When could your child/baby settle themselves at night?

[usernametaken]

The title says it all...and how did they manage it?

DD was an awful sleeper and most of it was down to us. She could not fall asleep by herself until she was 2.5yrs and didn't sleep through the night until nearly 4yrs old.

We don't really want to go down the same route as we did with DD.

About 7 months, always made sure I put her down awake. If she fell asleep on her bottle (which was v often) I would give her the slightest of wake up squeezes to make sure her eyes were open going into the cot so she knew what was happening, even though she was zonked out. By 9 months I could put her down for lunch sleep awake and bed sleep awake and she would self settle.

However..... at a year and then at 2 years she went through a dreadful 'separation anxiety' period so I bought a music thing that played twinkle twinkle for about 5 mins and a night light that changes colour (a bunny rabbit thing). She so loves the glowing rabbit and music she happily goes down awake.

I do know we are lucky and I do know some kids will not settle no matter what. It can take nerves of steal and lots of persuasion to lay down. I also leave her with a book, that really helps as I think she thinks she does not have to go to sleep right away and it is her choice when she puts the book down. She is 2.4 now.

Good luck. x

When he was about 18 months. We always followed the same routine, he just decided that bed was actually rather nice. Up till them I fed him to sleep.

DS has been settling himself for about 5 weeks (he's 21 weeks today) He has settled himself after night feeds from about 8 weeks untill he started sleeping through (realise I'm luck and he did this on his own)

What I do is make sure my bedtime routine is always the same and watch out for the cues that he's tired. He has a bottle of hungry baby milk just before bed and I always give him the last 2/3oz when he is layed in his cot so he settles. In the past if he cried I didn't go to him straight away but would give him a minute or so before going back in and reasurring him, but not picking him up unless he was really screaming. This took a couple of weeks to work.

Before this I used to go in as soon as he cried and pick him up, but I noticed he was becoming increasingly more difficult to settle as each night passed, which is when I tried this. The first night I left him to cry he fell asleep by himself after about a minute. Realise some people don't agree with this method, but my DS is a very happy boy and now sleeps from 7pm untill 7.30am every night. HTH

around 11 months with the help of a comfort 'blankie'. Before that I fed him to sleep at night and rocked him to sleep in the day. Ten one day he just did it by himself, he didn't fall asleep on the bottle and just reached for him comfort blanket and dozed off on his own. It was miracullous to us after months off feeding and tip toe-ing out the room!

Nearly 6yo and not yet. Good news is, after a while, you're allowed to shout 'it's sleep time' and not go in...

3 months. We always put down awake (would also nudge awake slightly if she fell asleep on her feed). We also didn't rush in whenever she cried but waited a few minutes. If we went in then we never picked her up unless absolutely necessary. Same for naps.