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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

15 month old DD waking hungry at 3am..........

20 replies

Flossie69 · 08/09/2011 20:27

Hi all need some advice - though am aware rods and backs may get mentioned

DD, 15 months, goes down generally well at 7pm. She eats well through the day - breakfast at home and again at nursery, proper dinner at lunchtime, tea at tea time, numerous snacks of fruit and rice cakes and occassional biscuits, and often supper at 6pm of a whole banana.

But recently she has been waking earlier and earlier, and whilst will settle with a cuddle and drink of water, wakes up again soon after, so I am up and down like a yo-yo. The only thing which will get her back of to sleep properly again is a bottle of milk.

Teething is also a factor, so there has been the odd bit of nurofen, but that doesn't do the whole job.

I didn't really want to get back into night feeds, and aware I may be making the proverbial rod for my own back, but after night after night of this, I will do anything to get some sleep!

Would appreciate any comments, advice, or sympathy - thanks!!
(But please be kind as am very tired........zzzzzzzzzzzzz..............)

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PottyRefusnik · 08/09/2011 20:56

Has she recently started to walk or anything milestone-y? Mine have both become much more hungry and disturbed at night after (or just before) a big milestone. If she has then it might just be a case of waiting for it to pass.

I have a 14 month old and she recently had a massive appetite and a few restless nights as she started cruising along furniture, I'm expecting worse when she starts to walk.

Can you give her something more substantial to eat a bit before bed? Does she still have any milk before bed? Both my DDs (2.6 and 14mo) have 6oz of cows milk before bed.

Original poster

Flossie69 · 08/09/2011 21:43

She has been walking for a couple of months now, and is getting more and more active. She is on the verge of saying her first words - we already have "no no no"
She has a bottle of milk at bedtime. I think I may try to give her a larger or later tea, to see if that makes a difference. She eats well, but won't eat a huge amount at any one sitting - she is quite diddy, so I think the grazing approach works better with her.

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ZhenXiang · 08/09/2011 21:53

How about a dream feed at say 11pm before you go to bed, may help her last through until morning?

Original poster

Flossie69 · 08/09/2011 21:58

Zhen MIL has been suggesting this - I'm not sure I could live that down

But seriously, that seems like a backward step. I used to give her a feed at about 11pm, but she has never been very good at it, in that she was either sleepy and not interested, or too awake, and then didn't settle. And if she is asleep, I don't like to wake her. I guess there is no easy answer.......

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Gastonladybird · 08/09/2011 22:00

Dd went thrugh this- maybe something more than banana (cereal,toast?) might help. Extra big bottle of milk at bed time (I think I may been have given her the bedtime milk that is more like Horlicks). It was a phase that passed and went for more bedtime snacks rather than night feeds for reason you said.

Original poster

Flossie69 · 08/09/2011 22:20

Gaston - will have to look out for that bedtime milk - do you know what it's called? And will try more substantial snacks. She generally doesn't drink all of her bedtime bottle - will have some then refuses any more, and there is no persuading her.

She has just woken up now and settled with a cuddle,but I have her cup of water, bottle of milk, and nurofen all ready just in case - but trying to give medicine to a sleepy unco-operative squirming thing is no fun either...

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WoofToYouTooLady · 08/09/2011 23:42

Mine have breakfast before teeth and bed - bowl of cereal/toast/crumpet

(they are 12 and 10 now, never really dropped the habit, we started when they were about DDs age because of night wakings)

MoonFaceMamaaaaargh · 09/09/2011 06:35

there is a developmental spurt at 15m. It affected my ds too...he'd wake for ages, often hungry, despite tea + cheese on toast for supper etc.

Child development isn't in a straight upward line so it's not a matter of a "step backwards". If they are hungry they need food or milk and are reliant on us to provide it. Damn it!

The good news is that in ds's case he came out of it on his own after a couple of weeks...and magically started sleeping through (reliably) for the first time!

The bad news is there is another at 18m which may or may not affect your dd. We are in the middle of it right now. Joy.

Gastonladybird · 09/09/2011 09:36

It was a hipp organic night milk- problem with dd was would guzzle ordinary milk so wanted something more substantive. It did seem to help a bit.

