| Poor you, what a nightmare. I agree with everyone that she will quickly lose her attachment to the helper.
In the interim, has your husband tried feeding her in a completely different environment i.e. not in the same way/room that your helper ususally does it (and not with her around)? Even outside in the pram. She might be distracted enough to take some milk and at least not wake in the night.
If she's crying herself to sleep now anyway, maybe more formalised sleep training/controlled crying would help her establish better sleep habits. However, it would be easier on you and your husband if you could remove hunger from the equation. Easier said than done I know!
We had a refusing milk / lulling to sleep problem at the same time - we used any trick we could to distract her and get her to drink. Once we knew she wasn't hungry, we felt more comfortable using controlled crying to help her learn to sleep without the lulling.
It was a pretty awful 3 days but getting rid of the lulling was the best thing we ever did and she's a champion sleeper now.
Good luck!  |