Any advise for 18 month old sleeping?

somegem

Hi Squashy - I do apprecaite your opinion on this & probably thought in a similair way to you regarding leaving babies to cry.
However I felt this was going to be the best way forward for us & baby.
We were sleeping in his room & he was waking every hour for us to either shhh him/ cuddle him/ etc.
This couldn't go on - surely he would be suffering from lack of sleep also?

Your post has just made me feel doubly guilty to be honest, but that is your opinion & you are entitled to it

When he woke yesterday morning he just seemed his normal bubbly mischevious self - like the hours of screaming hadn't occured (not seen his this morning as I am out to work early)

Last night took a lot less time to settle him, he woke at 11:45, took 35 mins of cc & pu/pd for him to fall alseep.
Woke 1 hour later took 10 mins.
he then went on to wake another 3 times but each time I was able to put him straight back to bed - no fuss - no crying.
This must be progess......

x

money_honey

Stick at the CC, we had to do it for DD when we moved house and she was out of routine and in a new bed. It took us 3 or 4 nights but now she sleeps fine and the amount of time we had to spend on the CC was significantly less each night. It's hard but it pays off in the end!

We weaned DD from the dummy at around 18 months but before that we always used a dummy clip so she could put it back in herself, so I'd definitely recommend getting one. It took her a little while to realise she could find the clip and put the dummy back in but once she got the hang of it she was fine.

Good luck with it all!

somegem

Just wanted to update this thread & say its worked !

DS is now sleeping through, took 2 unsettled nights & he is now sleeping staight through till 6am - this has never happened before.

He is settling straight away to sleep at night & even for his afternoon nap - I am so proud of him.

We are also just keeping dummy's for bedtime, he got up this morning & he put them back in his bed !!

He's a little star, fingers crossed it carry's on!

Thanks for the advise i received.

Flora_Poste

Congratulations. It's harder work than many people realise until you get a child that just doest get into a sleep routine by themselves. It wears everybody out.

We had the same with DS1, he used to pile the toys up in the corner of the cot and use that heap to get a leg over the top ( at 11 months!!) We put him in a mattress on the floor instead of a bed and put the stair gate on the top of the stairs. I'm a great fan of Supernanny on Tv and we just followed her advice, basically the controlled crying and it worked a treat.

Getting him out of bed is the problem these days!

donteatthat

With regard to dummies - I got sick of getting up all the time to put it back in when he woke up. We managed to get rid of ours with our 1 year old over a couple of weeks by cutting it out in the day first for a week, then stopping giving it to him after the night time bottle. After a couple of night waking up he used to spit it out if I tried to give it to him. Job done and nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be

onlyroz

Sorry skintchick, but the "pick up put down" method isn't the same as leaving the baby to cry it out. It is showing the child that mummy and daddy are there when needed, but it also teaches the child about the habit of a regular sleep pattern. An 18 month old who isn't sleeping through is usually doing it through habit rather than need - and the pu/pd method allows the child to learn that it's safe to go to sleep, stay asleep, and get back to sleep if they wake up.

QuackQuackOops

The more you pander to him, the harder the habit is to break.
You have already found out that his habit got earlier and earlier and he has now got you to actually stay in the room, which is ridiculous anyway because how can you stop him throwing himself out of the cot if you are asleep anyway?
Besides which, he isnt landing head first. Even it he was it isnt hurting him because he keeps doing it.

The only way to stop this is to put him to bed with his dummy and do not go back in no matter what. So he might scream for 3 nights in a row and I mean really scream. But then it will stop and he wont do it again because he will learn that crying doesnt get him his own way.

QuackQuackOops

skintchick wrote: »

I wish I'd opened this thread earlier. your poor baby He has now learned that Mummy and daddy don;t want to know if he is hot/cold/scared/thirsty in the night, that they will leave him to scream and scream until he gives up on them ever coming. how incredibly sad.

THere is so much research to show that CC is dangerous and damaging to children ,and none showing the opposite. Why do people do this to their children? for a baby, their only way of communicating is crying.

http://www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2011/01/cry-it-out-potential-dangers-of-leaving.html
Many many references at the end. You can explore further if you want to by reading Why Love Matters by Sue Gerhardt.

Absolutely true. And they use it to demand, manipulate and fool parents into doing what it is they want.
If a child loses its dummy in the middle of the night then tough. A child has to learn that people are not available during sleep hours to pick up what they want.
They might cry about it. Its a cry of not getting what they want. Not a cry of pain etc. Parents are not stupid most of the time.

LMCD

QuackQuackOops wrote: »

Absolutely true. And they use it to demand, manipulate and fool parents into doing what it is they want.
If a child loses its dummy in the middle of the night then tough. A child has to learn that people are not available during sleep hours to pick up what they want.
They might cry about it. Its a cry of not getting what they want. Not a cry of pain etc. Parents are not stupid most of the time.

I agree, fed, watered and no dirty nappies - a 18 month old should be sleeping during the night, my dd2 went through this stage and she was just chancing her arm, I checked her needs then put her down and left her to cry/scream it off to proceed to sleep as I knew she was fine.

Maybe it might be worth while ditching the dummy at the same time now.

To be able to function and give your kids 100% during the day you need your sleep.

Good luck OP!!

EastMidsGal

What a horrible thread

That baby hasn't learned to sleep through the night, it's learned to repress it's need to be cuddled and reassured because mummy and daddy don't give a ****!!! There are numerous studies showing that leaving a baby to cry releases cortisol which damages brain receptors, and it also alters a child's ability to rationalise emotions later in life.

Babies aren't manipulative, they are too basic to even know what that is. They need warmth, shelter, food, clean nappies and love and reassurance, even if the latter is in the middle of the night.

OP I am sure you are well meaning but I really feel for your poor baby. No one ever said being a parent was easy