Getting My 10 Month Old to Sleep Through the Night

Ignore Carrie B who told you to use a feeder bottle. 2 of my docs told me that this is the worst thing in the world. It makes the bottle harder to break and doesn't teach any good eating habits. Try feeding foods with a spoon out of a dish.
As far as sleeping goes, we use an aquarium on the side of the crib. He knows when he wakes up that he can hit the button and go back to sleep.

Sounds like he eats great. But I think he's not getting enough at bedtime. Maybe more ounces? Or more cereal to fill him up? Good luck!
SAHM of three 14,9,4. Very happily married.

Paci helped my kids soothe themselves.
What worked for us is laying them down less drowsy - more awake - each day.
They still cried a bit, we'd go in, patt their butt or lay them back down and eventually the'd drift. THe craying was inevitable for us and I am yet to meet someone who can tell me they really put their kids to sleep in their own room as infants and they could go to sleep on their own w/o crying.

My son was far easier than my daughter, she's 2 and still wakes up through the night, usualy once a night and screams, we go in, lay her back down and she's fine, maybe cos we made it a point to always go in but my son slept right through without constantly needing to be visited.

You could increase the amount of food he eats during the day so he starts decreasing bottles. Also, I started giving them water for one of the feedings until they no longer woke up for it - but I wasn't breastfeeding. I dont know what breastfeeders do. Maybe do the paci instead of the bottle.

First of all,this child should be introduced to table food by now. 2 naps a day is too much. Give him a sippy cup during the day instead of a bottle. He is old enough to hold one. Give him real food for dinner and a bottle at bedtime. He will most likly sleep though the night. The #3 baby food apparently is not filling him up.

Check out the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. Great book! It addresses many different sleep issues from various standpoints and at various ages.

Just wanted to respond to another mom...2 naps aren't too much. Most children don't naturally drop their second nap until between 12 and 18 months and there is no reason to force them to do it unless they are in a daycare that does so. Keep up your schedule, it's best for him :)
And, for the record, I have NEVER let my sons cry it out and they both sleep wonderfully. There's actually very little evidence that CIO works and it only teaches babies that when they need you they won't be there. My first son slept through the night when he was ready and slept 14 hours plus 2 naps! Start cutting out feedings when he wakes up if you want and he may sleep better.

Here's a good article:
31 WAYS TO GET YOUR BABY TO GO TO SLEEP AND STAY ASLEEP EASIER
http://askdrsears.com/html/7/t070300-sample.asp

This will sound extreme, but I have a baby girl that will be 1 tomorrow. I have had the same problem until...... 2weeks ago i took her off her bottle. She still gets her formula in a sippy, and I am telling you it only took about 2 nights for her to understand that she doesnt get the bottle anymore. By her not getting it during the day, she ws less to expect it at night. I told her that she needs to just go to sleep and I offered her a sippy. Well she got upset and then I just layed it in her crib and in the morning she didnt even touch it. I will lay her down at bedtime now and she goes to sleep without crying and I dont hear from her again until 12hrs later. For this to be happening is astonishing because I didnt see an end in sight. Good luck to you.

I dislike the Ferber method because i hate hearing my babies cry.

I have come to the conclusion that some babies are just not good sleepers. I am a working mother of 4 boys (9, 7, 2 1/2 & 15 months) and my youngest is still up 1 - 4 times a night. All of my other children have been pretty good sleepers from 2 months up to the present.

At 13 months we had to try something and the Ferber method was what my pediatrician suggested. Well, it took 2 nights of fussing and lasted only a week. The only good part is it got him off the nightly bottle. So now when he wakes up we normally lay him back down and pat his back or rub his bottom. Occasionally we have to get him up for 5 - 15 minutes and give him a sippy cup of water (how boring!!) and he is ready to go to bed.

Even over the last couple of weeks, he has only slept through the night a few times.

Best of luck with your little man!

L~

It may be too late because you have started the habit, but I found when I fed my 4 mo. old son cereal at night, he was awake sooner during the night then when we skipped the cereal and just nursed. I think the cereal filled his stomach too full, and he noticed when it was gone. I would definitely suggest switching those nighttime feedings to just bottles of water. He doesn't need the food during the night. It's better for his teeth not to have the formula during the night, also. Good luck.
R.

