My Son's Sleeping Patterns Have Changed for the Worst.

Have you tried giving him motrin right AT bedtime? This seemed to help my first child when she teethed. Hope it helps - and good luck! Have you considered he could have reflux that is causing him discomfort at night?

My daughter is doing the same thing! Best sleeper ever - then got a tooth and quickly learned I'd come in the room as soon as she called - so now she does, every few hours all night! And since she learned to pull up and stand in her crib, it's gotten worse. She wakes up and the second those little eyes pop open she is standing up, calling me. (she says 'dada' now, so maybe she wants him! =) I'm just starting to work on retraining her to spend her whole night in her bed. You've heard all theories? I'm not one for crying it out - so I've got my own ideas....we'll see if they work. Just wanted you to know you aren't alone! (I'm exhausted too! =)

Have you seen a doctor? Lots of babies get ear infections when they teeth because the extra spit gets backed up into their tiny little ear ducts and festers. I'd check that out first. Until you see a doctor, drop a few drops of garlic oil in each ear every few hours. If it's an ear infection, that will help the pain and help clear them up, if it's not an infection, no harm done with the natural oil :)

I just thought of something else. I'm guessing you have just started solids as directed around 6 months. Maybe his tummy is upset because of a new food?

When my kids would have their sleep pattern interrupted, the first thing I would think about was "oh great, I am going to have to break them again". Everytime my daughter got sick and was up throughout the night, I knew that as soon as she was feeling better, I'd have to let her cry it out again. It usually only took 1 night though. I always explain to her that "now that you're feeling better, there's no reason for you to be crying or getting up at night" I would make her understand that mommy wouldn't be coming into her room because nighttime is "sleeptime" and I would be sleeping like everyone else. I would try doing this, works like a charm and gets them back into good sleeping habits right away

You should try Hyland's Teething tablets instead of Motrin. They are all natural and deal with teething issues all around instead of just pain. Really, they are wonderful!

Also, he may be in a growth spurt at 6 months. And if that and teething hit at the same time, he could just really be overwhelmed. Just be as nurturing as you can. I think the Teething Tablets will help.

When ours would do stuff like that, we'd "spin the wheel":
is she too hot or too cold (change the outfit)?
is her forehead warm? (Does she have a temp.?)
does she need clean pants (diaper change)?
Is her booty sore? (get the booty balm - "Bag Balm")
Does she have gas? (Get the mylicon)
Is it her teeth? (Orajel and Motrin - be sure not to double dose!!)
Is she hungry? (Get a bottle - maybe even throw in a little bit of cereal - we call that "giving her a mickey". Is he going through a growth spurt - this will make her hungrier than normal.)

Notice, the bottle comes last. With our first, we'd also put on something like Nemo - for some reason that's very calming to her.

One thing to try is go get the Baby Orajel Swabs. They look like a Q-tip, you snap off one end, and the "medicine" drains into the other end, and you can swab his gums to help until the Motrin kikcs in (A trick I learned from the daycare staff when our oldest was in daycare). I would definitely use Motrin at night because it's the 6-8 hour stuff as opposed to tylenol, at 4 hours.

By that time, something should have helped or worked.

Anyway - good luck!

My son did the exact same thing around the same age... and we're going through it again now! He's 17 months old and cutting all 4 molars at the same time. Tylenol works, and Baby Orajel... But what I can tell you is that after a few weeks of awful sleeping it will all go back to normal again. We had to treat Owen like it was brand new again - going to sleep on his own and staying in his bed all night. But it usually only takes 1 or 2 nights of crying for him to remember what to do. I hope the teething is over soon!!!

It would help if you were nursing to comfort him, but it sounds like he is bottle fed. One thing that helped us through similar teething and sleeping nightmares was Highland's Teething Tablets, which can be found at CVS and health food stores. You can pop them right into his mouth, and they will help with the pain and calm him. There may be more teeth right on the way. Sometimes they come in like popcorn!! I feel for you dealing with this alone. I know it is so hard. Make sure you have friends with babies to talk to and spend time with, join a mom's club, find a babysitter you can trust and take a nap once in awhile. A strainer that the baby can chew on with ice or frozen fruit in it is great too, which you can find at Target and places like that. Growth spurts and developmental milestones can also effect sleep patterns. Babies do not always sleep through the night consistently till the age of 2 years. That was the case with mine. We had to wait till her 2-year molars came in (screaming would go on daily for episodes of half an hour) before I got anything like regular sleep. Sleep when the baby sleeps, pray, and remind yourself that it won't last forever and that you will survive!! Good luck. I have been there and my heart goes out to you...

