Co-sleepers that later sleep trained

[Anonymous]

Emma has slept with me since around 12 months. She had the flu and then we tried a hidden dairy trial that failed and everything just got worse. It was easier to have her sleep with me since she was waking up every hour. Now she is doing very good, still having some bloating, gas and occasional teething issues but she is sleeping mostly through the night with me. I would like for her to sleep in her bed. My main concerns are 1) she doesn’t eat, literally maybe 4 small bites of food a day. She survives on formula but she is gaining. She sleep feeds every night and still occasionally can drink a 6 oz bottle in the middle of the night. How do you train them if you don’t know if they truly are hungry in the night? She takes around 4 bottles a day (6-8 oz each) but she is a very active walker. I don’t know if she gets enough during the day. I have tried taking her bottle away to get her to eat and she won’t eat. She just cries and keeps refusing food. Then she gets so gassy from crying she gets bloated and cries more. I don’t have the heart to have her crying at night thinking she is hungry

2)I know she is teething. It’s not to bad yet but what do you guys do if they get up continually at night from this. When Emma teeths she is miserable so I know she will get up, just wondering how you guys handle

[Anonymous]

Brandy, we’re going through the same thing with Hailey. She’s in her crib, but in our room. When she wakes at night she can’t put herself back to sleep for major wake ups. I feed her once at night, and once in the early morning these days (around 6 am). The feeding doc we were seeing wants us to cut out the night bottle. He’s suggested gradually watering it down. He said that night feeding really reduces daytime appetite. Hailey will also take that much at night, and only about 6-8 ounces during the day. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, it’s going to make life a lot harder. I am just waiting for some more confirmation about how to cut out the bottle and which ones and then I think we’re going to do it. If Emma is not able to take solids, I don’t know what I would do. Our SLP feels that Hailey has the skills needed to eat, but that she just doesn’t, so we are now working on building appetite. Our doc and SLP both told me that it can take up to 3 weeks or so of cutting out the night feed before an increase in daytime appetite is seen. They said that the baby needs to rewire their brain almost to make the connection between “I’m hungry now, so I’m going to eat in the day to fill that need. Then I feel better.” We are going to hold off likely for a couple of weeks until we are completely able to sleep train, because I think the two are going to go hand in hand. I don’t know exactly what to suggest to you. It’s a hard situation. With Emma, I would also be wondering if the periactin is making her hungrier at night. It might be hard for her to go through the night without a drink while on it, I don’t know. Our SLP told us that it makes them really thirsty, hence the increase in appetite. Good luck with your decision.

[Anonymous]

Hi Brandy, we have a little cosleeper too that we are trying to transition back to his own room. Last night, Dh slept in his sleeping bag beside his bed and he actually did fall asleep and stay in his toddler bed all night!! The plan is for Dh to slowly inch the sleeping bag closer and closer to the door each night until he makes it out of the room.

[Anonymous]

That’s a really good plan, Tiffany – my cousin did something similar
with her DS about 6 months ago and it worked really well!

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it.

Emma has slept better in the past 3 weeks than she has in her entire life and I think it was because she finally has a routine, something that was hard to implement in the past. My parents were living with me and my mother is her full time babysitter. I was letting her sleep in, b/c it was easier on my mother, take naps whenever she wanted and then it would take forever to get her to sleep. My husband and I split up last August and we have been working it out and I moved back in with him over Memorial Day weekend (we have been doing great, I am really excited). Now I get Emma up when I leave for work around 6:45a and take her to my parents. She takes one really good nap and now she is ready for bed around 9p and sleeps all night, it is wonderful. The routine really worked for her.

