18 Month Old Sleeping Patterns and Misc.

Well I have no advice on the sleeping problem as my daughter is a little younger and hasn't gone through this YET! But for the food issue...I have been giving my daughter a lot of the chunky soups by Healthy Choice or Progresso (I try to get the one with the reduced sodium). I heat it up and then strain the liquid off. She LOVES the Italian Wedding soup and the Chicken with Dumplings. They have soft veggies, pasta and meat just the right size for little fingers! Mini frozen Pierogies (like ravioli but filled with mashed potatoes and cheese..YUM!) are another favorite. I just boil them until they float then rinse with cold water until they are cool enought for her.
Well I this helps some! Take care!

not really understanding why you dont want your child to sleep in your bed i mean i do but i also dont. my daughter slept with us until she was 2. we had a queen size bed and at that time it was getting a little tight. (i dont know how some one so small takes up that much room) anyway we got her a big girl bed i dont know if your daughter is in a crib or toddler bed but my daughter would not sleep on eather so we decided to try a full size bed and shes been in her bed ever since! whic is a good thing b/c now the baby is in our bed. im a strong belever in co-sleeping its better for the baby and mom. if i had my way both my girls would be in bed with me abd daddy in his own room! But in countries that are more known for poverty they have lower sids rates. and that is because mom and baby share a bed, mom send out a signal to baby to keep breathing. i thought that was kind of cool. i would try a big girl bed if she doesnt have one already or just let her sleep with you, shes not going to be in your bed until she goes to college i promise!

I'll start with the food.... our kids never really had 'baby food'. We followed our pediatrician's advice.... Starting around 4-5 months, we gave them stuff like oatmeal, cream of wheat, scrambled eggs and fork-smashed bananas and avacados. By 5-6 months it was basically any soft foods like well-cooked veggies, fruit and pasta cut into pea-size bit so they could pick them up and feed themselves. We also introduced things like Cheerios around this time. By the time the kids were 8-9 months old, they were eating exactly what the rest of the family was eating at mealtime - just cut into pea-size bits (they couldn't take bites off because none had any teeth until after their 1st birthday -- babies can gum anything, though). With meat, we just cooked until it was very tender and then shredded it with our fingers or fork and made sure it was moist with gravy or broth or water.

As for sleeping, you and your husband sit down and decide what you want to do. Come up with a plan before the 1am wakeup call. Then just be consistent. Now she wants to be in your bed because you let her get away with it. If she's not sleepign well at night (ie, waking up in middle of night) that might mean too much sleep during the day. Most kids that age are taking 1 nap for about 2-3 hours during the afternoon. Don't let her sleep past 3 or 4pm, though, or bedtime will be harder. The other thing is that kids don't sleep well when they're overtired. When is her bedtime? She should be getting 11-12 hours of sleep at night so if she's waking at 7am, that means 7pm bedtime. Also, we always had better luck with daddy going in the middle of the night. The kids always seemed to settle down for him but not for me (probably because I nursed and therefore was 'food' for 18+ months for each of them).

Good luck - like everything else, it's a phase that'll end evenutally. As soon as you figure it out, she'll throw another curve ball your way! :-)

Take it from someone who has been there done that...DO NOT let her sleep in your bed unless you are willing to go the next 2-3 years with her lying next to you in YOUR bed!! I did this with my now 7 year old daughter. My now ex-husband worked nights, so since I was lonely at night, I started letting her sleep with me. He finally went to the day shift when she was 3 and we tried everything to get her to sleep in her own bed! We were up until 5 a.m. every night for a week fighting her to sleep in her bed. We finally gave up and my ex started sleeping on the couch, which he continued to do for the next year and we were divorced a year later...not due to this...don't get me wrong...there were other problems!! When my now husband moved in with us, my daughter was still sleeping in my bed! So, we all slept in the same bed for a while and then she just decided she needed her own room and space! She was 5 years old at that time!! So, unless you're willing to give up your bed until your daughter is 5 years old...I would recommend nipping it in the bud now!

Don't get me wrong though, I loved having her in bed with me. I never had to worry about her waking up in the middle of the night and not hearing her and it was so nice to wake up to her smiling face every morning! But it's definately been nice to have my bed back! We now have a 1 year old son and we are very adament about him sleeping in his own bed.

