How does your 1 year old fall asleep?

[StepDoor]

Just that really, how does your LO fall asleep?

And what about if you co-sleep?

mama DS's dentist said its more about the toothpaste swilling round the mouth than the actual brushing at this stage - might save you a dry brushing job!

Sz - The twins are 23mo with a mouths full of teeth, and it's only when they refuse to even to open their mouth that I dry brush when they sleep Usually they're really good and constant at it. Our dentist told us brushing (soft brush and water) was more important and that he wouldn't recommend using toothpaste until a child was 2yo. But we discussed it with him and the twins have been using toothpaste (and spitting - fun part for them!) for around 4 months now :)

fair play! funny how they say different, to be honest faced with a clampy child i'd probably do the same just because i know how much i hate waking with grimy teeth

From 10 months old I put dd down in cot in her own room with a bottle of milk and teddy and shut door and leave her to it. Before that it was bf and she'd always fall asleep on boob. She sleeps 12 hours a night - currently 20 months old and sings herself to sleep most nights with her bunny after bath, bottle etc

Honest question - why would you stay in the room while they fall asleep? Don't they feel less inclined to go to sleep if you're there?

I ask because I'm a put down, walk out and ignore kind of parent - but sometimes I wonder if that's a bit too lax, so I wonder what the benefits of staying in the room would be.

Mine would jump up (even in sleeping bag) and laugh at me if I stayed after he was put down

Sz - It is, we may live in different countries though and that may be why the advice is different. I hate waking with furry teeth!

If I stayed in their room they'd think it was okay to stay awake too, and would try and engage me in games and stories, but we've been kinda strict with it from a young age, once they're on the boob they know it's bedtime, and arguing or acting up loses them the choice of a long vs short book. And if they come out of their room, they lose choice of breakfast in the morning. We also have video monitor to check on them . The exception is if they're ill or on the rare occasion we have family movie time in our bed.

Staying in the room is a guarantee he won't go down for us. We can't really check on him either and if he's sharing a room for the night - either with us if we're away or for a sleepover, he will be up around 7am wanting to play instead of the usual 9 or later

At that age ds had a breastfeed, a story and then was put in his cot awake and I left the room quietly singing a lullaby. Asleep very quickly and no need to stay
stay. He'd been like that from 8 months with no sleep training...just happened. A big holiday when he was 22 months old 'broke' that routine and until 2 months ago, a week before his 4th birthday, he generally wanted us to stay while he fell asleep and often hold his hand! We liked the quiet closeness (dh and I both work) so didn't bother breaking the habit until then.

Can I also ask - those of you who say you put your DC down and they just fall asleep and stay asleep till the morning -

• did that 'just happen' or did you have to do some kind of sleep training to get them to do it?
• do you you put your DC down according to a set schedule, say, 7pm every night, or do you vary the bedtime according to how well they napped during the day? This may vary by age...

• lastly, are your babies bottle fed? I ask this out of genuine curiosity because I am trying to wean DS off the breast and slowly introducing formula, so I just want to know!

My ds 18 month has a bf, his music playing and then I lay him down with a kiss, saying night night sleep tight, love you.

Sometimes he's already asleep, sometimes he fidgets for a while then sleeps, sometimes he'll lie awake for a while cuddling his toy bunny and then go to sleep. I only stay in the room if he's already asleep (for some quiet of time!) otherwise my presence would distract him.

Yes we did sleep training and it was so worth it. He sleeps right through till 6 at the earliest, unless he's unwell.

Bedtime is usually a set time. We vary it by no more than 20 mins (even if there was a late nap he's usually fine going to sleep).

awesome I would move to a cup not a bottle after the age of one. Otherwise you'll eventually need to wean off the bottle too.

Breastfed till 1 then bottle fed. But did have bottles earlier as well.
No it didn't happen, sort of sleep trained but gently. I found every tiny step took 10 days to 2 weeks to establish. So worked towards it gently ignoring all these 'train in 3 days' books. Bedtime used to vary by 20 mins or so till 18m and then became set in stone. Now he gets hysterical if he isn't asleep by 7. Currently he is v poorly and on ABs and we are co sleeping tonight for the first time in months. I offered him 'Mummy's bed' and somewhat dubiously he has agreed to sleep with me.

Bath, diaper and PJs, teeth, bottle of whole milk, rocked and sung to (Whole World in His Hands with all the family inserted), then tucked in with what's left of the milk and her special little blanket. She falls asleep alone. We co-slept until she was 9 months and she'd just fall asleep nursing.

