19 months old and can't sleep through

[ale233]

My 19 mth old goes to bed at 7.30, has bath, bottle, story then bed and goes off to sleep without any problems. The problem is during the night. She can wake upto 7 times a night and never sleeps past 5am. We have always been very strict about not putting her in out bed and have tried controlled crying, blackout blind and night light. We asked the health visitor to come and help but she said that she couldnt suggest anything as we had tried it all. We went to the doctors and he refered us to a pediatricion. He said that he could find nothing medically wrong with her and that he would refer her to a psycologist to give us some sleep techniques but the waiting list could be some time. This has been going on for 12 months now and I am expecting again, it really is making us all poorly. Has anyone any suggestions or advice please. ( she has a nap in the afternoon but I wake her after 1 1/2 hours, if she doesnt have a nap she is worse, she is tired and crammed. )

Ds is 28 months actually - sorry

Ale, what do you do when you go into settle her? do you pick up/cuddle/talk etc? I think there are 2 separate issues here - one is the night waking, one is the early start. Both my DSs took ages to sleep through - ds1 was 14 months and ds2 was 19 months. The only thing that worked for both of them was to leave them to cry it out, which was not a stpe we took lightly, but once we were convinced it was habit and not want or pain, we were brave enough to do it, and with both of them it took 2 nights to sort out and now we can hear them wake up, and go back to sleep again. Another thing that helped with ds2 was buying one of those musical things that project moving pictures onto the ceiling - he is 23 months now, and we put it in his cot and put it on at bedtime, and now we can heasr him put it on himself when he wakes in the night. As for early start, the thing that worked for us was delaying the milk as soon as he woke up - once he realised that food wasn't the immediate thing once we appeared he was quieter. Finally, if it is any reassurance, my older 2 can now sleep through each other and the crying baby. Good luck.

Hi, thankyou for all your help and advice. We just lie her back down in the night without making a fuss but recently she will not just settle back as she used to. We have tried leaving her but she becomes hysterical and the health visitor said that as she went off to sleep fine at night she didnt have a problem settling herself. To be honest we are getting so much conflicting advice that we just dont know what else to try. She doesnt have a bottle as soon as she wakes up. We wait untill we come downstairs and she has one after a bit, she isnt hungry, thirsty or in pain. We havent been able to move the spare bed in her room yet ( need to dissmantle it to get it through the doors!!) but we are going to move it this weekend and try and sleep in there with her, at least we can have alternate nights and get some sleep. Thanks to you all again.

I would say it all depends how you feel about CC.I tried this at 5 months & it worked, But its not a cure & you have to do it again & again. I personally would never do it again because it didn't work with my son in the end & i feel CC caused the night wakings.The trust was lost. So sleeping in his room gained his trust back that i was not going to abandon him. HV agreed too. CC is 82 % effective at 19 months & 99% after 2 yrs old. This means there are children it doesn't work on - mine being one!!! I would not do this with my dd if she turns out to be a poor sleeper because i may risk making it worse & tbh couldn't bear her crying for days & days & still not sleeping thro. It does work for some so i'm not against the concept if thats the way you want to go.

I always stuck to my guns. I never fed DS in the night from 3.5months because he didn't wake for food. I'd attempted giving him milk but never wanted it. I never let him leave his room before a time i was happy with. He is still an early riser but will amuse himself now & I'm sure its because i did this. Earlier or later bedtimes made no difference nor did cutting naps. Made things worse in fact.

I think the key is whatver you decise to do be consistent. You may have it hard now but if you persevere you will get there.Promise. I hazzard a guess your DD is very intelligent & reached all her milestones early. Probably talks really well for her age.Unforunately she can't be perfect & is behind with her sleep skills. & this is the one that really matters most to her parents eh??