Speaking of my 1 yr old son...he is pretty much on all table food now. I'm just sure to cut everything up into really small bites. I keep the Gerber graduates mini meals (they have an entre and a veggie) on hand in case I make something he can't eat. Last night I made breaded chicken strips, mashed potatos and corn...I cut the chicken up into really small bites (removing the breading) and gave him the mashed potatos and corn. He loves feeding himself with his hands, so peas, corn, green beans and such are wonderful!

Hope this helps...S.

From 15 to 18 months my daugter went through a HUGE growth spurt. After several nights of her waking up several times crying I thought I would see if she was hungry. Was she ever! She would eat a graduate meal and a bannana. Then go back to bed and sleep for the rest of the night. On a couple of occasions she got up twice. My daugther is almost 4 wearing 7/8 clothes. My son at 13 months started waking in the middle of the crying. I would rock him back to sleep and go back to bed. A couple hours later he would be crying again. After several nights of this I remembered what I went threw with my daughter and fed him. Sure enough it worked. I feed him a bannana immediately before bedtime and he sleeps through till 7am. He then eats breakfast and goes back to bed for a couple more hours. Last night was the first night in a month that he sleep straight through for 12 hours. He is 14 months old wearing 2T and 3T clothes. Since your daughter is still on mostly baby food, you may want to really work with her on adult food. She may not be getting a full tummy. My daugther would cluck at me, but my son never did anything but cry. My son would eat nothing but green beans if I let him. He is just now starting to like mashed potatoes. I would give him some everytime I made them and it worked. I always keep peaches, bannanas, and stawberries on hand for a quick snack. Good luck and I hope you get your bed back.

M.,
I hate to say it, but she is getting exactly what she wants. If you listen carefully you can tell the difference between the give me what I want NOW cry to the real thing. She is doing what she has to do to get what she wants, You. You have got to stick to your guns and leave her. She will go back to bed. But if she is stubborn, it may take a little while at first. Our daughter was the same way around that age. The only times we let her sleep with us is if there was truly something upseting her such as bad weather.
As far as the food goes. She was completly on normal food by about 13-14 months. But she only wants what she wants. If it's not something she wants, she won't eat it.

Hi M.,....

I can't believe that you are going thru exactly the same thing as I was short time ago...My husband said the same thing, to bring the baby to our bed, and I refused to solve the problem in that way. I think is not healthy for the baby neither for us, and it is a temporary solution which will bring more problems later. I say this because with my first son we did that, and he is a 7 yrs old boy, and he still comes to our bed several times in a week....
I think is a phase between 14 and 18 mo old where babies start to miss mommy and have separation anxiety.
With my 14 mo old baby we are making him to do more exercise outdoors and he is sleeping like an angel thru the night, I mean I make him walk with me and his brother; he enjoys it a lot and he has been sleeping thru the night.
Many moms use the cry-out approach...To be honest, we did not had the nerve to do that...I just couldn't, and I heard it works, but I couldn't do it and I won't do it. Now with a very strict routine with naps and bedtime..and "exercise", our baby is sleeping very well..and ourselves!!
About baby food, my baby did not like baby food at all but chicken and apples from the jar. The rest of the meals were prepared and cooked by myself.I think you probably should try giving to her just little bites or small amounts from what you are having for dinner or lunch. It is supposed that we should feed babies without salt and sugar etc.., but when I did that my baby did not like it, then I started to cook with minimum amount of salt or condiments, and I give to my baby the same we eat, he loves it!, He eats everything but those things too spicy or sweet or too salty or those that may provoke choking or allergies.
One of the things my baby loves is cooked beans (any but pinto beans they are too hard)....they are very good resource of protein and fiber.Try them....!
I hope this help you a little bit and know you are not alone..
Good Luck!

