have done and pushes it away and wants milk. J rarely has a problem going to bed and I am very consistent with his routine of – up to the bath around 6.20 – 6.30pm. Into his room after his bath where we put his night clothes on, I then sit with him with his bottle of milk. Once he has drank this, I sit with him for around 5 mins – he either falls to sleep on me, if not, I am able to (most of the time) put him in his cot awake and he will get himself off to sleep. The waking can occur anytime between 12.30pm and 5pm and is really inconsistent. Around a week ago, I had a thought that maybe J had an allergy to cows milk so put him onto goats milk which I thought was working, as that one week he slept brilliantly – was waking once around 11pm having a bottle of milk then sleeping until 7am. One night he even slept from 7pm to 7am. He has however reverted back to the waking. My overall objective is to get advice on how to get J to start sleeping through the night consistently.

“Hello, I had a conversation with Mel last Monday at 11am and she asked for some feedback. I followed the technique she gave for J. I was so apprehensive the first night but it took just 45 minutes to get J to sleep. The second night took 10 minutes and the third night I just went into his room and put his dummy in his mouth and he lay back down himself and went straight off to sleep. Since then I have had 3 nights of J sleeping through – the first time ever!! Last night a small whinge and again, I went in once for 30 seconds came out and he went off to sleep. Thank you so much for the advice it appears to have worked and I cannot recommend Mel enough. Kim” (Kim from Lincs)