Original poster

Flossie69 · 09/09/2011 13:13

Thanks for that Gaston.

I think I will try to make her snacks and supper more substantial, as I think she is eating and drinking all she can volume-wise.

She woke again at 3.15, but I was ready with the bottle. She had about 4oz, and that saw her through till 7am. The problem is whilst she will then go back to sleep, I struggle to. Oh, well, part of the joys of parenthood! I remember a phrase that was quite common on MN a little while ago - this too will pass.......

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mamafridi · 09/09/2011 13:55

Hi Flossie,
I wanted to start a thread similar to yours.

My daughter has just turned one and for the last few weeks has been waking up one or two times a night and the only way to get her back to sleep is to give her milk. I read up that it's a phase of regression, hitting milestones and separation anxiety and possible growth spurt! Phew! In fact I feel like I've regressed back to several months ago of night feeds and sleep deprivation - only this time DD's cries are a whole lot louder.
I also noticed that whether she has loads of food and milk before bed it makes no difference to the night wakes. I think it's more psychological than simple hunger for milk. It's hunger for attention too, I s'pose .
Anyway it's a bleedin' nightmare and even though all the things I've read about it say you just have to give them the comfort they need and ride it out, I still can't believe I'm now going to have all this AGAIN at 15mnths then again at 18mnths.

Mothers are saints!! Keep strong.

Original poster

Flossie69 · 09/09/2011 14:08

To be honest, it just helps to know that this is not abnormal, and that we are not the only ones!

But is hard to accept the going back to night feeds - before age 1 you expect it, but once they are sleeping through, you think, naively, phew, won't need to do that again. And sleepless nights are so much worse now I am back at work. DD, bless her, can have a nap after lunch. I'm not sure what my boss would say if I did the same

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YougreatPamplemousse · 09/09/2011 14:13

We are having a similar problem with DD2 (15mo) last night a resorted to a huge bowl of ready brek before we went up for bath and bed, she ate it all, had her cup of milk and was asleep until 6.30 this morning for the first time in weeks!

Original poster

Flossie69 · 09/09/2011 19:14

OK, Pamplemousse - DD has had a bowl of ready brek before her bath, now has had a bottle and has gone down. Lets see how we get on!!!

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Gastonladybird · 09/09/2011 19:28

Fwiw dd was up and down til about 18 m- it never lasted long but killed me as was not so used to night waking. Since then doesn't seem to have regressed (the flip side is gets a lot harder to handle with tantrum If tired)

AngelDog · 10/09/2011 20:49

Yes, it's really normal - night waking rarely follows a linear pattern. The sleep regressions happen ahead of the 65 week developmental spurt (about 15 months), the 76 week spurt (about 17 months, I think), then there's a mind-blowingly awful sleep regression at 18 months, although TBH the whole 18-21 month period can be pretty bad.

But it may not affect you - 20 m.o. DS has generally not been a great sleeper and developmental stuff has always messed up his sleep big time. We sailed through 18 months though without any effect whatsoever. He came out of the 15 and 17 month regressions sleeping well again too. Teething has been messing it up for the last month though so I'm not smug!

You can read about the developmental leaps / sleep regressions here and here and here.

DirtyDawg · 10/09/2011 20:58

Hello,

I'm having this with my 17 month old, I give him a sandwich at 6-6:30pm, also I have put his bedtime back to 8pm, these together seems to have solved the waking at 2am.....

Not looking forward to the 18 month sleep regression, maybe this the start of it :(

Original poster

Flossie69 · 11/09/2011 10:38

Well, have given ready brek for the last two evenings. First night she went till 4.30am, last night till 3.30am. So not altogether a success. Trouble is, she had less of her bottle after the ready brek.

I think I just have to grin and bear it....

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Original poster

Flossie69 · 13/09/2011 18:04

Can anyone tell me how long these regressions are meant to last?

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AngelDog · 13/09/2011 22:17

Well, it varies from child to child and from time to time but 1-6 weeks is the most usual range. That's in the period before the developmental leap.

Unfortunately The Wonder Weeks which explains it all stops at 17 months, so I don't know the exact timing of susequent developmental leaps.

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