How can I get my one year old to sleep through the night?

Erica - posted on 03/29/2012

I have a 6 month old (the size of an 18 month old) and every night at 8:30pm I feed him 2oz of warm whole grain oats cereal mixed with his formula (as thick as baby food) and then at 9:30pm I feed him a warm 8oz bottle of formula with no cereal. I give him a dose of mylacon, rub teething gel on his teeth, put saline drops in his nose, rub some baby Vick's on his chest, pop in his pacifier, and wrap him up real tight in his blanky when I put him in bed. Works like a charm. I do the same to my sister's kids when I watch them and she's always amazed at how well they sleep at my house. As long as their full, warm, and nothings hurting them, they'll sleep like a rock.

Migmarie - posted on 03/27/2012

I put him to bed last night at 9pm and he woke up at 10:30. I went to bed at 11pm and he was still crying then. At 11:30, I felt bad and I went in there to check on him because he was crying for a long time. When I went in his room and gave him a hug, his arms and hands were freezing cold so I changed his PJ's to something much warmer and I gave him a kiss good night and left the room. He cried for about 20 more minutes but he finally fell back to sleep and he slept the rest of the night. I think the reason he's been waking up so often is that his room is much more colder than ours. Hopefully that is it and now I'll be able to get some sleep. I'll keep you posted. Thank you guys.

Margaret - posted on 03/26/2012

My daughter rubbished all my suggestions, until she took her kids to 'sleep school' and discovered that my 'nonsense suggestions' were actually told to her by the experts.



The suggestions they made were to make sure the room was properly darkened, either with a blind or 'block out' curtains, and have a small night light and music playing. Then if he wakens during the night, don't go in right away, give him time to settle again by himself....use a baby monitor if you want to, a two way one, that you can just say 'it's okay hun go back to sleep' without going into his room. He'll soon learn to settle back to sleep. God bless.

Stacey - posted on 03/26/2012

I had the same problem with mine. From birth til she turned 12m, I would rock her to sleep. Boy, were my friends right, when the time came for me to set a sleep routine for her it was sooo hard for her and myself. My friends, that had children, told me the same as i will share with you. This will only work if you are strong enough to cope with it. Pick a time that you are willing to stick with to have him in bed by. Do what you normally do.... bath, cuddle on the couch reading a "bedtime" book to him, then tuck him in with whatever he usually falls asleep with (not you), turn a night light on, whatever then leave his room and shut the door and DO NOT GO BACK IN!!!!! He will cry, cry, cry probably for an hour or until he cries himself to sleep. I had so much trouble hearing my baby cry that i literally had to go outside of the house and wait it out so i wouldn't enter her room. When or if he wakes up after a few hrs of sleep let him cry again. He will know mommy is not coming in after a few nights in a row u do this. It took mine 6 nights of loud crying for atleast an hour before she knew once i left the room, she was to go to sleep. It really pays off and you will have him on a routine before your nights are busy with that baby u are carrying!!! U will be happy u done it! I know this sounds harsh but it worked for her and when the second one came, I did not rock him to sleep! He had a routine from day 1 :)