This is your first child and you don't want to let him cry.....wrong.....let him cry.....I know too well from experience on this. The more you go in and appease the more he will continue to get what he wants.....which is controlling your emotions by his cry. This is my 3rd...boy...child and it is just part of the learning curve for you. Try to let him cry out the 12 am feeding and then go in and give him the 4 am.....once you break him of the 12 am then work on the 4 am. You feel helpless and you think I cannot let him cry but the bottom line you are giving him exactly what he wants and even at this age....HE NOWS IT. They are smart little cookies. My almost 10 mo old is currently in bed between 8:30 am and 9:30 am and wakes up based on his growth patterns between 7:00am and 8:00 am. He too is in the 90 plus percentile as were my others. You can do this....remember if you decide to go into his room at 12 am then you might as well feed him. Put a pillow over your head and let him cry it out....even if its 30 min or more. I have 3 children and have already been down this rode. Not what you want to hear but when my little man goes down I lay him in the crib walk out the door with my back to him and leave a crack in it and we are done for the evening. He will cry out loud for 2-3 min and then he rolls over and its done. Get some sleep and if this is too much for you to do....have your husband do it and then you can start working on number 2 because.....they are so fabulous and the closeness is age is a real winner too!! Good luck. Mom of a 5, 3 and almost 10 mo old age 43.
;-)

my daughters pediatrician suggested taht we give our daughter a cereal bottle twice a day, one in the morning & one atnight just before bed, she sleeps from about 8/9pm-10am. she has other problems going on though. but i do know when she doesn't have it before bed she's up almost every 2-3 hours and very cranky all of the next day. the way i mix hers it 1/4 cup rice cereal to 6 oz of formula, i bought the X nipples at walmart 4 for 1.69 they're silicone so they last for almost 4mo. after it's all mixed it should resemble tomato soup consistancy. good luck.

OK, now that I know how much he is eating, maybe try decreasing the amount in his 4 am bottle by 1/2 to 1 oz at a time. If you are able to get rid of that bottle than try the same routine with the other bottle. Kids pick up habits quickly and although you may think he's hungry, it could begin to be a habbit. I know it is hard to let them cry it out. With our son, if he cried for longer than 20 minutes, I knew he wasn't going to go to sleep on his own. 20 minutes sure can be a long time when your child is screaming and all you want to do is get some sleep! Talk to you doctor. Does your son have any teeth? Having middle of the night bottles can be very bad for there teeth as well. If you can't get rid of the bottle, try diluting it with water more and more each night.

AT 10 months your baby should not need the feedings in the middle of the night. Give him cereal before bedtime, either in a bottle or by spoon.

C

Ah Hah!!! Past due to get that second nap cut out! At that age, both of my kids were taking one nap a day at 1:00. Try that and see if you still have issues with nighttime.

try singing them alseep

Do you give him cereal before bed? Try filling up his belly with some cereal along with his bottle and that should help his get through the night. He should still be taking 2 naps a day so that shouldn't have anything to do with it.

You could try to "wean" him off the nighttime bottles by starting with the 4am feeding. Only give him 5 oz a couple nights, then 3 oz a couple nights, then 2.....and hopefully he'll just not wake up. But if he does, try to let him cry for 15 minutes or so (I didn't like to go any longer than that - and 15 is hard enough!) If he doesn't go back to sleep - try caressing him in his crib or if he uses a pacifier - try that. I wouldn't pick him up or that may turn into his 4am routine! Then work on the 11:00 bottle and weaning him off of that. It may take a little time, but with patience and persistence, he'll get there! And you'll get the sleep you need too!!! Also - give your pediatrician a call and see what they suggest. We used the ferber technique with our first born - and she went to sleep within 10 minutes the first night and 5 minutes the second night. She didn't cry at all on the third night. But I've heard babies that take much longer - ask your doctor. Mine said to check on them at 15 minute increments to assure them that you are there. (we began at 4 1/2 months old with our first, but thank goodness she never made it to 15 minutes.) Also - as you know - there is a difference between fussing and hard crying. I've been told that if they are just fussing a little, then let it go a little longer.

With our 2nd - I began to lay him down at night drowsy when he was 2 months old and he has been a pretty good little sleeper ever since. He has never cried when I have laid him down at night and we started early with him which helped. Never need to use the ferber method. (Just in case you are planning for more!)

