15 Month Old - Sleep Problems & whining...help!

I know what you are going through Momma. I have a 23 month old that stop taking naps at 20 months old. If he did take a nap he would be up most of the night and wanted all kind of attention. You are doing everything right, but sometimes children just don't need naps anymore. You might want to try with the day care not giving him a nap for a day or so and see if he will sleep. Sometimes it is the fact that he is not getting enough play or something, so maybe you might need the daycare to do more play with him. My youngest is a BIG momma's boy too. Like you, I cannot go to the bathroom, and I cannot really do anything with out him wanting to be by me or attached to me. But I have found a few toys that he really likes and that seems to help keep him busy for a little while. You may just have to let him cry it out when he wants to be picked up, as that is what I have done with my Son too. It is hard but I knew that I had to do it. He has learned to keep busy. Another thing that you could try like on the weekends when you are home is if you have nieces or nephews that are a little older to come over for a while so that they can play with him. Just an idea. I have an older boy who is 3 as well, and sometimes they play and that gives me a break..

Good luck! It is hard to not get much sleep, and to have a little monkey on you all of the time. :o)

Updated

I know what you are going through Momma. I have a 23 month old that stop taking naps at 20 months old. If he did take a nap he would be up most of the night and wanted all kind of attention. You are doing everything right, but sometimes children just don't need naps anymore. You might want to try with the day care not giving him a nap for a day or so and see if he will sleep. Sometimes it is the fact that he is not getting enough play or something, so maybe you might need the daycare to do more play with him. My youngest is a BIG momma's boy too. Like you, I cannot go to the bathroom, and I cannot really do anything with out him wanting to be by me or attached to me. But I have found a few toys that he really likes and that seems to help keep him busy for a little while. You may just have to let him cry it out when he wants to be picked up, as that is what I have done with my Son too. It is hard but I knew that I had to do it. He has learned to keep busy. Another thing that you could try like on the weekends when you are home is if you have nieces or nephews that are a little older to come over for a while so that they can play with him. Just an idea. I have an older boy who is 3 as well, and sometimes they play and that gives me a break..

Good luck! It is hard to not get much sleep, and to have a little monkey on you all of the time. :o)

Have you tried putting him to bed later? I can't remember when any of my children have gone to bed that early. Even my youngest has been going to be between 8 and 8:30 for as long as I can remember and he's 2 1/2 now.

As for the whining, HE IS 15 MONTHS OLD. I am shocked at the people telling you to ignore him and treat him like a small adult! He is just barely one, closer to that than 2 years old. Really? Those are things I'd say to a 3 year old, not one not even HALF that.

While he is not really at an age of reasoning, we do things now that become routine...it is just what they expect so that as they DO reach an age of reasoning, it's just what they have always known. So when he starts to whine, repeat how he should say it. My now 2 1/2 year old tends to get upset and when we call his name to get his attention and help him calm down, he would answer "what". We began saying, "Say yes Mommy/Daddy". We didn't get upset if he didn't. He was a toddler but you know what? At 2 1/2, if he starts to throw a tantrum and we call his name to talk to him and he says "what", all we have to say is "Excuse me?" and he'll automatically say "yes Mommy/Daddy" on his own!

Your little guy is still LITTLE. My 2 1/2 year old STILL has to come and open the shower curtain to see I'm in there or come in when I go to the bathroom. He just needs to see I'm there. Just keep fostering a safe environment for him, shows he likes, toys he really likes, etc. and move away a bit. Or set him up with a favorite show while you go and do dishes and if he comes freaking out because he doesn't see you, reassure him and tell him, Here I am! I'm right here! Maybe he is missing you so much during the day that he just doesn't want to let you out of his sights when he has you. Thinking of it that way, can you imagine how much it would break his heart if you just walked away and ignored him because you didn't like his whining?

