Our 5-month-old wakes up four to six times a night. Sometimes he's not even hungry -- he just wants us to comfort him. How can we get him to sleep through the night?

It appears your child is using you to sooth himself to sleep. self soothing is encouraged through 1) Establish a consistent bedtime routine. Preparation for bedtime eg- bath, massage, stories helps to set the tone & mood for sleep. Avoid stimulating or exciting or noisy activities before child's bedtime 2) Avoid responding immediately to the baby's movement, sounds or even cries. Techniques include extinction i.e putting the child to bed and systematically ignoring the child till a set time the next morning; graduated extinction I.e waiting progressively longer periods of time, usually in 5min increments before checking on child & avoiding picking up the child; Fading of adult intervention i.e this is a proactive plan with gradual withdrawal of parental intervention in steps 3) Avoid night time feeds, after the baby turns 6 months. Night feeding can become a learned behaviour which can lead to night waking 4) Avoid rocking & patting baby till he fall asleep. They will propagate his dependence on parental intervention

Well he probably can't if he is teething. I've learnt that sleep associations and separation anxiety during this period causes them to be unable to sleep through the night as they awake and are unable to fall back asleep. They start to recall that you were there when they slept and all of a sudden you are gone. Even if they don't recall you were there, it's hard for them to fall asleep again because they don't know how to, i.e. they were being rocked, sung to, comforted, nursed, etc. We need to learn to sleep train them gradually and put them down to bed before they even fall asleep. This article is a lengthy one but made sense and is very logical. I was nodding throughout parts 1-3! https://www.preciouslittlesleep.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-sleeping-through-the-night-part-i/

I will bring baby down to walk around daily. Even going down to buy food is something that is different from being at home. My baby is happier after gg outside even for a quick 10 mins walk. When they observe different things, i feel they tend to get tired too. Play soothing music and off all the lights. even during diaper change, jus use a dim light so that it wont disrupt them and easier to get them back to sleep without fussing too much.

Sounds like your child has developed unhealthy sleep habits and he has a sleep association. You need to give him a routine and ensure he's getting enough naps (3 naps) during the day so that he can sleep better at night as well. A consistent sleep environment and bedtime routine would help as well. Your child can be expected to sleep through the night if he weighs more than 6kg and over 3 months old.

Try and keep the baby up and lively during the day. This will help him to have a sound sleep during the night hours. Also, try to keep a soft toy or a pillow by his side to make him feel comfortable and secure so that he does not wake up looking for a familiar touch.

he doesn't know how to connect his sleep, that's why he's waking up. I had the same issue with my 4MO and plucked up the courage to sleep train him. he learnt the skill of self soothing in about 1-2 days and slept through the night independently thereafter.

thanks