Lori ~ I have always felt too that Emma has had the skills necessary to eat, she just didn’t want to. We are going on 3.5 months of not wanting to eat, just bites here and there. I took her to her Ped GI yesterday and she told me that now she thinks it is more behavioral. She was eating very well but then she got sick and after a failed hidden dairy trial she stopped and she previously thought she was correlating eating with her upset stomach. Since she still isn’t eating she/we don’t think that’s the case anymore. Emma is still on the bottle and drinking around 30-35oz of formula a day and she thinks that is why she is not eating b/c she is getting enough from the formula making her not hungry. Which makes perfect sense; part of me knew that and was just ignoring it. She said that she really only needs maybe 12oz a day, I didn’t realize that. I tried putting formula in a sippy cup and it was making her really gassy and she said to only put 2-3 oz at a time and around 3-4 times a day and that should help with the gassiness and she should start eating b/c she will be hungry. She said of course she will still refuse food in the beginning but she said with her experience it will get better in about 3 days. She wants me to stop the bottle cold turkey, Ouch!! I don’t know if I can handle that but me, my mom, and husband realize it has to be done. It’s always harder on the adults then the kids!! The really weird thing is yesterday Emma ate all kinds of things and drank formula out of her sippy, it was amazing, it was like she was listening to the doc (hee hee!!), I just hope it continues. She also wants us to try yogurt again, she loved it the first time we tried so that will help with eating and calcium.

Tiffany ~ Thanks for the info. That is exactly what I wanted to do. Keep me posted how it goes. My husband is off the second week of July so we will be working with her a lot. He works nights so it has been really hard doing it by myself since I have to get up at 6:00a.

To everyone ~ since I need to wean her off the bottle, in your experience which one should I do first, the bottle or sleep train? Or both at the same time really slow? An suggestions

[hellbennt]

remind me again: why do you need to wean her off the bottle?

bcse of therapy/feeding issues or bcse the ped said so?

just curious…

oops- just read where you said why…

um, personally I see nothing wrong with a bottle or 2 and then doing away with those…that is if you think she’s really attached to the bottle…

hellbennt2006-6-22 15:55:18

[Anonymous]

i hope i don’t offend anyone with this—but i’m coming from 23 years experience—-and alot of horrible sleepers. there is really no reason why a baby should not be able to sleep through the night by the time they weigh 10 lbs or so—unless they are in pain. i am such a marshmallow, that i couldn’t stand to let my kids cry, so they walked all over us when it came to sleep. however, i have learned(from the times i was able to steel myself) that even if you leave a child to cry in their bed, or you have to take them back to their bed repeatedly—-it does not take a very long time for them to create a new habit.

my twins have always been small and were preemies. by 3 months old they were sleeping through the night for 9-12 hours. i thought i had it made. it lasted for a month, then they got sick, and did not sleep through the night until they were 2. totally our fault—-we just didn’t have the heart (guts?) to make them get back into a habit.

[Anonymous]

Laura ~ Her ped GI wants us to quit the bottle cold turkey. I agree with you, I think weaning her down, a couple bottles here and there is just fine. I am thinking if I reduce her formula intake from 30 down to 12-15oz should increase her appetite pretty good and I shouldn’t have to completely take away her bottle as long as she is eating. She is very attached to her bottle. She doesn’t suck her thumb and she gave up the binky on her own so I am thankful this is all I have to deal with. Honestly if she was eating I probably wouldn’t even wean her from the bottle, to me, it really isn’t that big of a deal. I used a bottle till I was over 2 years old and I didn’t have any problems from it.

Christine ~ You definitely did not offend me. I always read your posts b/c I know you have a lot of experience so I appreciate you commenting. Emma is my first child and I have never helped raise any other babies so I have no idea what I am doing. My mom helps me out a lot but she would let Emma have her way on everything if I would let her. I know deep down that she will be just fine and she will learn to sleep on her own. Its always your heart that can’t handle the transition. Emma is pain free and she is at that age that she knows what she is getting away with and I know if I don’t do something it will get worse and worse. Even though I don’t think using a bottle at this age is a big deal I do believe sleeping is. Thanks for the reassurance!!

[Anonymous]

Brandy, we have been seeing a feeding specialist here who says that a reduction of 50 percent is often needed to help them to feel hunger. So I think it’s a good idea to only cut out some of the bottles and not all. He did think that the night bottles had to go, because feeding during the night (according to him) negatively impacts daytime hunger cues and eating. We are going to be cutting out likely her night bottle and probably one other bottle very soon, so down to about 8-10 oz. I’m so scared! Anyhow, please keep us posted and let me know what you do, and how it works. Maybe we can pep-talk each other through it! Good luck!

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