QuoteReplyTopic: sleep help please Posted: 16 October 2010 at 7:59am
So DS 14 months has suddenly started waking numerous times in the night. Always around midnight and then last night was just a complete nightmare to get back down and up again at 4 for the day.
He's never been this bad. We've generally fed him on the occassions when he wakes but last night he had 360ml before bed, 200ml at midnight and then still seemed to want a bottle at 4am. he's a crap eater too.
Its not nightmares is it? My DS went through a month or so at that age where the only way I could get him back to sleep was to put him in bed with us. He would be asleep before his head hit the pillow, but in his own bed it could take several hours to calm him.
We decided it was nightmares as he was quite unhappy. It passed after about a month and we are sleeping through again.
Sounds to me that in his mind he needs a feed to go back to sleep for night wakings, he'll be more aware of his surroundings, so is waking wide up in the night. This is what happened here. Some people find that might feeds will mean they will eat less during the day.
IMO - I don't reckon a toddler of that age should need night feeding.
What worked for us was doing a series of dream feeds that we gradually reduced over a couple of weeks. did them 1 hour before usual wakes. They do need to be able to self settle though to do this and i realise that's not everyone's cup of tea.
I don't think he needs to be fed at night either at that age. Up until a week ago he'd go down until 5am at least, no trouble. He'd occassionally pipe up in hte night but always self settled.... but for the past week he hasn't. I can't work out what we've done to change things!!!
Bec - can I guess teeth AND a growth spurt? Have you checked for molars? Seems to be going round the August crew...even Ryan seems to have some action and I had no idea!
Bec - Ash is having a few erratic night wakings too. For us it is a number of things. Firstly I'm convinced she's having bad dreams. Elle has never ever shown signs of having a bad dream but I've heard they can start at this age and sometimes Ash wakes with such a fright and just wants to be cuddled. However, she is also teething AND likes the comfort of milk. So if she wakes we tend to cuddle first, and if she still cries when put down we offer 100mL milk and sometimes pamol. That always does the trick. If she does wake again a cuddle is all that is needed i.e. we never give milk twice. I find it easier to tick all the boxes with the first night waking and then that usuall eliminates any further wakings that night.
It is a different story if you think that he is just waking for milk AND that he is then not eating in the day. If that is the case, maybe try reducing how much milk you give by 10mLs every night until you get down to just water.
Overall though, I am convinced that bad dreams + teeth make for most nightwakings at this age.
I don't think he is just waking for milk - he'll go down for 10 - 15 minutes fine then arc up again. And he doesn't get fed before he goes down in the day so I don't think it is really a milk-sleep association.
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sleep help please
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