How to train 18 mo to sleep through the night

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Forum -> Parenting our children -> Toddlers

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amother

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 11:29 am

Starting a new thread for the 18 month olds!
She wakes up 2-3 times each night for a milk bottle. Eats well during the day. Yes I try to give her water but she just screams until I give her milk. How do I break this?

amother

Chambray

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 12:40 pm

8 months is young to not eat during the night, especially if the "night" is 12 hours.

amother

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 12:41 pm

Oops typo!
I meant 18 months

SuperWify

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 12:46 pm

Wow that’s crazy! No advice but lots of hugs and much sympathy to you!

amother

Chambray

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 12:49 pm

Oh wow! Can your husband go in for the nighttime wakings? With or without water.

amother

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 12:52 pm

amother [ Chambray ] wrote:

Oh wow! Can your husband go in for the nighttime wakings? With or without water.

Why would that change anything?

amother

Chambray

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 12:54 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Why would that change anything?

If you were the one who offered a bottle at night, having him come in instead could teach that Ima usually gives milk, but Aba only has water.
So it's not you giving it, it's that he doesn't have it.

amother

Offwhite

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 1:25 pm

Stop giving her stuff to drink at night. She doesn't need it, and is only waking up because she's used to it. Make sure she's well fed before bedtime, put her down, close the door, and don't go in there until morning. She'll cry the first few nights. Use a sound machine if it bothers you. After a few nights, she'll get used to the new routine, and sleep through the night.

amother

Freesia

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 1:35 pm

amother [ Offwhite ] wrote:

I think an 18m old needs a gentler approach

amother

Blush

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 1:38 pm

amother [ Freesia ] wrote:

I think an 18m old needs a gentler approach

I agree. You can help him learn the new skill.

At this age, you have to tell yourself baby is really not hungry. You have to be ready to hear him cry. He will cry, because you are removing something he loves.

I went to his bed every time he woke and sat there saying sha sha, its bedtime. You can also let him cry a few minutes to see if will put himself back to sleep without you. Program says 10 minutes but that was too hard for me. The point of you sitting there is to encourage baby and not just let him scream for hours like by CIO method. You can switch off with dh if that works.
I followed a program so that gave me encouragement.

Is he getting a bottle at bedtime, if so your supposed to remove that as well. You are teaching him to sleep without a bottle as a prop.

4321

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 1:40 pm

You can try diluting the milk with some water, first night mostly milk with a bit of water and over several nights keep increasing the water.

amother

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 1:42 pm

amother [ Blush ] wrote:

This sounds more up my alley. I won't do CIO. Can you elaborate more on this please. What do you mean by following a program?

amother

Blush

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 1:54 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

This sounds more up my alley. I won't do CIO. Can you elaborate more on this please. What do you mean by following a program?

I followed her program. It worked for us.

https://sleepsense.net/

I watched videos every day of the instructions for that night. It helped that I was working from home because of covid so I was able to follow the program fully. Read up on it, if you have more questions I can check back here.

There are also heimish women that do these things, if you want that. I follow babysleepmaven and chayashifrasadoff on instagram.

amother

Dill

Thu, Aug 04 2022, 11:17 pm

I'll repost what I wrote on the other thread...

Every baby's different. For me, what worked was slowly reducing the amount in the bottle until about 2 oz. Then I switched to water (it didn't go well when I first tried to switch, but at that point he was ok with it.) Eventually he stopped waking up at all.

Just wanted to add that the point is to gradually shift their internal clock. If they have a bottle every night, it's more than just a habit... they're actually waking up hungry, like if you eat lunch the same time every day, your body knows to be hungry then. If you feed your baby less each time they wake up, that will signal their brains that the middle of the night isn't mealtime. Like everything else, it'll take a few days/weeks but if you keep trying, the shift will eventually happen.

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