I have a 7 1/2 month old boy who, up until 5 months of age would sleep for 12 hours and only get up once in the middle to feed. At about 5 months, he started to develop a lot of ear infections. Subsequently, to make a long story short, he was hospitalized twice, and in the end, needed tubes put in his ears. Ever since he started getting sick, he would wake up every 1 1/2-2hours at night and needed rocking, feeding, holding to get back to sleep. A lot of these times he was in pain or sick so I felt bad and wouldn't let him cry. Now he is 7 1/2 months old, had his surgery, and is doing great! He's the happiest baby and rarely cries during the day at all. I'm still having the issues with night time sleeping. He will wake up twice one night, then every hour the next night! I can't seem to get him to sleep for long periods of time at all at night. He usually starts crying, sometimes within an hour after I put him to bed! I'll let him cry for a little bit, but then have to go in, put his pacifier back in his mouth, re-lay him down and pat his back. A lot of times I have to rock him or feed him to calm him down.
I think it's time to "re-teach" him to sleep now that he's not sick any more. Is it too late? Did we go for so long with this problem that now it's too late to teach him to self-soothe? Any suggestions on how to get him to sleep? He eats very well during the day (solids, bottles - enough that I don't feel he needs to eat at night). Even when I feed him in the night, he'll only take an ounce. More for comfort I think, than nutrition.
Any help on this would be appreciated!
Try "healthy sleep habits, happy child" by dr marc weissbluth. He addresses sleep issues with post illness children. We have a twin who had horrible reflux and this book is a lifesaver.
J.,
You are 100% on the right track- he needs to learn to self-soothe, and he needs to break the habit he got into when he was sick (which was fine to do). It does not take long for a habit to form and may possibly happen again....
Anyways, to re-teach him to sleep all night just put him down after he is fed 7ish and then leave him until 7 or so the next morning. He will cry but within three days you should all be sleeping through the night. You let him cry (his way of complaining about the change) to let him find his way to self-soothe.
Also, think about his bedtime routine, sleep environment, and naps (should be taking two a day around 9ish and 1ish or so). Check out this post: http://www.lullabyluna.com/2008/12/happy-new-year.html
C., mother of 3, sleep consultant, sleep blog writer www.lullabyluna.com
its never too late to teach anyone to do anything!
it all depends on your parenting style. are you attached or unattached?
unattached - your baby is usually not being held by you and is mostly being soothed by other sources, sleeps on their own in their own bed, bottle fed, etc.
attached - baby is usually in a sling, wrap, or some sort of carrying device, sleeps with parents in bed or at least in co-sleeper crib, breastfed for long time, etc.
i have done both styles of parenting because i have three kids and one style didnt work with all of them, i had to mix and match and see how things went.
with my older two we co-slept until they were 3, then trained them to be in their own bed. that worked great for all of us, because we all slept all through the night! however this is not for everybody. it wasnt for my last baby, he hated being in our bed! it turned out he didnt like sleeping horizontally because of his acid reflux, poor little guy. he was about the same age as your little guy, so what we did was we started to put him to bed in his swing. the first night he slept all through the night!! at least 12 hours maybe more!! i was so excited. so we let him sleep on his own since then and he has slept through the night. even after his reflux stopped we started putting him in his own crib (still in our room) and he has been sleeping soundly there until he was about 14 months old then we put him with his siblings in the kids room and he is now 16 months old and still sleeping through the night (even though hes waking up an hour earlier because of his big brothers alarm clock)
definitely try all your favorite ideas before resorting to something out of your comfort zone, but dont be afraid to try new things! stay open minded, after all you have to when you are a parent!!
Buy the book Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. It saved me. It basically advocates crying it out, but there is so much more. Don't try it unless you and your husband are 100% committed to it as then it will be all unecessary torture. The older they get the harder it is, so look at it as your window of opportunity to do it now.
