1 Year Old's Change in Sleep Pattern & One Other Question

Hi there. On the transition to the sippy cup... I was told by my local WIC office to put watered down milk in the bottle (start out slowly like 1 oz water 7 oz milk) Then after he's drank that (if he will, my daughter wouldnt after I put I think it was 2 oz of water 6 oz milk) offer him the sippy with ALL milk. (I stuck with the soft nipple sippys so it was still like a bottle, till she got to chewing on it...) He should want the sippy more to get that good tasting milk :)

Hope this helps! Good luck!

J.

He may just still want a little something more at night before he goes to bed. I have 2 children that have been the same way with the sleeping. We started give both my kids around 7 months of age the rice cereal and oatmeal cereal for infants with there formula or milk. It helped them get thru the night. Give it to them about 1 hour before he goes to bed and his stomach should stay full enough to stay alseep. They have a cereal bottle that you can use I got mine at Babies R Us....

On the Sippy cup thing....I started to give my son his sippy cup in the morning and told him that was all he was going to get. When he wouldn't take it I would just sit him in his high chair for a little while with it. It he gets thirsty enough he will use it. If it really seems like he doesn't want it all, he may not be ready for it. My daughter didn't start on a sippy cup until she was about 1 1/2 years old.... hope that THis helps

Sometimes you just have to deal with sleep disturbances. I'll bet once he finishes cutting his teeth and recovers from his ear infection he'll start sleeping again. Maybe not right away but within a few weekes. And once you think your sleep woes are finally over he'll go through another phase and you'll be up several times a night again. Not to be mean but, that's just how little kids are. My 2 year old son went through a 6 month long episode of what I think were night terrors, we were all miserable but things finally went back to normal. Hang in there! :O)

My opinion is that he isn't ready. He has had alot of stress lately and kids don't like change it stresses them out. I would wait a while and then try again in a week or so. And if he has an ear infection perhaps he should go back to his formula for now, milk allergies show up as ear infections, that's how my parents figured out my allergy. Good luck, and I know it's hard but sometimes they just need things to staythe same for a little while. Too much at once is hard for kids to cope with.

Maybe your little guy's not ready to give up a nighttime bottle? If you only offered sippy cups during the day, and let him have is milk at bedtime for a while longer, maybe that would help make a future transition easier. Also, formula has more nutrients then milk, maybe a little longer on the formula would help him get over his ailments. Good Luck in whatever you decide.
A

First of all, I am JEALOUS that your little one a)slept through night and b) when he didn't, you got 4 hour increments! My son is a big one year old now and I think I have had 4 nights that he, technically, slept all night...and that was just last month! What I wouldn't give for a four hour block of sleep! :) lol

So, needless to say, I really don't have any advice on how to get him to sleep better. And on the sippy cup front, well, my son won't have anything to do with them either! He likes his formula (which I have been mixing with whole milk 1/2 and 1/2 since his birthday) in a bottle...he doesn't like juice, water, plain milk, etc....

So, I guess I just wanted to let you know that you aren't alone! :) Good luck, maybe I'll learn something from your requests' advice. lol

I started my son on a sippy cup that has the soft nipple like a bottle. At first he wanted nothing to do with it. I would put some formula warmed up in it and would give it to him at breakfast, lunch and dinner. As he started to adjust I then would add water during the day and I also would drink from the sippy cup with water to show him mommy does it too. Its tough but they say when they are ready they will do it. I hope this helps.
Also not sleeping through the night, well my son didn't sleep the whole night until about 7-8 months and got up 3-4 times a night up until about 6 months. If he has a ear infection try to put him in his car seat so that he is more upright to sleep. For some reason when they have ear infections its painful for them to sleep flat. I would put my son in his car seat and then just put that in the crib. I hope this helps. Good luck. Is he teething also?

IMO...you're trying to do too many things with him all at one time. Little ones can't handle so many changes at the same time. First of all...there's nothing that says that babies HAVE to be on whole milk right when they turn 1. I would say the first problem is definitely the ear infection. My son has always been a good sleeper, too...but when he's gotten ear infections, he's had sleep issues until the EI is completely gone. As for weaning to sippy cup...I would seriously consider just letting him have the bottle for now (my son just turned 2, and JUST got off the nighttime bottle...and the ped. said that was fine, because we have always brushed his teeth after he drinks the bottle before we put him into bed). Also, the formula to milk transition...when the time is right...do it slowly...like, 3/4 formula&1/4 milk, then 1/2 formula & 1/2 milk...etc. As for the sippy cups...I don't think there's any easy solution to that...it just takes time. Is he taking them at all during the day...or are you just having problems with it at night?

Like I said, though...I just think you're trying to introduce too many changes all at one time, on top of him being sick. I would personally stop trying to do all that...let him get over his illness and start sleeping through the night...and THEN start transitioning one thing at a time.

I would say relax a little about the sippy cup. It will happen, he just doesn't sound ready yet. Let him get well all the way. That will probably mellow him out about the sleeping, too. If he has been on antibiotics at all (you said he had an ear infection) his little tummy might be bothering him and be helping to wake him up at night. The bottle of milk probably soothes that. It just sounds like the poor little guy is going through alot right now and just needs extra attention, however he demands it. It will pass.

When my son turned one we had a hard time trying to figure out a way for him to catch on to the whole sippy cup. So what we did was teach him how to drink out of a straw. We would show him how and soon he caught on. When he could do that without us showing him we gave him a sippy cup doing the same thing with the straw and bam no more bottle. Hope this helps good luck!

Hi R.,

One other thing you could try is a CD of lullabies. That really helps our little girl get to sleep. Also, when the baby is sick, bottle is comfort. We went through that very recently. Does your child have a favorite toy or blanket. We got this blanket when Sarah was 2 or 3 months old. Sarah sleeps with it ALL the time. She will not sleep w/o it. Also, I have found that vaporizers and humidifiers work very well too. They soothe the child with pleasant smells and moisture. Hope some of these suggestions are helpful....

Blessings,

K

Hi R.,
Try laying him on his belly and gently pat him on the back or use both hands one on the back and one the butt, gently patting him. The other suggestion is to hold him up and put his head on your shoulder and walk with him while gently patting or rubbing him on the back.
Try giving him the cup with a straw. What you can also do is to put an ice cube in the cup and shake it so he can hear the nice sound it makes. Lastly put red punch in his cup and let him see the pretty color. At that age my children didn't want to associate with milk in a cup. They associate milk with the bottle. I hope that helped.

J.

this is a bit wierd but my friend got a bunch of sippy cups and would have everyone use them in front of him. When he wanted a sip of our drink he would have to get it from the sippy and with everyone else using them he was more curious to try. So that may work for you.

If he is still feeling sick then I wouldnt stress the sleep routine too much. Just try and keep it as normal as you can and as soon as he is fully better he will slide back into it hopefully.

Good luck.