Ok ladies- I really need some suggestions. Emily is 13 months and has been on whole milk now for just about a month. She eats six meals throughout the day- breakfast (oatmeal, cereal- table food), snack (fruit), lunch- (meat sticks, and/or vegetable, Gerber 3rd foods), snack (fruit cup), dinner (varies- Gerber Graduates entree, or mashed up table food), snack (yogurt, and/or fruit) milk before bed- between 6 to 8 oz. She only gets milk in the morning for breakfast, and at bedtime. Emily eats all meals until she is full. I never force her to eat- when she turns away- or shakes her head, I stop feeding her. My problem is that she is still waking up throughout the night to eat. When she was still on formula, she might wake once or even twice. Now that she has gone to whole milk, she is waking up even more often. I am very concerned because I know by this time she should be sleeping during the night- at least for the most part. I don't understand what is causing her to want to eat so much because she does eat so much and so often throughout the day. She is very active, and walks around all day- she rarely is sitting, unless it's a transition to nap time. I know she should be getting around 1000 calories each day. When she does wake to eat- that varies as well. Sometimes she just wants 2 oz, other times 4 or even 6. I need some reassurace ladies!! Does anyone have any helpful advice? Is there something else that could be wrong- or is Emily just a very active girl with a healthy appetite??
She is definitely old enough to go all night without eating. You might try giving her water at night. I have heard that if they get water it will make them mad but soon they will not find it worth waking up for. Just a suggestion!!
Good luck!
both of my kids woke up in the night to nurse til they were 18 months and 22 months. i think it is pretty normal. when you give her something to eat does she go back to sleep easily? maybe she is just waking up for company (also normal, i think). maybe if you let her get in bed with you when she wakes up to eat, and give her lots of snuggles she will go back to sleep without eating. i am sure there is nothing wrong. my daughter, now almost three goes in phoases where she wakes up at night for a snack while she is really growing.
i would definitly give her milk with all of her meals...
and my suggestion is water during the night when she wakes up as well....
good luck and keep us updated :)
Hi S.,
I was just at the doctor's office for our son's 9 month appointment and asked about him not sleeping through the night yet. He had started doing pretty good until at about 7 months when he began cutting teeth and then he was up frequently in the night and then he had an ear infection. Needless to say, I was up a bunch with him. It basically came down to the doctor saying that it was my "fault" that he was still getting up in the night. She told me to do the same thing that I have read in other places before where you are supposed to let the child cry it out until they go to sleep. After a few nights, the child will decide it isn't worth it and stay asleep or soothe himself back to sleep. It is a super hard thing to do, but might be worth a try. Good luck.
You have had some mixed responses so my best response is to say to find what works for you to help your daughter sleep through the night. I have a feeling that your daughter is not hungry and there isn't anything medically wrong. Of course, I'm no doctor and I truly believe that moms should follow their instincts! My son sounds very similar to your daughter- very active with a healthy appetite. Since she eats so well during the day, she is probably using her night time feedings for comfort and reassurance, not to feed an appetite. It sounds like she will need some help learning how to soothe herself to sleep. I went through this with my son at the same age. He had been sleeping through the night and then started waking up when he was teething. This might take a few rough nights but will be worth it! Milk in the middle of the night is really bad for her teeth so definitely switch to water in a sippy cup. This will be confusing for her at first but stick with it! What worked for us: we would go in and rub his back and say "it's night night time" a few times and leave. Let him cry for 10 minutes and go in to reassure him again. I sometimes had to do that 3 or 4 times and he would eventually sleep. It only took a few nights and he was sleeping until 5:30 or 6:00. He is now 2 and still gets up between 5:30 and 6:30 but I've just accepted it and it works for us. I never let him sleep in our bed. My step son slept in his dad's bed until he was 5 and we still have trouble getting him to bed at 7 years old. You don't want to deal with that, trust me! Find what you are comfortable with and know that you are a great mommy. She needs some comfort and relearning. A lot of my friends suggest reading the book "Babywise". Its supposed to be great for sleeping advice. Good luck!
At this age she should be sleeping through the night for sure! The most likely problem is not that she's hungry in the night, but that its become a habit. And as all bad habits, you have to break it. How to do that...well, there are lots of different ideas out there on getting rid of the nighttime feeding, and I don't even want to pretend that I'm an expert on that. I honestly don't remember when we got rid of the night feeding with my son, I think it was around six months. When he would wake up, I would just calm him and put him back to sleep, no feeding and it didn't seem to bother him. At an older age, that will be harder to do, so I like the idea of just offering water, no milk. My daughter has been sleeping through the night since she was 2 months old, and I didn't do anything to make this happen, she just started sleeping about 10 hours a night, so we're just lucky there! Good luck and stick with it, it will probably be hard at first because one year olds are stubborn about what they want! But your unbroken sleep will be so worth it!!!
You'll probably need to "wean" her off of nighttime meals. Try diluting the milk with water more and more over a week or two until it's all water. Then the great thing about when she gets to all water is you can leave a bottle or sippi cup in her bed/crib with her.
Hello. My daughter is 13 months old also. She has never slept through the night. She still gets up at least twice wanting a bottle of milk. The doctors have told me its ok. They did say to try to use water in the middle of the night. Sometimes my daughter will take it and sometimes she wont. She is very picky and just loves her milk. She also only has her bottle at nap and bedtime. Any other time she has a sippy cup. Me personally I think my daughter just got on a system of having something in the middle of the night. I would try water every other time your daughter wakes up. Always offer milk to her with all her meals. She may not be getting enough of it during the day and want more of it at night. I am bad about forgetting to give her milk during the day for like breakfast. I give her juice. So I am trying harder. The doctor told me to just try milk through the day and once at bedtime then the rest water through the night. I hope this helps.
S. G.
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