Toddler Advice???

[blazzin1]

Okay, well maybe the Camaro forum isn't the best place to ask this question, but hey, this is where I hang out and we're all sorta family, right?!?!? So here it goes! I'm sure some of the great Moms and Dads on here can give me some good advice....maybe!?!?!
My beautiful 17-month old daughter (Reese) is STILL not sleeping through the night!! I can count on one hand the number of times she has actually slept thoughout the night without getting up. Anyway, we give her a small 4oz bottle after bath when we lay her down in her crib to go to sleep. It usually takes 2 small bottles and then her pacifier to initially get her to sleep. Then she'll wake up 2-3 times during the night (usually around 12 & 3 am) wanting another bottle (which she gets). So we are going thru 4-5 bottles every night. I think this is excessive, but if we don't give her a bottle, she cries and cries and cries, and then NO ONE gets any sleep!! I know she is probably waking up hungry, because she hardly eats anything solid at home. Although, I am told she eats like a horse a daycare (other kids around). I don't know how to fix that one either!!! I know we are probably not helping the problem by giving her bottle after bottle, but we need some sleep before work too!!!! Otherwise, she is very healthy and happy. How can I get her off the bottles already and sleeping thru the night??? Is she too old for bottles at night (she gets "sippy-cups" during the day)??? Isn't she too old to not be sleeping throught the night already???
We started putting an ounce of water in her bottles before filling up with milk. My wife was told that by gradually increasing the water in her bottles, she would start to lose the dependancy on them. Don't know yet if that is going to work, but trying it out. Parents, if you have any other advice, it would be grealy appreciated!!!!

Help! Mom and Dad are soooooo tired!!!!!

[CJ Man]

Oh god not looking foward to this in a couple of days. With my son we downloaded some white noise sounds and played it through the night. It sounds like they are still in their mothers womb. I also got one of those starlight stuffed animals. It worked while he was a baby.

Now he is 3 and wants to sleep in my bed every night

[Sweet Lola]

One word...Benadryl. Just kidding.

[PQ]

Every kid is different so all I can do is give you an opinion. Our son was similar to this. I took the old school approach and let him cry. But, hey, I can sleep thru anything. He eventually started not crying but would just kinda hang out in his bed. We could hear him playing. And then he would sleep thru the night.

Our daughter we took a different approach. May be the right call for you too. Take her back and get a different model. Lemon law.

But for real, our son wasn't due to wanting a bottle so may be different fo ryours.

[Kalenn]

Originally Posted by blazzin1

My beautiful 17-month old daughter (Reese) is STILL not sleeping through the night!! I can count on one hand the number of times she has actually slept thoughout the night without getting up. Anyway, we give her a small 4oz bottle after bath when we lay her down in her crib to go to sleep. It usually takes 2 small bottles and then her pacifier to initially get her to sleep. Then she'll wake up 2-3 times during the night (usually around 12 & 3 am) wanting another bottle (which she gets). So we are going thru 4-5 bottles every night. I think this is excessive, but if we don't give her a bottle, she cries and cries and cries, and then NO ONE gets any sleep!! I know she is probably waking up hungry, because she hardly eats anything solid at home. Although, I am told she eats like a horse a daycare (other kids around). I don't know how to fix that one either!!! I know we are probably not helping the problem by giving her bottle after bottle, but we need some sleep before work too!!!! Otherwise, she is very healthy and happy. How can I get her off the bottles already and sleeping thru the night??? Is she too old for bottles at night (she gets "sippy-cups" during the day)??? Isn't she too old to not be sleeping throught the night already???
We started putting an ounce of water in her bottles before filling up with milk. My wife was told that by gradually increasing the water in her bottles, she would start to lose the dependancy on them. Don't know yet if that is going to work, but trying it out. Parents, if you have any other advice, it would be grealy appreciated!!!!

Help! Mom and Dad are soooooo tired!!!!!

1. Yes, she is too old for bottles at night. You are basically "feeding" her to sleep and that's not a good thing for the child. She knows if she wakes up and cries then she will get a bottle. Yes, they figure that out really quickly.

2. If she does wake up and cry you are going to have to let her cry it out. I know this is harsh and will tug at your heart (believe me, I know this) but you have to break this cycle now before it gets worse.

3. Is she teething? My daughter, who will be 18mos in 2 days, is still cutting teeth. She wakes up sometimes crying but it never lasts for more than a minute or two at the most. Check to make sure she doesn't have a low grade fever, unusually rosy and warm cheeks or excessive drooling. If so, try a shot of childrens Tylenol to help with the pain. Obviously don't do this if she isn't exhibiting signs of teething.

4. Are there any noises that might wake her up? The wife and I like to watch television before we go to bed so we found that if we shut our bedroom door, we never wake up our daughter.

5. If she's eating like a horse at daycare then suggest the daycare people cut back a little bit on her feeding while there. Let her eat more dinner at home so she will make it through the night.

The biggest thing is getting her off the bottles completely. We were lucky and our daughter slept through the night almost immediately. Like... a month after we got home from the hospital? Something like that.

If the problem persists you may want to seek the advice of your doctor.

I hope this helps. Best of luck!

[PQ]

You can also change up her lifestyle like these kids. Sleep like ...well.....babys... thru the night.




Of course the mornings will be rough.

[Kalenn]

One binkitini coming up!

[blazzin1]

Originally Posted by Kalenn

1. Yes, she is too old for bottles at night. You are basically "feeding" her to sleep and that's not a good thing for the child. She knows if she wakes up and cries then she will get a bottle. Yes, they figure that out really quickly.

2. If she does wake up and cry you are going to have to let her cry it out. I know this is harsh and will tug at your heart (believe me, I know this) but you have to break this cycle now before it gets worse.

3. Is she teething? My daughter, who will be 18mos in 2 days, is still cutting teeth. She wakes up sometimes crying but it never lasts for more than a minute or two at the most. Check to make sure she doesn't have a low grade fever, unusually rosy and warm cheeks or excessive drooling. If so, try a shot of childrens Tylenol to help with the pain. Obviously don't do this if she isn't exhibiting signs of teething.

4. Are there any noises that might wake her up? The wife and I like to watch television before we go to bed so we found that if we shut our bedroom door, we never wake up our daughter.

5. If she's eating like a horse at daycare then suggest the daycare people cut back a little bit on her feeding while there. Let her eat more dinner at home so she will make it through the night.

The biggest thing is getting her off the bottles completely. We were lucky and our daughter slept through the night almost immediately. Like... a month after we got home from the hospital? Something like that.

If the problem persists you may want to seek the advice of your doctor.

I hope this helps. Best of luck!

Well, thanks for the advice, both you and PQ!!!! No, she's not teething. I definitely can tell when she's doing that (super-duper crabby!!). And there's no noise that is waking her up. I guess we're just going to have to try and be tough and let her cry. Man, we tried that last night for a while, but after about 30 straight minutes caved in. Looks like many MORE sleepless nights ahead!!! I think we may have to slowly start reducing the bottles, I don't think she would deal well with going cold turkey!!! Anybody else have any words of wisdom???

[coolman]

You got to get her off the bottle. she should have been off a bottle at around 12 months. Our daughter didn't sleep at night for the first year because my wife when over for every little peep out of her. After we started letting her cry, and believe me It's hard to do, after about the fourth night she got the hint and slept all night.

[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.

[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.

[springerpete]

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.

Good advice. A little something solid on their tummy helps them sleep.

Our daughter was 2 before she slept all the way through the night but the son slept through the night the first night we brought him home. All kids are different. Daughter was first, and that's why it took 6 years to have #2.

[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

[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.