I know a lot of people don't like the ferber method, but the sooner it is done, the better. The older they get, the harder it will be on both of you.

It sounds as though he is getting plenty to eat during the day and he sounds like a healthy little man. Good luck to you! Motherhood has definitely been my life's biggest challenge and someone needs to make an instruction manual!!! (haha!)

I know you've received lots of advice but thought I'd offer one more comment. The book I HIGHLY recommend is The Sleep Easy Solution. I read a lot of books on this subject and this one was by far the most helpful. It gives guidelines on schedules as well as helping your baby learn to sleep through the night w/o cry it out. Hope this helps!

Have you asked your doctor if you can start giving the baby a SMALL amount of cereal at night? Although I do remember that you are not supposed to start on foods until 12 months, I think it may fill babys tummy and allow longer periods of sleep. GOOD LUCK!

Hi R.! Have you tried to cut out the 11:30 p.m. bottle? That's where I would start. Maybe gradually give him less and less in his middle of the night bottles each time he wakes up, and he may decide that it's not worth getting up for. If you give him a 7 oz. bottle, give him 6 oz. for a couple days and then 5 and so on. I'm not a huge fan of the Ferberizing thing, but I know a lot of people do it. Personally, I have a hard time with it. Tried it... it just got worse! I also have a 10 month old daughter who is getting much better at sleeping through the night. She used to be up 4-8 times a night. Not any more. She goes down at 9:30, and is usually up at 6:00 for a 4 oz. bottle. I have cut it back a little, and she's not getting up as much. She has actually slept 3 out of the 4 past nights! YAHOO!! Clearly, your little man is getting enough food, he is probably just checking in with you at night! I think that's what my little girl was doing. Good luck!

After 15 months of sleeping with my hubby and I, I finally put my son in his own room. I thought it was going to be hard, but it wasn't at all. That's probably because since he wasn't using his room for those 15 months, we turned it into a playroom so there was a TV hooked up to a DVD player. I turned on Thomas and Friends (which is pretty boring and slow IMO) and layed him down in his porta crib (his 3 year old brother is using the crib minus a side) and he didn't fuss one bit and was asleep when I peaked in 30 minutes later.

He gets up between 7:30 and 8 every morning. Takes a two hour nap at 1 or 1:30 (I don't let him sleep any later) and is in his portacrib by 8:30. The first week I did that he woke up once each night where I responded because he was really starting to cry and I didn't want him to wake up the house. He would fuss other times in the night but drift off to sleep again on his own. I tried rubbing his back during the times he was crying, but ended up nursing him back to sleep in the rocking chair. The last two days he slept the entire night!

Good luck!

Sometimes it seems no matter what you do your child will not sleep through the night. Most of the time it is just a matter of time. The worst I went through was with my youngest who didn't start sleeping through the night until he was almost 3. Don't worry it'll happen sooner or later. Try giving him some fruit as well at bed time and see if it helps any. Good luck.
D.

I am 31 and have been married for almost 12 yrs. My husband and I have 3 boys ages 10,7, and 4.

The Ferber Method isn't quite just let them cry till they pass out. You put them down, check on them at 5 minutes. No words, just go in rub their back for a minute, then leave. Next time go in at 10 minutes and do the same thing. Just keep increasing by 5 minutes until they are asleep. Now, that would never work for us. We had to go with the cry it out. My daughter was still waking up once a night at 9 months old. There was no reason for her to wake up, she just didn't know how to self sooth. The first night I decided that I wasn't going to go to her if she cried, she fell right back asleep. We didn't have any problems with night waking after that. She was just so used to me rushing in there with a bottle if she made a peep. I promised myself I would give her 10 minutes, if she wasn't asleep after 10 min, I'd give her a bottle. I think it took her about 7 mins to fall back asleep. Good Luck!

I usually expect a baby who weighs ten pounds or more to sleep longer than four hours at a stretch. I think your little boy could sleep through the night by now. He probably enjoys the company , but I think you'll agree that the feeding sessions need to stop. The first thing he needs to do is learn to go to sleep on his own, without the bottle in his mouth. This means you put him down while he's drowsy and awake. He will then begin to associate his crib with falling asleep. He will use this skill to get back to sleep by himself without the bottle, and without Mama and Daddy. There was a similar question within the past week here on Mamasource, and there were lots of tips on getting baby to sleep. Good Luck!