Any advice for getting a one year old to sleep

[seagirl]

My son is almost a year old and he is still not sleeping throught he night! He went through a period of about two months where he was sleeping about 11 hours and then he cut some teeth and had a cold and he just can't get back on track. He GOES to bed great for the most part he just wakes up after anywhere from 2-4 hours and cannot go back to sleep. I have been told to just let him "cry it out" but I cannt do that.

 

If this is normal then great at least I will know it will end and then no biggie.

[John Charles]

there are those special baby bath oils that have some "chamomile" or whatever that helps babies get sleep. It works on my baby boy and girl when they were 1-2 ish. anyway, dont abuse it, and give em baths every 4 hours

[Devildog]

I was lucky with my daughter. 6 weeks old and she was sleeping through the night. Occasional nights with teeth or gas, but generally, no problems.

 

One thing we used to do, we did the whole classical music in the womb thing and continued with playing Mozart and Beethoven on the radio for her after she was born. Softly, just so it is kinda like a background noise, just barely hear it.

[jeni007]

Hey there, I have a daughter who just turned one, and she has been a very good sleeper all the way through. But there are occasional nights where she puts up a fight. Ususally I let her cry for 5-10 minutes, and she stops on her own...

But when she doesn't stop, i go in her room but I don't touch her at all-it's basically to let them know that you are there, and it is comforting to them. This usually works-unless she is sick or something, in which case I will rock her to sleep.

But just a little note to add...I have heard and I believe that if you coddle them too much they will become too dependant, and they will always rely on you to be able to fall asleep-they need to learn how to lull themselves to sleep, otherwise you will have quite a problem on your hands in the future.

I know it is hard to listen to them cry, but be strong!!!! They will get over it. As long as you know he is safe and not harming himself, crying really isn't then end of the world...;0)

[seagirl]

I have tried going into his room and not picking him up or anything just letting him know I was there by saying softly "night-night, night-night" but all that does for now is just make him cry harder and harder.

 

He GOES to sleep great, I can lay him down when he is awake and just drowsy and he will fall alseep no prpblem, I just don't know what to do about the waking up in the middle of the night. Should I let him cry then? For how long? Any advice is appreciated

[jeni007]

Well, when mine cries in the night, she usually isn''t actually awake-she's just crying in her sleep. I let her go for about 5-10 minutes and she's fine.

What you could try maybe is when he cries, wait 2 minutes the first nite and then go in and make sure that he is ok-and if he is actually awake, then the next night wait longer, and so on and so on. Gradually he will learn to fall back to sleep on his own. You will be reassuring him by going in, but also allowing him to become more independant by waiting longer each nite.

Let me know what you think!

[Mz. Pixie]

Hi there-

 

I have two children, both are over this stage. With my first one, I rocked him to sleep until he was eight months old, then tried to get him to go to sleep on his own- BIG MISTAKE- it was horrible! I finally had to let him cry it out to get him to go to sleep on his own.

 

With my daughter I decided I do things right straight off the bat. My best friends had a daughter right after mine was born. I taught my daughter to go to sleep on her own by putting her in her crib. If she woke and cried I would go in there after a few minutes but I would gradually increase the amount of time I would go in there. Like I would do ten minutes the first time, then twenty the second. Usually by the time I got to twenty she would be back asleep on her own. It only took about two weeks of this and she would go back to sleep on her own.

 

Yes, it was hard, but you know what? Parenting isn't for wimps. You wouldn't let your child run in the street and the child needs to be able to learn to do this for their health.

 

My best friend never made her daughter cry at night. Moral of the story, she's three and a half now and she gets up whenever she wants to. She will get up at 1 or 2 in the morning and they have to get up and go into the den with her and play- because that is what they used to do. If not she goes nuts and of course, they still don't want to make her cry. They have been doing this since she was a baby. They both work full time and sometimes can barely function for lack of sleep. This is what you DON'T want to happen! That is no way to live!

[seagirl]

I will give it a try-gradually increasing the amount of time each might before I go in and see how it goes!

 

I know I have made a mistake with rocking him to sleep until he was way too old but I didn't know any better as he is my only child. By the time I was being told different I had already made the mistake, now I am trying to correct it before it gets too out of hand.

 

To his defense, it's the only thing he doesn't do well. He is a very well mannered boy that I can take anywhere. This is my one problem so far, albeit it is a big one!

[CuteAndInnocent]

For us I found that going in there AT ALL made them cry harder. After not getting any sleep and reading a book about getting babies to sleep (which says to let them cry it out, that does teach them to comfort themselves) we did just have to let them cry it out and could not even go in the room. So I think of course the first nights were the hardest, that they would cry the longest but after that they knew that the crying didn't work, and sleeping was much better after that.

Now my kids are older (3 & 5) but they normally sleep through the night just fine. I have seen parents who coddle them and will always go and get their kids whenever they cry and they are the most dependent ones who keep crying and the parents are stuck dealing with sleep issues.