He may very well be getting more teeth in. It is one of the worst times for a parent and baby both when they are teething. His pattern will change in time back to normal, but it may just be more teeth coming in although you may not be able to see or feel them yet. I would rub some orajel on his gums and give him some motrin before you put him to bed. This is going to be a very trying time for you but you will get through it just fine. My guess is mainly more teeth getting ready to come through.
D.

I am 31 and have been married for almost 12 yrs. My husband and I have 3 boys ages 10,7, and 4.

Are you certain that these changes are from teething? The reason that I ask is that I went through something similar and found that it wasn't his teeth at all. My son got his teeth in pretty late so he was quite a bit older. It was something in his diet. I kept a food journal for a time and found that this only happened when he would eat anything chocolate. I took my findings to the doc. She said that this is very common in kids. The biggest trigger foods are chocolate and milk however; any food can be a trigger food for your little one. Some children have a hard time digesting a certain food. I would try keeping a food log first just to make sure and try to stick to your routine as closely as possible. Good luck to you, Shannon G.

I have no suggestions for the teething but maybe you want to look at putting him to bed a little earlier until he starts sleeping better again during the night. sleep begets sleep so if he is disrupted during the night, he needs to catch up at some point so try an earlier bedtime for a week or so and see if that helps. also look at his day time naps. I know when my little girl was that age, if she had one bad sleep or the sleep wasn't long enough, it made the next sleep bad etc until she caught up on some zz's.

This happens when they are teething, b/c my dtr's sleep pattern has been messed up what seems like forever b/c her teeth have not yet burst the gum & she is going on 9 mos. What seems to work very well is the teething tablets. You can get them @ any health food store. Orajel wears off very quickly. Now for the first time in a while she slept 10 hrs last night. Good luck.

my son is going to be 7 months old and he is doing the same thing!!! he is normally such a wonderful sleeper he's been sleeping through the night 9 hrs. since he was 3 weeks old and ever since he started cutting teeth he wakes up every 4 hours or so crying like someone slapped him or something.. my doctor says this is normal and he will eventually get back to his normal schedule and in the meantime i can olny manage his discomfort and put him back to sleep but she also told me to avoid feeding him in the middle of the night because he will form a habit of getting up knowing he will be fed..she said give him 4 oz of water instead and to at first give him a few minutes without doing anything to see if he will go back to sleep on his own...hopw this helps...

Unfortunately what you're experiencing is just par for the course. My son was an amazing sleeper for the first 6 months of his life, then our house got flooded in the great flood of 08 and since then he's been a mess. The slightest changes can throw a baby totally off track. No changes can do the same thing. They are strange little creatures.
I wish I had better advice for you!
Good luck!!

Hi, T.! I don't have a direct solution, but my son is 10 months old, now, and we've done a lot of reading covering ages & stages.
I can only share what I've read, and then share what we've experienced/tried.
We just moved in from the country, where he slept wonderfully. When we moved into Greenwood a couple months ago, his sleeping patterns were just awful. 1st we figured we now have 'city noises' that keep him up. Luckily we have a 'sleep sheep' set on his favorite rhythm, (whale sounds), rush into his room, turn it on, and he falls back asleep instantly to the whale sounds.
That worked for a while - we LOVE our sleep sheep.
THEN, it started some time again later. I finally realized that my once-perfect-on-the-dot-routine wasn't so perfect anymore. As he was growing, so were his needs. He needed an extra feeding (or two). So I changed his diet by adding extra meals during the day, (including more milk than he normally had in one feeding) and changed his bedtime by letting him stay awake just a little longer. Voila! That worked for a few weeks.
THEN he started teething... Amanda here on mamasource has introduced me to a wonderful product called Hylands, which can be given up to 4 times a day. Amanda was correct when she said it's not a sedative, but it helps the relieve the teething pain that the baby is able to fall asleep, and probably will.
Of course, check with your doctor first, but it's worked with us. It's a melt-in-your-mouth type pill that you place under the tongue - we give 2 at a time.
Other things can keep him up at night, the temperature might be too cool in the room where he'd need a blanket - mine kicks his off in his sleep, or opposite: humidity (where baby might be thirsty or sweaty), wet or dirty diaper that needs changed,
or even dreams. In can be a number of things.
Good luck, T.!