Good luck!
hi J.! what worked for me when my baby was 1 month, we gave him a bath everynight before bed time and he was really good through the night. he's now 1y 11 m and he still sleeps really good. you should try it!
good luck!
C. W.
I read through yours real quick, but I didn't see anywhere that you are opposed to crying it out. That's what we did, and it was a miracle. I would recommend it to anyone. One daughter was 5 mos. and one was 6 mos. and it only took 1 night for both. It's hard, but much easier than several years of a bad sleeper. Both cried about 1/2 hour then went to sleep. It seems like an eternity, but the doctor recommended this to us, and it doesn't hurt them to cry, even it they cry longer. One daughter then woke in the middle of the night and started to cry, but right away she stopped, like she remembered, and went back to sleep. The next night and beyond she went to sleep like a charm.
Sounds like there still might be pressure in the eustacian tubes/sinuses, so when you lie him down, there is increased pressue and a paci helps open those tubes up and shunt fluid.
Ear infections are often, if not always, a dietary issue. Cow's milk and sugar are 2 huge culrpits, but other foods can do it as well. FYI.
Hi J., If I may give you some old school/old fashion advice, In order to re teach him, you need to break the habits you are doing. With my bab't now grown, we started them on rice cereal at bedtime (advice from my mom who had 5 children all on rice cereal at 6 weeks) I always rocked and sang my baby's/tots to sleep for naps and for bedtime, that was something I looked forward to doing, once they were asleep I laid them in their crib, no pacifires, and they slept through the night, if you give a baby a pascifire to help them sleep, two things first of all they are getting there security from an object, and during sleep if it falls out of their mouth they usually wake up, becasue the security is gone. I had a daycare mom of a 3 year old come in here in the mornings looking like a zombie because she spent so much of her sleep time going into her sons room crawling around the floor looking for his pascifire, they gave it to him as a baby because he as pre-mature, but because they let him use it so long it became a habit and his security, This is the hard part mommy, if you continue to go in nd feed him or rock him at this time, a new habit is forming and he will probably be waking up at night like clock work, because believe it or not, they know how to manipulate at a very early age, and bcause us mommies can't stand to hear them cry it works, let me share a little story with you, my mom had 5 kids,her last 2 were later in age, so when my first brother was born he had 3 big sisters, well at 6 months we found out he had a heart murmer, and so back in the day over 40 years ago my mom was told not to let him cry to much, so he got picked up a lot, well during this time he caught a cold and cough, and so everytime he started coughing one of us picked him up and of his playpen, well once he was over all of that everytime one of us girls would walk by his playpen he coughed, because it used to get him picked up, by one year his heart murmer was gone, but baby's and tot's do manipulate. We had fish aquearims in our boys room and our daughters room, we had a blue light in the aquerium the blue light and the movement of water is very soothing and calming for baby's and tot's, I can say with all honestly that except when our first son had broncholulites we never went through any sleep issues with any of our 3 baby's/tots, our first born went through a very short phase where he would come in our room, at night, my husband took him back, let him know that it was not allowed unless he didn't feel good or had a bad dream, and he obeyed his dad, but we didn't have the issues that parents are having with this generation of baby's and tots. Now this id just my opinion but I think one reason is baby's don't sleep as well on their backs as they do on their tummys, my baby's all slept on their tummys till they could roll over then they slept however they wanted. Any way good luck, let me just tell you this i'm 52 my youngest is 20 and some of my most treasured memories of them being baby's rocking and singing them to sleep. J. .
I like both the sleep lady book and the healthy sleep habits book.
It's never too late! Go to www.3daysleep.com and get Davis' video. It's quick to watch, easy and the best $$ you will ever spend (only $39!)..
Your son will be back on schedule w/in 3 days (if you follow her program)..
Good luck! :)
We used the "Sleep Lady Book" with our 2 youngest and it's worked wonders. It's about sleep training and still being able to comfort for children 0-5yrs old. Good luck!
