My son who has never had a problem getting himself to sleep has recently found out how to stand in his crib. Now he stands in his crib crying for what seems like forever. Any advice or suggestions?
Hello! As hard as it is let him cry. I am having the same thing with my 10-month old. I am finding he eventually lays down and it is happening less and less.
T.
M.,
My advice would be to not worry about it much just yet. I feel like my son didn't sleep for a week each time he learned something new: sitting up, standing, turning on his light... but in a week or so he settled down and went to sleep easily again.
K.
Both my kids went through this. The only thing I did was go in and lay them down again. With mine, once they started to learn to stand(or crawl, or cruise), it seemed like they would do it almost in their sleep. They were really into practicing :). Of course, with standing they would get stuck, and then start to cry. This usually is a temporary phase, and once they learned to get down, their sleeping patterns would return to normal. It does seem though, that learning new motor skills does cause some sleep interruption, at almost every age.
Good luck!
J.
Hi M.,
I am sure that you will get tons of advice on this issue. I can tell you I went through the same thing with my children (3 of them). I made sure that everything was ok with them (diaper clean, etc.) and then leave the room. You can check on them every 10-15 minutes to make sure that they are ok, but don't pick them up. Tell them to go to sleep. You keep doing this until the go to sleep. Some children it works quickly others take much longer. My oldest only took 2 days. My second took weeks of this torture. Remember they can be teething, so be sure to address this issue. Good Luck!
M.
I had an early crib stander. He could be pulling himself up and be scared to let go and fall down. My advice as a mom of 3 would be to go in, help him down, tell him you love him and leave. Continue doing this every time and he will relize you are not picking him up and also he is learnig how to set himself down.
Good Luck,
B.
I wouldn't do anything different with your son. He just learned something new. You have to let him cry it out. He will really start to test you more and more.
I had the same thing happen with my first daughter and my second daughter has just started doing the same thing. The only thing I did and am doing again, is I go in help her get down (I don't think they know how to let go yet) give her a kiss and leave the room. Yes the screaming will start up all over again, so I do the same thing over and over until the crying has stopped. with my first it was only two nights. My second has been doing it for four nights now so I let her cry for 5 min., then ten, then 15 before I get her hoping she will figure it out on her own. Good luck!
Hi M.,
I know it's awful we went through this with my son when he was young, honestly I think the only thing that worked was waiting it out. We also tried to change his routine by reading a story in his room before bed and kind of hanging out in there for a while playing and things before we put him in his crib, to get him to feel more comfortable and less anxious about going to bed. Good luck it will pass, I promise.
Dear M.,
I work as a child development consultant. This is actually a really common behavior once a child learns to stand. It is discussed thoroughly in Berry Brazelton's book called "Touchpoints". He says that standing up is a big milestone, that took many weeks to perfect. Now the child becomes obsessed with using this new skill, and "wearing it out" so to speak. He next will be totally focussed on taking his first steps. This is such a major milestone that it actually causes him to lose sleep and get all off kilter, as he expends almost all of his energy on figuring out how to do it. Knowing this, of course, doesn't make this behavior pattern any less distressing for you. But at least you can know that this is a normal phase that many children seem to go thru at this age. You can probably help him thru it by letting him stand and walk with assistance alot during the day. At night all you can do is go in and lay him down however many times it takes. I wouldn't suggest getting him out of bed though, as this may lead to a bad habit forming. As soon as he has worn out this new skill and/or begins to walk, he should go back to normal. Take comfort in the fact that he is developing so well - the "normal" range for walking is 8-18 months, so he's ahead of the curve! And, good early motor skill development leads to a smart kid!
