Help me get my 18mo sleep through the night!

[sarahb083]

My 18 month old has never been a good sleeper, but did sleep through the night for a few months and it was bliss. For the past few months though she's been up 2 or 3 times a night and I'm struggling to cope. She seems to always be teething or ill. We've got in the habit of giving her milk in the night to go to back to sleep, and now she won't go back to sleep in the night without it, though she does fall asleep on her own at the beginning of the night and for naps.

Any tips? We did controlled crying when she was 6 months old but she's now much more persistent and loud, and I feel awful leaving her to cry.

Has anyone managed to get a toddler to sleep through the night?

Not exactly the same situation but I'm currently tryro get DS (15 months) to sleep through. He's still bf and VERY keen on it.

Until last week he got up 2 or 3 times at night to feed, and had also gotten into the habit of waking up ridiculously early (sometimes before 5 am).

Last weekend I implemented a 'no milk over night' policy. We had one terrible, traumatic night with lots of tears, then one moderately terrible night and then it got better pretty quickly. Last night he slept from 7 pm to 4 am. I caved and let him feed and he went back to sleep until 6. Next weekend I'll try and eliminate the early morning feed...

Good luck OP!

I’m in a similar boat. DD (19mo) is waking to breastfeed 4-7 times per night and can’t be settled any other way. My husband is going to take some leave so we can night wean her but I’m dreading the whole process. @DoubleHelix79 Ic you don’t mind me asking, do you still feed to sleep at bedtime? Or have you stopped all feeds associated with sleep?

Still feeding at bedtime and first thing in the morning (in the bedroom), he seems to have understood that feeds won't happen in between. He can put himself to sleep for naps and at night if he needs to though, e.g. when with DH or childcare

Thanks both. @DoubleHelix79 - on those first nights, did you go in and soothe him or leave him? And did you do the 'pick up put down' and leave, or soothe him until he fell asleep? I'm expecting some traumatic nights but your post is giving me hope!

I did rock him and ended up taking him into bed with me - he was quite upset at the sudden withdrawal of his usual milk and he eventually settled down. He is now sleeping for much longer stretches, so hopefully he won't become too reliant on alternative comforts... We can always work on him putting himself back to sleep once he no longer gets hungry at night.

Back in my day parents would dab whiskey on their babies gums to make them sleep better. More recent approach I’ve heard is calpol. Not used either myself tho

Damn am totally in the same boat!! Did controlled crying and it worked then a series of illness and we are back to up every 2-3 hours and doing bottles over night. He gets só hysterical that we give in with the bottles. It's making me tear my hair out.

You win the most bonkers posts of the day! For your 8yo put them in harness and reins when out and about to keep them safe and for your 1yo rub whiskey or calpol on their gums to make them sleep 🤣

Op and others, my DD was exactly the same and didn't improve at all until I night weaned her (with much protest). It was a very long process with set backs for teething and illness. Actually come to think of it her sleep only really improved once all her teeth were in (apart from the very back molars which don't seem to have bothered her as much as all the others did). Some kids are just shit sleepers though. If you can I'd put a double in your little ones room so you can just sleep with them if need be. Once they're weaned if they do wake in the night then a quick cuddle should usually be enough to get them back to sleep and if you can just climb into their bed then it's not too disruptive to your own sleep. As they grow you'll have more and more nights where they don't need help settling themselves, that's what we've found with DD.