2 year old sleep problem........help!!!!!!!

[2wildbabies]

Hi. My dd is 2 years old and is still having a bottle in the night. We were never concerned by this as she would wake, have a bottle and then sleep again. But for a few nights now, she will wake and will not settle back down. We are tearing our hair out as we have a 9 month old who she is waking up every night.

What can we do?? I have tried the controled crying, but it doesn't seem to be working. Help......she's driving us mad!!!!!

Sorry to be blunt but I think you need to ditch the bottle.
My ds still has one before bed .The controlled crying is really hard but it does work and it is worth it.I would really recommend you try and give her a cup of water ina nonspill cup and teach her to settle herself.

I know it sounds a lot easier than it is but I have done it twice and it worked for us

I agree with polly, the cc is hard, but it does work if you stick with it... she'll soon settle and get into a routine without the bottle (worked for my ds), they all have to go cold turkey without it eventually

you are both right. I need to stop her drinking for comfort in the night now.

How do I do the cc?? In case I am doing it wrong?? How long should it take her to settle down?? I have spent three hours tonight trying to settle her. Eventually I gave in and gave her a bottle.

Hi 2wildberries, I totally agree with the others, 2 years old is too old to have a bottle of milk in the night and it will also start to affect her teeth.

In terms of cc, it's important to do it properly and stick to it with total commitment even when it gets really hard. If you don't do it by the book it rarely works. Or so we found to our cost when dd was 15 months and we made things really hard for ourselves by trying to make it easier! I recommend you look at a bit of Richard Ferber's book and follow his plan. We did the gentlest version in there, had 2 nights of hell, a few more unsettled and then she slept like a dream until just lately when she's nearly 2 and having a few problems again following a nasty illness. We'll definitely use cc again when shes's a bit better.

We did CC when DD was 20 months and it worked well for us - although it isn't for everyone and it certainly doesn't work in all cases.

WE would leave DD for maybe 3 minutes, go in and reassure her, then 5 minutes, then 10, etc. First night took us up to the 20 minutes delay,; second night took less and by day 3 or 4 she was back to sleeping through.

I'm afraid the key is to not give in. Once you give in, she has won

We find the hardest part as the night waking as it is much easier to give it when you are tired and woken. But we stuck to it and it worked for us

Can you leave your DD a beaker (with lid) with some water in my her bed/cot that she can help herself too if she wakes.

The problem at the moment seems to be that she is getting her second lot of double teeth and they are bothering her in the night.

I may not be able to set a routine until they are through. Kids, eh!!!! Anyone else get the same problem during teething???

at 2 years, you can talk to her about it:ie you can say " this is what is going to happen tonight" etc etc, i think that helps a lot, as well as rewarding the next day with a treat. it is so difficult i know, but a few nights of feeling crap about the whole cc thing will make things SO much better for all of you in the long term sorry if i sound preachy

In my opinion if there's something going on like teeth or illness I wouldn't try cc. Although I'm very pro it as a method I wouldn't do it if there was a genuine thing distressing my dd at the time of the sleep problem.

yes agree prefernot. i can't do that cc stuff when there is sth else making them miserable, it's really unfair on them. wouldn't expect it from our partner or ourself so why them? but still very very tiring