My son just turned one and he is still not sleeping through the night, however ever since we put him on whole milk he is sleeping less. He has no rash, does not seem to be gassy or display any other milk allergy symptoms, he just does not want to sleep. He takes one nap about 2 hours long and then goes to bed at about 7-8pm he will wake up at 11pm and not go back to sleep till 1am and then wake up at 3am and not go back down till 4am and then wake up at 6am for the day. He has never been a gret sleeper but like I said it seems to be worst since putting him on whole milk. I have tried giving him Rice Milk with added coconut milk for the fat and he does seem to sleep better, however his nose seems quite stuffy when on it. I have not tried soy milk since I am very allergic to soy. Has anyone had this problem when adding whole milk to their childs diet? If so what did you do? I don't know how much longer I can go without sleep.
Is he waking up hungry? When my kids were this age, and even younger, I would give them a bottle with rice cereal mixed in at night. The Rice cereal seemed to keep them full longer so that they wouldn't wake up. Maybe try adjusting his dinner schedule to be a little later?
Hi M.-
My son was unable to sleep through the night until he was one and a half. That said, the whole milk is clearly causing problems- can you go back to whatever you were successful on before? Mine could not handle anything but breast milk- he was allergic to everything, and failed to thrive on formula. I nursed until a year and a half, then when breast milk became more of a comforter that nutrition, I substituted something he could suck on instead.
Hope it helps- S.
I'd take him off dairy entirely and try something else. There is also almond milk and you could mix some rice cereal with it to help fill him up a little longer. My 3 year old daughter did not sleep a full night til she was past two years. For the first year and a half of her life she never slept longer than an hour or two at a time at night and never napped. She finally grew out of it. You might also want to have his ears evaluated to make sure there's nothing going on in there. That sometimes makes a difference. They don't have to act sick in order to have clogged tubes and ear aches.
We had the same problem with our guy, I did a lot of research and decided to try going with more protein. I read that a protein rich dinner will help him feel fuller longer, we started and it works. Raising veggie babies - we give Quorn chicken, tofu, beans and rice, etc for dinner...lots of it and he sleeps better. Still not quite through the night, but he isn't awake as long, just a quick change and he goes back to sleep.
Hi M. - my son is dairy sensitive, so this may not be totally applicable. He is still nursing (at 17 months), so both he and I do not eat any dairy. But, we were just visiting my inlaws in Germany and he and I both ate some sausage that turned out to have milk as a major ingredient. That night, my son was totally bonkers. Imagine the most revved up energizer bunny ever running around at 3am. This is totally unlike him, so I looked up the sausage (gelbwurst) ingredients on the web. My point is that dairy can have major impacts on sleep and behavior, depending on the child.
Also, my son drinks rice milk at day care, but I'm not sure what I would do if I weren't still nursing him. I haven't tried soy because when he was an infant he reacted to me drinking soy milk.
Good luck!
C.
Hi M.,
You poor thing, you must be exhausted!
I'm not sure about the milk thing, if that has anything to do with it. I do believe how parents *react* to little one waking in the middle of the night does cause it to become worse in some cases.
You didn't mention what you and your hubby do when your little one wakes up. Maybe that's a part of it (???)
T
Have you tried Goat's Milk? My son (who is 7 now) was on it from age 1 to 2 when he seemed to tolerate cow milk better after age 2. It's in the fridge section of the grocery store - it's double the price of cow milk, but it may be worth a try. Good Luck!