She's 15 months. I really need to stop the milk after teeth, it can't be good for them. But she sleeps so well!

awesome -
It just happened with DC1,3 & 4. They can settle themselves quickly - they can when they want as it's never effected their sleep. DC2 suffers from extreme night terrors and has a strict routine set so no more than 15-20min naps - she did and still can fall asleep without needing to do gradual reduction etc. DC5 was gradual from boob to rocking to cosleeper - where she is now, but she easily settle herself depends on her mood. Currently DC6 cannot sleep without boob and intense rocking as he is unable to self settle or calm himself down (SPD).

Despite when they nap or if they nap they'll be in "bed" by a certain time. DC1: 8pm, DC2: 7.30pm, DC3&4: 7pm, DC5&6: Roughly 6.30pm. Goes up according to age/maturity.

DC1-4 were ebf until 7 months and then given expressed bm in either bottle/sippy. DC5&6 were bf & expressed bottle/tube/syringe due to prematurity & constant hospitals stays both me and them. DC5 is now weaned so has water somtimes but DC6 is still only bf. I still bf 4 of them and rarely all 6. I haven't noticed if it has or hasn't effected their sleep.

DS 'routine' is similar to when he bunked with us. He'd go down and if he grizzled a bit i'd hide and rock his moses. That had him sleeping thru from 7 weeks but only 6/8 hours.

When he moved to his own room there was no real sleep training - we just used our '10 minute rule', on the nights he didnt settle straight away we'd give it 10 minutes to see if he'd settle - 90% of the time he would, the rest of the time we would go up and repeat the tucking in; that usually does the job.

His last night feed to drop was 11pm around 4months after that he went to bed 9-9 with two, 2 hour naps in the day. As he got older his bedtime naturally got earlier so by around 9 months he was in bed 7-9 and still is now with naps varying from 30mins to 4 hours.

if he only naps 30mins he can be in bed as early as 6 or as late as 8 if he's had 4 hours. If pushed for extinuating circimstances he can also manage to stay up til about 10pm

he was bottle fed from day 4

awsome
Dd sleep went hey wire at around 3 months and went to the point where she was waking every 2 hrs and needed bf back to sleep. She had refused bottles until 6 months by 7 months I was broken. We were set to start c . crying when we got back from a family holiday but a few things happened all at once and it didn't become necessary. She moved into her own room made the biggest single difference imo, we didn't all disturb each other and I wasn't tempted to respond to the slightest peep. I found that sometimes she would shout out for a minute, probably less then roll over and go back to sleep. When she was in our room I would have been straight there. She started to crawl around the same time and weaning really took off. She lost interest in breastfeeding. We managed to get her to take a bottle at around 6/7 months and kept it rolling giving a bottle a day usually at bedtime but she seemed less and less interested in bf generally, as it turned out I was pg but it happened to be a really gentle way to wean her. I was ready to stop by then but would probably have ended up carrying on but and I think my milk changed and she just didn't seem to be getting as much from it anymore and it naturally faded and was replaced by bottle. Napping also went from 20 min cat naps post bf to morning and afternoon in the cot.

So it all , thankfully, did just happen at around 7 mnts. Bedtime is usually 7.30/8ish even if she naps late say 30 mins at 5/530 she is still ready for bed by 8 (dinner 630 play time till 715-730ish bath time, bottle, bed at 8ish)

Until recently we held DD to sleep.... which worked fine other than we had to repeat repeat repeat for night waking.... DH and I dug deep, did sleep training (CC) and its worked a treat. She sleeps through now most nights and her daytime naps have improved too. Its really tough, but worth it as everyone is happier now.

I should add DC3&4 are dreamfed around midnight - and the only way they sleep through the night. They used to be up around 10 and 3am otherwise!

dd refused a routine however hard we tried until her first birthday. we have now had 3 weeks of;

nappy change
pj's on
teeth cleaned
bottle
snuggles for about half hour until she is calm and starting to doze/fidget
into cot and out for the count in 2-3 mins

usually she is out for between 730-745 and I don't stay with her, tried it when we couldn't get her to go to bed but she just saw it as extra playtime.

readyfordinner that really sounds a lot like our situation! Except sleep hasn't improved but I'm hoping it will once we move DS to his own room - he will be 10.5 months but until then we have only one room for the three of us!