Comments on: Toddler Night Waking

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 19:18:56 +0000

In reply to Lindsay.

Hi Lindsay,
Thank you for using The Baby Sleep Site as a resource! I’m so sorry to hear you’re having trouble with your 3 year-old’s sleep. If it helps, I have a 3.5yo too, and I feel like we’ve just been through this time of nap refusal and bedtime trouble. There’s a common intellectual leap around this age that can cause some disequilibrium for a couple of months – 3 is just hard! It may be worth it to talk to your daughter, if she’s verbal, and see if you can set up some new bedtime routines and expectations together, to help her feel like she has some control, so she’s less anxious. I also do want to let you know that if you continue to have trouble with sleep, our sleep consultants work with sensitive kids all the time around this age, and we have gentle methods that can help (even for kids who vomit when upset! You are not alone in that.). I hope this helps – good luck with everything!

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 17:34:12 +0000

My 32 month old daughter has always been a wonderful sleeper, until this last month. I think it stems from fear of sound — she has had moments where a lawn mower, vacuum or thunder has woken her up, and moved on to straight anxiety from being away from us. We used to put her down for naps or bed wide awake and she would sleep zero isssue. Now she refuses to nap in her room (still in crib) and bed time has become an issue. She requires that daddy sleeps with her (laying next to the crib). If he tries and leaves while she’s drowsy, she freaks out, tries to climb out and has thrown up. Then during the night, she will wake up screaming and crying from her crib until one of us (typically Dad) goes in and sleeps on the floor until morning (on one or two occasions she has continued to freak and he had her sleep on the floor). We have a night light, sound machine. I have tried it as well and typical reaction. I know I have to try and be the one to go in more, and dads going away soon so it will force that.

But what else am I missing or should be doing? She is clearly overtired from not napping and waking so much. We just want our sweet girl back!

By: Janelle Reid

Janelle Reid — Wed, 02 May 2018 18:43:45 +0000

In reply to Hayley.

@Hayley, thank you for writing to us. I am so sorry to hear you have tried many of the suggestions that are out there with no success. It sounds like you would benefit from working one-on-one with a sleep consultant that can look into your daughter’s full sleep history and provide specific suggestions. It can be difficult as a parent to read through general books and articles, so we hope to take the guesswork out for you and provide you information that will apply to your child’s temperament and your parenting philosophy and goals as well. If you are interested, we would be happy to have you. You can view our services here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services/ or if you have more specific questions about what package would be best or how we work, feel free to email us at contact@babysleepsite.com
I hope this helps and that we’re able to continue this journey with you! Hang in there.

By: Hayley

Hayley — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 16:09:24 +0000

I wish there were some new suggestions out there. My 15 month old is still waking 3x a night on average, rarely less and sometimes more. She’s always had a hard time teething but she only has one more k9 to come through then she has all her teeth until the 2 year molars. I know she’s been having nightmares practically since she was born too but I doubt that’s the reason for every waking. I’m in desperate need of some kind of suggestion that I haven’t heard of. She goes to sleep on her own in the crib at bed time with her blanky. I stopped nursing her when she wakes at night about a month or so ago but it hasn’t done anything except take that comfort away. She wakes up abruptly sometimes from a seemingly deep sleep and she’s already whining or crying before she’s even totally sat up. There’s white noise in the room, it’s dark, I’ve tried a night light I’ve tried leaving her cup of water with her. She needs to be comforted every time she wakes almost as if she’s scared and since night-weaning her she usually ends up in the bed because I’m absolutely exhausted and at least she will go back to sleep in her own there. I even have a pediatriction appointment the end of May but that seems very far away still.

By: Debbye

Debbye — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:02:53 +0000

In reply to Matt.

@ Amber- You and your husband will have to come to an agreement about your son’s bear, and I do understand how difficult it can be when parents disagree about decisions for our children. If you decide that the bear is problematic, I would suggest a gentler way of breaking his “bear habit” would be to possibly limit the use to bedtimes only, or daytime only. I think he would handle this better then cold turkey. I can say that many people have children that get attached to a stuffed animal or another comfort association, and most children outgrow them on their own. If the bear is causing sleep problems, you’ll have to decide if the time is right to teach him to sleep through the night without it… If you decide the time is right, keep in mind that with toddlers, it’s all about setting limits and being consistent. That they may protest the change for a few days or a week, but eventually they start to get the message. Here is a link to our article about setting limits with toddlers.

https://www.babysleepsite.com/toddlers/limit-setting-toddler/

Good luck!

