Toddler Advice???

[Iroczlover]

I dont know what the kick is about a binky but if you talk to your dr or even your dentist they will tell you your child will have problems with their teeth if you feed them while laying down or use the binky.

as for my two kids I guess I was lucky. Crazycarfan (now 15yrs) slept though the whole night when he was just amonth old. & SSrulz(11yrs) was sick the first 3 months she was at home

[blazzin1]

Wow, all great advice here, thank you so much!!! I will give it a try. Be tough, slowly cut out the bottles and pacifiers, and maybe try some rice cereal. Got it! See, I knew my Camaro Buddies could help me out!!!

[springerpete]

Originally Posted by kismyss

We used to put rice cereal mixed with milk and cut the nipple a little larger so he could get it out. The solid fills the belly and they are not so hungry so quickly. get the basby rice cereal and mix it with the milk. you also got to get rid of the passy. What we did was we started giving him sippy cups instead of bottle. He still got the milk he didnt like it at first but did not take long and it was like he forgot all about it. We also explainedthat bottle are for the little babies not for big boys. With the passifier we talked to him about donating all of his passies to the passy Fairy. So we went around the house and found all the passys and put them in a bag and we had him help. Then we explained to him that the passy fairy is goin g to pick them up and give them to all the little babies who need them. So we had him take the bag and set it on the front porch. The next day we had a toy sitting in the bag from the Passy Fairy. With a note thanking him for donating the passys to all the babies. It worked great but you have to make sure you get rid pof them all no reminders whatsoever. These are some things that we did and they worked. He was off of the bottle at 13 mos and off of the passy at 16 mos. You have to be consistant. They understand alot more than you think they can. They understand mentally everything they just arent able to communicate it back to you. They get so excited when they see that the passy fairy showed up and left them a toy its so cool and it works.Check out the super nanny she really knows her stuff and has great techniques that really work.

That's funny. My daughter wouldn't take a pacifier but the boy loved them. He musta had at least 20 of them scattered around. He willingly gave them up when we asked him for them. We rounded up as many as we could find and threw them away.

The funny part was for the next 6 months when he got stressed he would show up with one in his mouth. We couldn't figure out where he was getting them. He had them hid all around the house in many different locations. One time we caught him reaching behind the DVD player to retrieve one.

[jcamaro]

Well, my first son is only 11 months (1 year on christmas eve) but he has been sleeping through the night since he was 6 weeks. I don't say this to boast about myself or my wife. I say it to boast about a book. Its called "On Becoming Babywise". We were given this by my brother who had heard about it through his brother-in-law who had a baby before us. Now, its mainly about starting good habbits from birth but you can try some of them now to get in a good habbit. As with every baby book, you have to take the principles and make them work for your child. Trying to go by the letter of the book doesn't work.

I have a few questions though. How many naps does she take and how long are they? Napping affects night time sleep. Also, what time do you typically put her down with the bottle to go to sleep?

Now for a few general suggestions. The main principle in Babywise is that you feed, then play time, then nap time. Never feed just before the nap because their body is digesting and causes them not to sleep deeply or long enough. At 17 months, usually only 1 good long nap is needed, or 2 short naps. So start off with breakfast in the morning (solid food first), then try a bottle (or sippie cup) an hour or so later. Then after that there can be a nap. After she wakes up, feed solid food for lunch, again wait another hour or so for bottle/cup and then another short nap (if needed) after some play time. Don't let her sleep past 4-5pm. Then have dinner with solid foods only around 5:30-6:00 and feed another bottle/cup an hour later. You can give her some water with the solid food but not too much. Let her play and stay awake until at least 7:30 then take a bath and settle down. Try getting her to sleep in your arms. Even though it may take time, getting her to sleep is key. You don't want to give them a bottle to sleep because then their body is digesting again. If she needs 1 in the middle of the night, try the first few nights with just a few ounces and let her fall asleep with you then take her back to her bed when she's asleep. Don't do more than 1 in a night. If she wakes up again, sooth her or keep her in bed with you. After a few nights, try not giving her a bottle and if she wakes up, try to get her back to sleep with you. The key is to keep them sleeping. After she gets used to not needing a bottle, she should sleep longer and longer before waking up. Eventually this should help her sleep through the night.

Edit: and about the binky. The easiest way to break the habbit is to go cold turkey. My son hasn't used one for 5 months. We just couldn't find it one day and just never gave him another one. The first few days he was fussy but then got used to it. A few weeks later we found one and gave it to him. He didn't know what to do with it. We put it in his mouth and he immediately spit it out and looked at us like we were crazy. So just hide it or throw them away and don't use it anymore.

[Stingr69]

Originally Posted by Bonnie

try feeding her rice cereal and a sippy cup of milk as her last meal of the day, I did that with my kids and it really filled them up and they slept much better. Hope that helps.

+1

We used those high flow bottles with rice cereal mixed in with the formula.

The other thing we did was keep the baby wrapped up tight papoose style every night after leaving the hospital. They started doing it that way and we kept doing it. That might not work well if you have not been doing that from the get-go but it worked wonders for our son as an infant. Bundled him up tight as a taco and he would wiggle/grunt about 3 times then just konk out cold. Just like being back in the womb.

-Mark.

[jcamaro]

Originally Posted by Stingr69

+1

We used those high flow bottles with rice cereal mixed in with the formula.

The other thing we did was keep the baby wrapped up tight papoose style every night after leaving the hospital. They started doing it that way and we kept doing it. That might not work well if you have not been doing that from the get-go but it worked wonders for our son as an infant. Bundled him up tight as a taco and he would wiggle/grunt about 3 times then just konk out cold. Just like being back in the womb.

-Mark.

We swaddled for a few weeks also, but I don't think that will work at 17 months... Memories of the womb are long gone and it'll just irritate them Plus they're strong enough to get out of a swaddle at just a few weeks so you'd have to use a straight jacket or something...

[PQ]

Originally Posted by springerpete

That's funny. My daughter wouldn't take a pacifier but the boy loved them. He musta had at least 20 of them scattered around. He willingly gave them up when we asked him for them. We rounded up as many as we could find and threw them away.

The funny part was for the next 6 months when he got stressed he would show up with one in his mouth. We couldn't figure out where he was getting them. He had them hid all around the house in many different locations. One time we caught him reaching behind the DVD player to retrieve one.

Originally Posted by Stingr69

Bundled him up tight as a taco and he would wiggle/grunt about 3 times then just konk out cold. Just like being back in the womb.

-Mark.

If he turns blue and THEN conks out, it's too tight.

[CynAgain]

Originally Posted by SSOOCH

It's going to hurt you more than it will hurt your child but you must not give in. You will know if they really need you. But they have you trained. Hey I cry and my Mom or Dad comes. It's tough. I wish you luck.

Another thing that helped us was having a strict schedule. Even if it's Friday or Saturday they went to bed at 8PM. Period. It's hard because you will have no social life but my Girls go to bed by themselves since they were three now. They just think that's normal.

Originally Posted by texan

we may be just a bunch of camaro heads but there's some good advice here...my little princess is 26 months now and I can't remember all the does and donts like my wife can but phase the bottle out and let her cry, she's not in pain and I know it sucks but it will get better, hang in there! +1 on the steady 8PM curfew

Agreed. There is very good advice here! Good Luck with your Princess