Sleeping Through the Night

I went through this with my son when he was 14 months old. He didn't need food, just attention. I couldn't bear to let him cry it out. (my parents suggestion) Instead, I would go in and talk to him in a stern voice. I wouldn't pick him up, or touch him when he held out his arms. I would just tell him it's night time and he needs to sleep. It took 3 nights. After he learned I wasn't getting him out of his crib, he stopped crying. He would still wake up in the middle of the night, fuss, babble, and then put himself back down again.
GOOD LUCK!

She doesn't need to eat, it has become a habit. She is old enough to go on through the night. By continuing to feed her she may not break this habit easily. Make sure she goes to sleep with a full tummy. It could be a growth spurt too which causes them to be hungrier more often. Does she go back to sleep after eating?

It sounds to me like a growth spurt. These only last a couple of days and should pass, if it is lasting longer, it may have been developmental and now, unfortunately, you have a bad habit. I would make sure she is eating well during the day and let her work it out at night. She will soon understand it is sleep time. Good luck!

A.

She doesn't need food at night at this age and giving it to her will just set up a bad habit. Trust me since my son got worse and worse and ended up wanting to eat every 45 minutes at one point meaning I was his pacifier and he started having trouble falling asleep without eating. Not fun. I was so against the crying it out method for ME (no judgments on others using it) and tried everything. If you want another solution I highly recommend "The Baby Whisperer" at the library by Tracey Hogg. There are two so get the one that says something like "solves all your problems." She breaks it out to age groups so you can skip to that part but does a pick-up put-down method that helped my son tremendously! She says it's fool-proof but at 13 months it could take up to 3-12 days to be complete. My son was so stubborn and had gotten so bad that I finally had enough and had to let him cry it out because he was 13-14 months by then and old enough to know what's going on and not be traumatized and it worked GREAT! But I do love the Baby Whisperer approach if you don't like crying it out that improved him a lot and his naps and worked great for my first son who started sleeping 12 hours straight and weaned himself from eating at night at 7 months when I started it and still sleeps great and takes a 2-3 hour nap also at age 4! Hope this helps.

If she is normal weight, you know she does not NEED the night time feeding. It is more of a habit and a soothing thing, than a nutritional thing. Does she use a pacifier? Offer her that instead of a bottle/sippy cup during the night.

I declared war with my second child when he was 9 months (and 75 procentile weight) It took him only 2 nights of crying for about an hour before he understood there would be no more nighttime feedings.

He has been a happy sleeper since.

She's not hungry... eating is just comforting. Give you daughter a few minutes on her own to try and fall back asleep and, if you're opposed to crying it out, go in to comfort and soothe her, but don't feed her, don't pick her up and don't be any fun at all... no smiles, no talking, no eye contact if you can. Just soothe her back to sleep. Give it a few days and night waking should be gone. =)

J.-
My son is 5 months tomorrow and I was so frustrated with him waking up all the time...I couldn't do the crying it out because he wouldn't do it for ten minutes, he would do it for hours on end...well I thought of my own way. I put him in a dark room...no lights, AT ALL...and he slept alllllll the way through. but he still does wake up at 11pm to feed one last time and then he's down until 7 am sometimes 8...it worked like a charm. Sometimes, baby just need dark because with light they'll open their eyes and see it and think it's time to get up...give it a try!
~S.

My now two year old took a long time to sleep through the night. As I look back on it I think it was a little of me giving in and a little of his own habits of eating often. I agree with the last response, it could be a growth spurt... however if it has lasted more than a couple days I would say you don't have to worry about her being hungry. It is more than likely a habit. What worked for me with my little boy was to feed him right before bed making sure his tummy was full. Then if he did wake up and cried for a few minutes without going back to sleep, there were a few options I had, one- go in to him rub his tummy, sing to him, hug him and calm him down (your choice whether you pick her up or not, sometimes not picking them up helps them realize they just need to go back to sleep). snuggle him back up and then leave the room, see if he calms down again and goes back to sleep. I always tried to give him a few minutes to get calmed down again as he would cry when I put him back in bed. Option two- because the baby wanted milk from me sometimes it would be upsetting I was holding him and not feeding him so I would have my husband do the routine of calming him down and putting him back to bed.
What worked best for us is to go in sing to him touch him but not to pick him up and not to feed him. Usually singing and rubbing his back or tummy calmed him down. Sometimes you may have to go in for a few minutes, give them like 10-15 min or however long you can stand it and then go back in again...etc... after about two or three nights by boy was sleeping through the night.
One thing that made it so hard for me in the moment was worrying he was hungry and I was refusing to feed him when he was hungry. However when I did just stick to the idea of him sleeping through the night after a couple nights and he was sleeping all the way through the night I realized it was just a habit and all that worrying only made things last longer because I was giving in. So although it is hard as a mom sometimes... be strong! :) Good luck!

My daughter is 15 mons. When she was younger we would have the overhead fan or the humidifier on to help her sleep. I think the "white" noise is what helped her stay asleep. She does not use it anymore to fall asleep but, sometimes she will wake too early (5:30am) and i will turn the fan/humididfer on and she will sleep until 7:00-7:30. I usually put her to sleep at 8:00 after she has had a large glass of milk. I have also noticed when she is teething she wakes earlier. Good Luck!

Like they've said before, could be a growth spurt, it could be a habit, but even if it is a growth spurt she can just eat more during the day. I would suggest to even give her a bottle with water instead of milk, sometimes that's helpful, since water doesn't really fill their tummies, she might just think if this is all I'm gonna get, then might as well sleep. That's what happened with my second child, it totally worked! Also you can try letting her cry it out, or just let her cry for 5 min. and then go in might also work, that happened with my first child! Just know all kids are different, so you have to do what works for you. Letting my boy cry it out really worked for him, but it doesn't with my girls, they need to be comforted, and then they're ok. (I have 3 kids, 5,3 and 7 months).