• Family and Individual Education and Coaching

Mary Kay Keller

About
Books
Classes
Coaching
Podcasts
Testimonials

Toddler not sleeping through the night

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Mary Kay Keller

Questioner: Jennifer

Subject: Toddler not sleeping through the night

Question: Hello!

I am a young mother of two wonderful boys. My youngest is 1 1/2 and he still wakes up in the middle of the night to take a bottle. Not only does he wake up to take a bottle he is still sleeping in my bed.
I need to find an effective way to get him to sleep so I can sleep at night as well. He is a big boy (33 lbs.), so I am not sure if he is just hungry or just in the habitat of waking up and taking a bottle. Not only do we both not get sleep, I am going through diapers like made. Once he has a bottle if diaper of course gets wet. Please help wil any advice that you can.
Thanks.

Jennifer

Answer: Hello Jennifer:

While I am pro-sleeping with children and not a advocate of giving children bottles before bedtime for the obvious reasons (bedwetting). I think I have an answer for you we both can live with! It is more important, critically important to stick with the routine over a schedule. So if you get off of your schedule you need to adjust the time and NOT the routine.

I strongly advocate setting a bedtime routine. (Now notice there is a big difference between schedules and routines!)

A routine allows a child to be conditioned for sleep. Here is what I suggest you adhere to:

1. 30 minutes before bedtime start checking the environment for noise and reduce it. Is the TV on? Is the stereo on? If so turn them off or put some really relaxing music on that promotes sleep.

2. Turn the lights down. Bright lights and loud noises are too stimulating on a little one’s underdeveloped nervous system.

3. Let the little one know that he will be going to bed in 30 minutes.

4. Bedtime story time. (You can do this before or after bathe time).

5. If you bathe him at night then go have fun with bathe time. Give him some one on one here and keep it simple. Who doesn’t love to have their back washed with love?

6. When he gets out have fun getting him ready for bed. Massage him. Make this a part of your nightly routine and you will both benefit from his head to toe massage!

(Include some aroma therapy, recommend Gentle baby essential oil put on a cotton ball and stick it in the air vent of his room. The smell will relax you both through the massage and for bedtime.) You can find it at youngliving.org/katie214

7. Put some nature music or the heartbeat sounds on in his room. He will probably sleep quite deep after his bedtime massage.

However, you will notice as the weeks go on and you keep this routine that he will begin to get tired earlier when he sees the cues it is bedtime and will sleep longer.

This is not a one night cure! Your consistency is the key to your success. It must be consistent so he will be trained to go to sleep and stay asleep!

Take care!
Dr. Mary Kay Keller
Hassle Free Bedtime? Click here!

Here is more!

http://astore.amazon.com/lifsjouagrass-20/detail/B005ELMC0Q

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Why is Breastfeeding Awareness So Important?
  • Babies are not empty heads that we need to fill up!
  • Learn the Baby Code Here!
  • What happens when optimal caregiving is not addressed.
  • Connecting to your infant through empathy.

Recent Comments

    Archives

    • August 2022
    • December 2020
    • February 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • February 2017
    • June 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • October 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • June 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010

    Categories

    • ACES
    • Adult Children
    • Adverse Childhood Experiences
    • alcohol
    • All Families
    • animal abuse
    • attachment
    • Babies
    • baby
    • Bedtime
    • bethchange
    • bonding
    • breastfeeding
    • caregiving
    • Child abuse
    • Children
    • communication
    • Dads
    • dating
    • discipline
    • emotional abuse
    • emotional development
    • empathy
    • family
    • father
    • fathering
    • grand parent
    • grandparenting
    • grandparents
    • health
    • infant
    • infant communication
    • infant empathy
    • infant massage
    • infants
    • massage
    • mother
    • mothering
    • mothers
    • Occam's razor
    • parenting
    • pet
    • prevention
    • protective factors
    • Q and A 13-17 yr old
    • Q and A 2 yr old
    • relationships
    • research
    • Resiliency
    • Romance
    • sibling
    • siblings
    • single dad
    • sleep
    • stepparenting
    • teens
    • Toddlers
    • Trauma
    • Trauma informed care
    • Uncategorized
    • videoblog
    • violence

    Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org

    © 2000, MaryKayKeller.com. All Rights Reserved.