Toddler holds my ear to sleep.

[Petalflower98]

I don’t know if it’s common or if I’m one of the few that have been cursed with this but I thought I would ask incase someone has gone through something similar.

i co sleep with my 23 month old and she holds my ear to sleep. Shes a horrible sleeper, had three wakes a night till 9 months, still woke at least once a night till about 15 months, wakes up regularly in the middle of the night when she fancies it and at random intervals in the night but falls asleep right away ish.

First I didn’t mind it because she would usually fall asleep pretty quickly and if I moved her hand she would just turn away and fall asleep . However recently/ last couple of months she’s started wanting to hold my ear when she wakes up at random intervals and as the early hours of the morning approach say 4/5/6 o clock she just wants to hold my ear constantly. If I move her hand she just wakes up and that’s the day started.

iv has someone suggest giving her a teddy to sleep with and to hold its ears but just my luck that her favourite teddy is a bloody snake.

any advice would be much appreciated.

Bless her. DD1 had to have her hand on my tummy to sleep for a period of time. She would also use my tummy to soothe herself during day if she was upset, which wasn’t ideal as I didn’t want my wrinkly post-baby tum exposed to the world!

You could introduce a new comforter for bed time. The lovey type ones are often quite soft and nice to stroke. Or see if she will graduate to holding your hand or touching your shoulder. You could wear those soft sleep headphone bands too to make your ears inaccessible to her.

DD1 just grew out of it so it depends how much it annoys you as to how much effort you want to put in to solving it!

just my luck that her favourite teddy is a bloody snake. 😂

I'm sorry but she sounds adorable!

There's got to be a teddy out there with large semi realistic silicone like ears on it.

You mean like a doll?

@glittercunt what about those old monkeys that I think were popular in the 70s or 80s? We used to have a few kicking about

Can you try transferring her hand to her own ear?

My sister used to like holding ears as a little un. She did hold other people’s if available but was happy with her own if not.

My daughter used to do the same. I'd recommend trying to stop the habit as soon as you can though. We ended up with a toddler that would try and grab on to other kids ears for comfort at soft plays etc. and it didn't usually go very well...

DD1 used to fondle our ears for comfort (and her own ears, while sucking her thumb), but we didn’t cosleep after about 12 weeks so it was never an issue at night time. If she was upset she’d sometimes say “I want to hold your ear“, and it could be a bit too enthusiastic!

One day we realised she’d not done it for ages, she just stopped. I can’t say at what age, maybe 3 or 3.5 as she stopped thumb sucking around the same time.

No top tips I’m afraid but I sympathise, it was cute (but painful) in waking hours, would be too much at night!

When he was a toddler, ds3 used to put his hand down my cleavage, and say “I hold your shoulder, mummy”, and then fall asleep almost immediately.

It was winter time, and he often had very cold hands.

Aw, my little girl strokes her own ear to take herself off to sleep - would you be able to guide her hand to her own ears and see if that does the trick for her? She sounds so cute!

OP, that’s so sweet! My DS as a baby and toddler used to like to put his hand up my sleeve - it was hard to extricate it without waking him up! My DGS’s comfort thing is his mother’s hair - if that’s not available, he will grab hold of his own hair, so as others have suggested, perhaps her own ear might be a suitable substitute?

Oh God, I remember those.

And dolls, possibly but their ears just don't look and feel the same as a human ear.

The toy monkey was called kiki. I don't think they are sold new any more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monchhichi

like this
https://uk.redbrain.shop/p/03701405824037?utm_source=google&utm_medium=css_organic

Agree the monkey ears don’t feel the same… but actually some of the silicon fidget pop toys might feel similar??

My middle baby used to put his hand down my top, between my boobs when he was sleepy, he would fall asleep like that! He did outgrow it by about 3 or 4. Can you try redirecting her little hand to her own ear?

Going off on a tangent but those aren't the ones I was referring to, never seen them before, the monkeys we had (handed down) were sitting and you could make them suck their thumbs.

I've guessed at the decade, because I don't think they were from the 90s when they ended up in my toybox...

@VintageJewellery Google tells me it was a Gonga (which sounds vaguely racist...)

Omg, My DD used to do this, she would suck her thumb and hold/stroke my ear between her index finger and middle finger, when she woke up in the night. Every night. Until she was 6! (Shes 18 now) Sorry no advice but much sympathy

Not the ear, but I have a mole on my chin and DS (now just 3) still likes to stroke/touch/fondle it for comfort. And sometimes when wanting to sleep. This is much less than a year ago, when he was really obsessed with it. I didn't do much to actively wean him off so I think it is something they eventually grow out of.

I have lots of pictures where he has his hand on my chin, which is pretty cute - and has also helped me dislike my mole less. Fairly embarrassing to have him shrieking "I didn't stroke your mole!" at nursery drop off though!

Very common all 3 of mine did it, face ears nose hands, it was worse when they did it to themselves as they hold on while crying from the paid. We’d get to a certain point of sleepiness then put their hands in each other. Youngest was easiest as she also found comfort hugging a warm bottle of a dozen dummy’s comforting, yes she have a dozen in her hands and still try grabbing my ear.

Hi all just wanted to give an update incase someone else in the world finds themselves in the same unfortunate situation as me. Also because I didn’t reply to anyone’s comments when I posted this and I felt bad 😅.

Iv tried many things to get her to stop : teddy with big ears, snake teddy, I even sat on the floor of the room so she couldn’t be close to my ear - I fell asleep myself after an hour but she didn’t. Turns out the only thing I needed to do was show her that her dad also has ears and now she holds his at night instead 😂.

Also her new favourite animal is now a crocodile which she obviously can’t say so now I get to spent my days hearing her say “ ohhhh c*ck” instead of crock.

My grandma still complains about how my dad needed to have his hand on her cheek to sleep UNTIL HE WAS 7.

My dad is 62 😂 so it's been 55 years and my grandma is still annoyed by it.

Sorry, I have nothing helpful to suggest, just sending solidarity.