sleep and sugar

[booboobunny]

my 13 month old has never been a good sleeper, but recently we've had a few nights when she is just so full of beans at bedtime that getting her off to sleep is a total nightmare. somewhat annoyingly, last night the husband (who never comes up with good ideas) suggested it might be to do with what we give her for dinner, as this is the only variable in a wind down/bedtime routine which is fairly well established. he suggested that giving her something sweet to round off her dinner might be the key. thinking about it now i reckon he has a point. she doesn't have a sugarfest or anything but, in the best of british traditions, i do give her dessert of an evening. generally a yoghurt or fruit (puree gunk or the real thing), but occassionally something more treaty.

what do others think - has anyone had the same experience and fixed it through changing diet? and, as i am giving her a 'main meal' (she has a sandwich type lunch with the childminder) can anyone suggest anything to round off her meal that won't have the effect of giving her excess energy. or is this even important?

i am going to post this on the 'food' threads too, just in case there's any other advice there.

I would've thought that giving fruit as a dessert wouldn't give her too much of a sugar rush to make her hyper before bedtime (but no expert!) - grapes, apple, banana would all be OK, yoghurt probably fine too.

Is she overtired perhaps and therefore hyper? How does she sleep during the day? At that age DD was having a good 2-3hr nap after lunch, and used to settle really well around 7-7.30pm, as long as she didn't nap after 3-3.30pm.

Does she have warm milk before bedtime? Works for me! Or could she run around outside after dinner for half an hour to tire her out - used to do this with DD, she'd trot up & down for ages with her pushalong trolley thingy.

Does she have any kind of soother/cuddly thing to associate with sleep? eg taggie blanket or something. DD (3yrs) STILL has a homemade taggie type blanket with ribbons which she fiddles with to go to sleep - works a treat

Not sure if any of these ideas are useful??!!

i'm feeling a bit deflated now. had really been hoping that too much sugar was the key to this!!
as i mentioned, she has never been a good sleeper, and that includes naps. most are a struggle unless she's really tired. i know she definitely never sleeps for 3 hours during the day. i feel we've done well if we get 90 minutes out of her! it's as if she doesn't want to miss anything. at the moment her language is developing really quickly and she seems to want to spend some evenings just showing off the new sounds/words she has learned.
unfortunately she hates warm milk, much preferring cold or straight from the fridge and anything i have given her to try to comfort her to sleep she just ends up playing with. she does have milk at bedtime (and unfortunately throughout the night still - but that's another battle for another day!) and a bear in her cot though. my mother often asks if she could be hyperactive. i don't think she is (though no reason why i'd know) but she does seem to have boundless energy and a huge interest in everything!!!
i would stress that sometimes she goes down like an angel, wuithout any problems, hence the search for a variable in the midst of a lot of routine.

My 15m dd is going through a similar phase at the moment. She is hyperactive in the evening - a real pain while I am trying to get ds (2.11y)to bed! She runs around chatting and giggling and generally having a whale of a time. Then some time between 8-9pm she drops like a stone

I don't worry too much about it as I went through a similar phase with ds - he only followed a set 7pm bedtime after 18m+ then he was settled with stories and cuddling his 'friends' (soft toys in his bed). This coincided with him graduating to his own room, own bed and soon after - the arrival of dd.

Try and follow a routine and set up various markers to indicate 'sleep' - for your dd. I try not to give too much to eat close to bedtime but I found establishing quiet time upstairs without tv etc. is effective and if your dd is not ready at 7pm take her up later you can always change the time once the habit is formed.

thanks, i think you've helped put it all in perspective a bit. it really bothers the hubbo that she doesn't always go down as she should and i think i let that get to me. we're both getting a bit more concerned than usual due to the imminent arrival of no.2 (3 months) and the fact that she's still not in her own bed (in ours). couple that with just everyone else seeming to have the whole sleep thing nailed and it can make you feel a bit inadequate. i forget that the main thing to remember is that in the middle of this is a delightful, very happy, very confident little individual who has a mind of her own and sometimes just wants to stay up a bit later. as problems go, it's probably not the worst......
as long as i'm not on supernanny in 4 years time.....

We have a problem getting our dc to calm down at bedtime if they have had sugary kind of puddings for tea, althoguh if you get the timing right and they get into bed at the point of the drop after the rush they sleep perfectly Good advice on here, also Iused to find with DS as he had such an amazingly efficient little body that he used to get hyper after eating anything, like refulling an engine. You could try going for a quick walk roundthe block to run out the energy and fresh air does wonders for sleep - you can even go in the rain, its exhilerating.

Yes, going out in the rain is exhilerating. Also, splashing in puddles uses up a lot of energy and is great fun.