1 Yr Old Anxiety Sleep...

The perils of being a mom! It's really so hard to do the RIGHT thing. Especially when u don't know what it is. I know you have the answer inside of u and u will figure it out as only a mom can. My experience with my children... One stopped breast feeding at 7 months, she hated it and loved the bottle! She never slept thru the night and even still at 10 will stay up late in her bed reading. She was also sooo clingy. She slept with me for years. My son breast fed till he was THREE! He would not stop until my milk dried up. He also was clingy but he did love sleep. I went thru everything u r going thru. Now my kids are 7 and 10 and neither are clingy in fact they r very independent and both are thriving socially and in school. I guess what I am trying to say is sometimes the best thing is nothing. They all seem to grow up okay. I think maybe give yourself a break and just go with it. It won't last forever I am sure of it! Best of luck!

I have a friend who has 4 kids and each of them slept differently. One didn't sleep through the night till he was 4. Mine has sensory issues and still doesn't sleep all the way through the night. One thing that helped me was a twin mattress in his room for him to sleep on. I would go in and lie next to him to nurse. If I fell asleep, that was ok cause I was comfy, and he was sleeping in HIS bed.

I agree with Tina. Do what works. If that means a mattress next to his bed for you to sleep on so he can sleep through the night - great. If you are fed up and exhausted and want him to stop feeding - try Ferber or CIO. I let one child CIO and that took 4 nights of 4 hours of crying and then she slept through. For the other I used the Ferber method and that took 2 weeks. Both around age 7 months. But then at various older ages (I do not remember exactly when, but at age 2 and then at age 6 again, and recently at 10 they went through various night mares or worries and I would do whatever it took to get them to a good night's rest. Nightlights, reading to them, a fan for white noise, music. The most recent was that my youngest (then about 10) was having worries about burglars so I put a mattress in her room and slept next to her for about 2 weeks, then I sat and read on the mattress while she fell asleep but went to my own bed to sleep, then moved to my own bed but still upstairs reading while she fell asleep, and then she was fine. I an assure you that your son will not be sleeping with you when he is a teen, so whatever makes you both get rest and feels comfortable to you is fine. I have a friend who co-sleeps with her husband and both kids who are 5 and 7. There is no right and wrong, only what works for you. Sweet dreams!

Hi, M.:

It sounds like he is cutting teeth.

If he is, call the Ped to get some Hurricane gel
for his gums.
Good luck.
D.

At this age, they commonly go through what is called "night terrors." My kids did.
It is developmental based.

Separation anxiety, occurs not only in babies. But in older children too. Even Kindergarten and Preschool kids too. But at each age juncture, it is manifested differently.

And developmentally, kids get "fears" of night time/the dark/night mares/etc. But this is normal.

I nursed both my kids, and it had nothing to do with their developmental sleep phases.

When I was a kid, I too, would wake at night, creep down our long dark scary hallway, just to go sleep with my parents. They let me. They knew I would outgrow it, and I did. They did not battle about it.
But this is one of the fondest memories, I have of my parents. They knew it was just a kid phase... and I outgrew it. I was close to my parents. My other sibling, was not, and she'd tease me... about it. But she was not close to my parents and was a cold, person.

Nothing is permanent. This is just a childhood thing.
No adult, sleeps now, the same way they did as a baby or as a child. It changes.

And as kids get older and their cognition changes, so do they. At 1 years old, a child does NOT know, the difference between fiction and non-fiction. Hence they get nighttime fears or want/need comfort, from their parents.