Two year old does not sleep!

amother

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 4:57 pm

My baby does not sleep. She is 2.5. She’s never been a good sleeper. She wakes up multiple times at nite and is impossible to get into bed in the first place. She still needs a bottle to sleep. She’s not an easy kid. Very stubborn and tough. Crying it out doesn’t seem to work.. help I’m at my wits end.

amother

Hotpink

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 5:51 pm

I had this with my 2.5 yr old too. I used half melochew for a week to reset his schedule. He wakes at 7, naps from 1215-130, is usually sleeping for the night by 730. I found he was so off schedule and overtired he couldn’t fall asleep and stay asleep. Bh this has worked wonders and improved his eating habits too. I got the ok to use the melochews short term from pediatrician.

amother

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 6:04 pm

My pediatrician actually told me to try Benadryl for a night or two just to get her out of this awful cycle but I’m a bit hesitant. Was thinking of melatonin but my older child is dependent on it and I didn’t want to start that with another kid. Maybe I should though..

amother

Tuberose

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 6:07 pm

Do you use a noise machine and black out curtains? Does she have daily dirty diapers? Did you rule out reflux, yes 2 year olds can suffer from it too. Does she still nap? Consider getting rid of it. Is she eating enough during the day?

amother

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 6:38 pm

amother [ Tuberose ] wrote:

Yes noise machine and black out shades. Yes dirty diapers. Definitely no reflux. She naps and still needs to. Can’t manage without it. She eats enough she’s a big girl, 35 lbs. she’s super reliant on a bottle to fall asleep and I cannot break the habit.

stillnewlywed

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 6:41 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

What's her schedule? She may still need a nap but you can still cut the nap/shorten the night for more sleep pressure.
The bottle at bedtime is a huge issue and likely causing your night wakes. You need to drop that so she learns to sleep independently. Just talk to her about it for a few days and take it away for good. Throw out all the bottles in your house. It will be tough but worth it.

amother

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 7:51 pm

How will I get her to sleep without bottles if crying it out doesn’t go anywhere. She’ll cry for hours? I feel really stuck. My other kids did not do this.

amother

RosePink

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 8:11 pm

Hang in there, op! My 2 yo also recently became very difficult to put to sleep. We don’t have bottle dependency because she never really took bottles, but now she will only fall asleep if I lie down next to her on her bed. This is for bedtime and nap time and it’s incredibly time consuming on my part. Crying it out didn’t work for my daughter either.
So I definitely hear how draining this phase can be for you! I do give her .5mg melatonin some nights; hard to tell if it’s truly helping or not.
When you say bottle, I’m assuming you mean milk? Can you gradually dilute the milk more and more every night?
Also, is she attached to a blanket or stuffed animal that might comfort her?
Hang in there!

mizle10

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 8:14 pm

She’s at that in between stage when they still can nap but it messes up their night.

My 2.5 year old was like this until I cut out her nap. She was super cranky for a few days but adjusted nicely and now goes to sleep beautifully at 6:30 and sleeps until 7-7:30.

tichellady

Thu, Jul 07 2022, 8:29 pm

Has she done blood work? Is she iron deficient? So hard to have a kid who doesn’t sleep. Sending hugs