Alejandra

I can relate to this situation. My son is 2 1/2 (he'll be 3 in August). When he was a baby he slept just fine in his crib. When I say "just fine" I mean fine after I rocked him to sleep and put him in his crib. He eventually slept all night like all babies do. When he was 9 months old we took a 3 week trip to Boston. The extended hotel stay messed up his schedule and he wouldn't sleep in the hotel crib so he slept with us. That contiued for a couple months once we got home and then I made the break and put him back in his crib. He cried it out for a couple nights and was just fine. Then when he turned 18 months he started climbing out of his crib, so we turned his crib to a toddler bed. Of course, he didn't want to stay in that so the inevitable happened and he slept with us. I loved having the security of him being next to me and having him wake up with me in the morning (he's so cute when he first wakes up). But that also led to restless sleep for him, me and my husband (who ended up going to the couch alot). Well, needless to say once that started it was very hard to break. And I really wasn't very motivated to do it at first b/c like I said I really kindof liked having him there. But there was a new baby coming and there was no way we were all going to fit in that bed and I also didn't want her (in her bassinet) to wake him up at night. So about 2 or 3 weeks before the baby was born (I was sleeping on the couch and my son and husband were in the bed) my husband started to sleep with him in his "big boy" bed. He was 2 1/2 by this point. So now my husband lays in my son's bed every night to put him to sleep. Sometimes he stays there and other he gets back up and comes to our bed. If he comes to our bed in the middle of the night, I still let him stay. He knows now that he supposed to sleep in his bed and sleeping in mommy's bed is a treat. I feel it's all in what you are comfortable with. They are only this age once and if you spend the whole time doing what you're "supposed" to do, you won't enjoy it. We're working on him going to bed by himself but really what I want more is for him to go to bed without a fight. If he goes to sleep without crying he falls asleep much faster. I always said I wouldn't allow my second one in my bed after what happened with the first but of course she's 10 weeks old and at 400am when she's fussy and restless and won't fall back to sleep, what do I do? Lay her in bed with me and she falls right to sleep. Go with what you feel is right.
About the baby food situation, my son still eats Blueberry Buckle. He LOVES it. He was a very picky eater until a couple months ago. He ate baby food until he was at least 2 years old. Encourage her to eat table foods but it's okay to let her eat baby food too. She'll catch on to eating table food eventually, some kids are just pickier than others.
GOOD LUCK!

my friend went throught this exact same predicament when her son (now 3) was that same age. the only thing that would get him back to sleep was them putting him in bed with them.
he eventually stopped a few months later, when they got him a 'big boy' bed and made him sleep in it.
she said that she helped him get adjusted to it by laying next to it until he would fall asleep and then he eventually would just go to sleep on his own.
hope this helped.

and i know it may sound harsh, but with both my boys (especially the younger one i just stopped giving them baby food cold turkey. they ate table food when they got hungry enough. they wont let themselves get too hungry. and it wont hurt them to be hungry...haha. theyll eat it when you stop offering the baby food. or at least both of mine did.

Its sounds kinda like what my kids went through about the same age. The doctors called it nighttares. They say some children just go through it. Its not a big problem they eventually go out of it. I did, however, do the same thing and bring them into bed with me. As my children have gotten older they don't sleep in the bed anymore. My 5 yr old does every once in awhile. Most of the time they don't even realize they're doing it. It will get better.
For the food, every child is different and its up to you and the child as to what she likes and doesn't like. My first child was a picky eater, after time she started to eat more things.

i've been single through both of my children, so the family bed has always been convenient and fun. my first daughter was 2 when i encouraged her to try her own bed, and it took about a month for her to start enjoying it. i didn't push it, and i let her sleep with me when she wanted... but she enjoyed the "big girl" feeling of her own bed, so it was easy. when i had a new baby (just after my older daughter's 4th b'day), she came back to the family bed and we all snuggle and enjoy a good night's sleep. i think the family bed is a great idea. it isn't spoiling, it's helping the child build strong attachments. in the long run, the child feels a greater sense of security and is even better equipped to manage adult relationships. there is a lot of scholarly research that supports attachment. and anyway, your baby is only little for a short time... your husband should be able to cope for a while. just my opinion. :)

Wow, I feel as if I have just written this blog! My husband and I are currently going through the EXACT same thing with my 2 year old son. I will be off for 2 1/2 months this summer and I will be able to really devote some time to changing schedules around...and I hope that helps. It is frustrating and exhausting! At two in the morning, when I have few hours to sleep before my alarm goes off, it's just easy to put him into bed with us. I don't know what to do with my son either...but I'll be able to sacrifice more sleep this summer. Hopefully I'll be able to concince him to stay in his bed even if he wakes up!