Need schedule and food help for 15 months old - no CIO!

IamI

Tue, Aug 10 2010, 2:01 am

15 months old dd still wakes up twice every night to be nursed.
I tried different things but nothing helped (I refuse to let her cio). One of the things I read was that she needs a consisten schedule during the day which she doesn't have.
Could you help me with an appropiate schedule for her age and situation (I'm a SAHM and she only naps once a day and only for around an hour)? Also when and how much should she eat? And what??? She's not a great eater. I give her very healthy food and she likes it but doesnt eat much. She LOVES fruit and could probably finish 3 peaches in one go but anything else she won't eacht much. Also she only likes very plain food. She'll eat a whole tomato but no salad, she'll have plenty of pasta but not if there's sauce on it. She'll eat a plain yogurt (no flavor or sugar) but if I cut up a fruit she loves and add it she'll spit out out. Which also means tons of extra work for me since she won't eat what we eat. I never know how and what to feed her so that she gets all the nutrition she needs!
Can you help?

Last edited by IamI on Sun, Sep 05 2010, 3:07 am; edited 1 time in total

happymom

Thu, Aug 12 2010, 3:58 pm

I also never let my kids cio but have got them to sleep through the night. I uaully start thought at sixteen months wehn is top nursing. the thing that works for me is to have my husband go to the baby and comfort them and after three nights or so when they realize they arent going to be nursed, they just sleep. I would give your baby one more nap dutring the day and if not, make sure she gets to bed early enough to get enough sleep. so like if she only takes one nap a day six is a good bedtime and if two naps eight. I have found that by makind sure they get enugh sleep they sleep more necase they are not overtired.. goodluck.

Kumphort

Mon, Aug 16 2010, 9:18 am

I think you have a couple issues you need to work out:

Does your baby fall asleep on her own? can she soothe herself to sleep?

When you say you have no routine, does she have a nap at a specific time? one hour seems like a short nap, my twins take 1 three hour nap, at the same time every day.

You want her to try more foods, I would work on getting her used to your foods, so that you dont have to work so hard, keep trying new textures etc.

Is she waking up cause she is hungry, or just from habit, does she fall right back asleep?

I would try slowly reducing the amount of time you are nursing her at night, and put her back sleepy before she is sleeping deeply.

I know you dont want to do CIO but sometimes my baby would cry for 2 minutes or so just as a protest, so maybe it's worth it to say, I will give her 5 mins or so to fuss and see what happens.

IamI

Mon, Aug 16 2010, 12:44 pm

Thank you for your reply.
I would love to have dh put her to sleep but she freaks out when dh picks her up, never mind holds her for more than a few secs - during the day she loves him to pieces Smile

She wakes up and starts crying the longer it takes me to pick her up the more hysterical she gets. Once I didn't hear her right away and by the time I got to her she was shaking and shivering and totally hysterical. It took me around 45 min. to calm her down. so yeah...
What happened the past few days is crazy and my patience is starting to wear out. She wakes up at around 8 am at around 10 she starts getting tired but doesn't want to go to sleep. So she gets all kvetchy and only wants to be held. By 10.30-11.00 she's out. Then she sleeps for around 1 hours sometimes a bit more. Around 3/4 she starts getting tired again but refuses to go to sleep. After that she's nuts and extremely difficult. So yesterday I put her to sleep at 6.30 all happy to have in bed so early, well guess what - half an hour later she was wide awake and she stayed up until 11pm!!!! Today she fell asleep at around 4.30 pm for around 45 min. and then stayed up until 9.30. both times I spend around 45 min trying to put her to sleep at 8. I'm so exhausted.
I always offer her from our food but she usually won't eat it unless it's really plain like just pasta or just plain boiled potatoes.
Oh and if I try putting her to sleep before she's in a deep sleep she wakes up and starts screeching.
any ideas? please!!!
PS. Please no advise about CIO or anything similar - it's not an option!
TIA

shabbatiscoming

Sun, Aug 22 2010, 3:53 am

IamI wrote:

Please someone save me??

if you dont want to do CIO (which I totally understand) you can try to rub your child's back until you see that her eyes are closed and every few days you rub her back a little bit less. we did this for a while. my daughter is just over two now and we have a whole bedtime ritual, but thats the main part of the ritual.

also, I think that you have to be a little bit more strict about more than one nap a day. it seems also that your daughter is getting antsy and kvetchy. that was for me a sign that I had to make sure that my daughter was having more nap time and I was very makpid on that. I would have a whole routine of rubbing her back and then telling her that ema was going to leave the room and that when you wake up from your nap ema will come get you. she did cry a bit (never more than 10 minutes - if it was more I alway went in to her room and started again) but after a few days it really worked and the naps helped her become normal again. it helped her overall being and she was happier because she was not so tired.

shabbatiscoming

Sun, Aug 22 2010, 4:12 am

IamI wrote:

how am I supposed to rub her back if she won't even lie down. she stands in her crib and screams her head off.
and she simply won't take a second nap. and the few times she does she just doesn't go to sleep until midnight Sad

start to rub her back when you are holding her and slowly when she has calm down, lie her down. if it does not work, just try to calm her even when she is standing and screaming, sing her a song, do something that will calm her down. talk to her softly, anything that you think will calm her down and just keep trying to do it as she is lying down as well.
transition the calming mechanism, whatever you choose, from while you are holding her to standing and screaming to when she is finally lying down. it may take time, even a few weeks, but it will hopefully work in the end.

4ofus

Sun, Aug 22 2010, 5:40 am

I don't know what to tell you about the falling asleep on her own thing because I let my baby cio (kinda, I went in every 3-5 minutes to soothe him a little) but I have a 14 month old who takes 2 naps for about an hour each. I can't stress enough how much schedules help kids be less cranky and sleep better. My DS goes for his first nap 2-3 hours after he wakes up and his second nap around 3 hours after that. I feed him dinner at 5:30 and give him a bath right after that. He knows basically what to anticipate and it's comforting.

About the eating thing, yeah, some kids are more difficult than others. One day my baby something and the next he doesn't. Try a plain ww waffle for breakfast with a yogurt or fruit. Lunch by us is usually vegetable soup with ww crackers or ww pita pizza. For dinner my baby will eat mostly anything. Some favorites are burgers with home fries and corn on the cob, schnitzel with couscous and broccoli and stir fry.

Good Luck!