@ Matt- So sorry that you are still having problems, it sounds like you have had a lot to deal with of late! I hope those teeth come in and he is sleeping through the night once again! Keep up the hard work, it is a delicate balance when we want to comfort our children in the night as well as not introduce any sleep associations that we do not want to linger!
Let us know how things go!!!

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:06:49 +0000

@Debbye

Unfortunately it hasn’t stopped yet. Turns out he’s getting 4 molars at once, and on top of that is also getting pretty much the rest of his teeth. He also had a moderate build up of fluid in his ears and had to get tubes put in (that helped a little). On top of that, my sister passed away about a week and a half ago and he’s been waking up howling with what I’m guessing is a mix of nightmares (no, we didn’t take him to the wake or funeral, but oddly enough he woke that night precisely when she passed….) and teething. However, he only wakes once a night, and usually a baba, snuggles, or a combination thereof calms him down. I just hope he doesn’t have this habit once those darn teeth finish coming in…

By: amber

amber — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 06:43:24 +0000

hi,
my 2 year old has never slept well,he has had problems right from the start with reflux which has now gone,but always woke 3/4 times a night.
he now wakes up 2/3 times a night crying out for daddy who usually puts him to bed.
he sleeps with a night light and his bear,we think the problem is he sucks on the paw of his bear to get to sleep,which he has done for past year, and he seems to still suck all through the night if it falls out of his mouth he often wakes up looking for it saying bear bear or crys/whimpers till he finds it.
he is very!!attatched to his bear and uses it ofetn in the day and night my husband really wants to take it away from him and maybe try cold turkey,im really worried about this having a stressfull affect on him.
we cant agree and really dont know where to go next,please help us.

By: Debbye

Debbye — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 03:26:08 +0000

In reply to Karyn.

@ Matt- It has been quite a while. I hope your son’s teeth came in and you are all sleeping better now!

@ Karyn- It sounds like your daughter has developed quite a habit…With toddlers, it’s all about setting limits and being consistent. That they may protest the change for a few days or a week, but eventually they start to get the message. Here are two links to articles about setting limits with toddlers as well as how to implement a sticker/reward chart, which may be helpful in “convincing” your daughter to stay in her bed:

https://www.babysleepsite.com/toddlers/limit-setting-toddler/

https://www.babysleepsite.com/toddlers/sticker-chart-tips/

I would also like to mention a product called the “Good Nite Lite” (http://goodnitelite.com) which many families find helpful in teaching kids to understand that it’s not time to wake up or get up.
Good luck!

By: Karyn

Karyn — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:16:02 +0000

My two year old was always a wonderful sleeper. Just over a month ago, she developed yet another ear infection and literally overnight, she would not go down and would wake periodically throughout the night. It was to the point where she would need to fall asleep in my arms and I would put her to bed. When she would wake, my husband or I would have to either sleep in her room with her or sit in the rocker – either way, she needed us to be with her to sleep. After she got tubes put in her ears, things began to normalize. Now, after a routine, she will go down without difficulty. Our problem now is that she will continuously wake throughout the night. She doesn’t always cry or carry on. In fact she mostly just gets up and runs into our room and stands there. She doesn’t say anything. All we have to do is walk her back to her room and she goes back down only to repeat the same behavior maybe 20 minutes later. This can happen anywhere between one and eight times a night. She isn’t fully awake when this happens. Help! My husband thinks she’s lonely. I have no clue what to make of it but we haven’t slept a full night in over a month and after having a normal sleeper for two years, it’s tough to go through this now.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 06:52:07 +0000

I have a 16 month old who, for the past couple months, has been teething in the front and molars. At first he was a good sleeper, and then, even with Tylenol for the pain of teething, he started to wake up at random times of the night – usually between 11:50pm and 4:00am. I understand that I helped create this habit by giving him a bottle the first few times, but just tonight (it’s 12:45am as I write this) I let him scream, holler, fuss, and while for almost 40 minutes before I gave in and gave him a bottle. Of course, now he’s sound asleep – which is fine, the little guy needs it – and I’m all wound up. His normal bed time is between 6:15-7pm, he usually gets up between 6 and 7 am (besides the once a night), and he takes one nap a day, usually starting around 9:15 and ending between 11 am and 12:30 pm depending on how the night before went. Any help trying to get him to break this habit would be great as I am finally after 2 months off going back to work in a week and a half and can no longer afford to not sleep as it is a dangerous job.