Our jobs are to teach our children and help them work through things. Yeah it is going to seem like talking to your cat but again, he's just barely a toddler. Just keep getting eye level, using a calm voice, and telling him to say "juice please" or whatever the situation is in a nice voice. "Show us" works tremendously. You just can't expect a 15 month old to be a little adult. Eventually he WILL begin talking the way you want him to because he will understand what you have been TEACHING him. Please don't just walk away from him and ignore him. :(

My son was closer to 2 before he was talking a lot. I would just ask him to repeat things nicely--if he was whining for juice I would tell him "If you want juice then ask by saying 'Mommy can I have juice, please?'" When he repeated it I gave him the juice. BTW, even at 4 he whines and has tantrums when he is tired. If it is just he is still learning to talk you could try sign language for important things or make a picture board so he can point to the picture of what he wants.

Ok, first off, at the daycare, put a limit on his nap time. 1 hour tops. Then start treating him like a small adult. IF he asks for something in a baby voice, then ignore him until he ask in a better voice, or tell him, if you want this, you need to talk correctly. You will have to start telling him that you can't pick him up all the time, or that he needs to sit and read, and not follow you around. He will do this as long as you allow it. Now he is young, so start out slow, but maybe you can put him in a chair or something for a mini timeout if he won't do what you need.........stop holding him all the time and tell him that he's getting to be a big boy now and you need to do whatever you are doing.
One of these days you will miss this time, but right now, I know how frustrating it is........you can teach him Mommy, just hang in there and tell him if he whines, he doesn't get what he wants. Be firm and stick to your guns!!
Good luck

I am going to present a different point of view than the other responses.

At his age, he needs more than 1 hour nap during the day. Both of our kids (23 months and 3.5) still take a 2 hour nap at day care. Our daughter was just like your son and moved into the toddler room early and moved from napping on demand to one nap/day.

It seems to me that the problem is his bedtime is WAY too early. It may have been OK before, but they go through different phases of sleep. I think it would really correct him being such a Mama's boy, too.

I'm a working mom, too, always have been. So, I completely understand the pressures of devoting so much of yourself in different parts of your life. Have you considered pushing the bedtime back for a week to see if that helps re-establish things (especially with daylight savings)?

We have a lot of expectations of our kids (parents in general). 15 months is still very young. He's probably not able to fully express his needs/desires (both of our kids were closer to 2 before they started talking well enough to understand them). He probably has 2 ways of letting you know what's going on: happy/playful and whiny. There's no way at 15 months he can understand the difference between talking normally and like a baby. But, I agree that speaking to him normally will help tremendously. One thing that really helped us when our kids were whiny was to ask them to "show us" what they wanted. They were usually frustrated that they didn't know how to tell us in a way we understood.

But, you're also getting to the point where they're realizing they're their own person and have independence. Thus, the struggles begin. 3 is worse than 2 by far because they're older/wiser/more manipulative.

When my kids test my patience (happens often), I remind myself that I was given a second chance at being their mom after beating cancer 15 months ago. The only thing I wanted in those 6 months of diagnosis/treatment was to be able to live and be their mom. It usually puts me in the right frame of mind that each minute of each day is a gift, and I need to do a better job of opening my eyes to it.

Good luck.

I would suggest the day care wake him up sooner sounds like too much sleep the whining I would ignore him till he talked in a normal voice. he still gets what he wants but has to quit whining to get it.

I've found that my daughter needs more sleep when she's waking up early and whiny. I have an 18 month old and am expecting my second child in May. We made the transition to toddler bed in preparation for her to go to a twin bed and give the baby her crib. During this transition, I also was trying to get her down to 1 nap/day. We had a similar problem with waking up, she'd wake up between 5-6 am when she normally would wake up between 7-8. I put her down for two nice 1 1/2 hour naps one day and she slept until 9am the next morning. You have to figure out what your child needs...Mine needed MORE sleep, not less. Also, when she sleeps well, she's not as clingy. As far as playing by himself, you might want to try a little parallel play first-you play with one thing while he's playing with another, then slowly just go to watching him play-encouraging him to "do it", then eventually, say, Mommy will be right back and leaving the room for a minute(potty worked best for me). It sounds to me (and I may be wrong) that he needs reassurance that you're still there and around....and when you leave the room, you can just speak to him loudly letting him know that you're there and that he's okay. Just a thought that worked for me. I just realized that you're putting him down by 7...you may want to push that back a little to 7:30 as well. My daughter started going down at 7:30 around his age, and now is out every night by 8.