Seeking Advice My 9 Month Old Still Wakes up During Bedtime.

Try putting a little baby cereal in his bottle before bed time and a warm bath with lavender bath wash before bed really helps. I am a mother of 4 girl. It relly helped me!
Good luck!

Sorry but I deal with this to> I believe some children just have a healthier appt. than others and I also think my children just will not sleep in their crib. There is no consoling them.

B.,

I have been very blessed with a 6 month old who sleeps 10-11 hours at night. She is 22 lb and 27 in, so I know baby hunger. I am a ER RN and about the rotting teeth, that is only if the baby sleeps with the bottle (causing the formula to sit on the teeth. Oralgel also make a baby gum and tooth clenser. My daughter loves to have her gums massaged! That is also part of our night time routine. My daughter eats a #1 fruit/oatmeal in the am, #2 veggie at 5:30pm and a bowl of rice cereal before she goes to bed. In the mean time, she drinks bottles. This works very well for us! She stays full throughout the night. I try and keep a very tight schedule/routine with her and that helps a lot! Our bedtime routine was me cereal, bottle and rock to sleep. I would lay her down when she was completely asleep and my doctor said that I have to lay her down when she is groggy so she can put herself to sleep. I completely understand, but that is our time I told her. She said still do your routine, just put her down early. (I agree when she told me if I didnt, I would be rocking a 4 year old to sleep). When I laid her down groggy, she woke right up and cried and cried the first two nights. My husband couldnt take it, but now, she is so good! She does it all by herself. The 2nd night was almost an hour of crying. The hardest part is letting them cry, but it will not get better if they dont learn. By the time a baby reached 11 lb they can sleep through the night, or aleast 6-8 hours. I am assuming your baby is bigger then that. If he continues to cry, check on him and make sure he is not cought in anything, other wise you know he is fine. Not hunry or wet.... I just rubbed my daughters head and talked to her. I also put soft music on in the backround and that really worked. Its all about comfort, I felt like I was deserting her, but she was fine I came to find out! I hope this helped.

We heard from someone else to try a little rice cereal in the bedtime bottle, it worked for us. Of course you have to make sure its not too thick and that the baby burps before being put to bed. I used to watch the 9 pm news while rocking my son and once he was done I 'd carry him off to bed while trying to burp him, some nights if he didn't burp he'd have a good barf. It took a few barfs to remember to remedy that, he is now 2 and still drinks his bedtime bottle with rice cereal only now he can sit up and drink it by himself.

B.,
Hello I am a mother to four girls, and with all of them had to address this problem. When the doctors say don't put them to bed with formula they mean don't lay them down with the bottle. You diffentaly want to let them eat prior to putting them in bed. When my girls were nine months old I was giving them either rice or oatmeal cerial before bed. I always mixed it with a little fruit to add flavor. The cerial has a lot more substance to it and it helps them sleep better at night.
I hope this helps a little.

Thanks,
A.

When my son was born and because I had a hard time getting him to latch on for breastfeeding we switched to formula, then he became collicky. Waking up at all ours of the night, I tried putting teaspoon of baby ceral mixed with the formula, still wasn't helping. Then comes my mom to the rescue. She made this tea and added a little sugar not much. I started giving him the tea before bedtime and he started sleeping longer through the night. The tea my made was chamamille tea (spanish Te de manzanilla).It worked wonders for us. If your interested in this let me know and I can show you how to make it. B.

If your baby is hungry when he wakes in the middle of the night then he may be ready for some cereal. It worked with my girls. They were needing more substance in their diet. I do not believe I would ignore a crying baby before the age of at least one.

Every baby is different and I am sure there are all kinds of ways to get your child to sleep through the night.

My son did not fully sleep through the night until he was 3 years old. Even though I stopped feeding him, he would still wake up. Sometimes he would fuss and go right back to sleep. Other times he would cry for a while and then I would go and comfort him and he'd fall back to sleep.

If he wakes up and he's hungry, then feed him. Definitley wait a few minutes, but if he's crying more than 10 minutes I would go and rub his back or talk softly to him. You don't need to pick him up, but maybe just letting him know you are there will help him get back to sleep. He will grow out of it eventually, just hang in there!

I don't know if your son spits up a lot. My son was going through the same thing and I found out that he had reflux. He would not always spit up but babies with reflux will wake for a drink to sooth the burning feeling of the reflux. You might have to go to a GI doc to determine if this might be a factor in his inability to stay asleep.

Try feeding him cereal or baby food before bedtime...then brush his teeth :)

My son would wake up in the middle of the night too. My doctor said it was a habit as well. As a mom, I couldn't ignore the crying, so I would let my son cry it out for 5 min., then go to his crib & soothe him until he calmed down & then leave. If he started crying again, I gave him 10 or 15 mins. to cry, then go in and soothe him again. If he still cried again, I'd give him 20 mins. to cry & go in and soothe him (rub his back). It's amazing but after a few nights of this, my son didn't wake up. He now sleeps through the night. Good Luck!

Mandy D hit it right on the nail....this is called the Ferber Method. Dr. Ferber is an expert on sleepless children and has written several books on how to get your child to sleep.

I did exactly what Mandy D did to her little one after I read his book and IT WORKED!!

It only took a couple of days and my kiddo was sleeping through the night.

Good luck!

I would check with another doctor to see what they would say about that sorry i couldn't help more S.

When my 3 year old was an infant she woke up all the time, every night. I tried everything. Giving her a warm bath and then a whole body massage to relax her and letting her sleep with something silky. Nothing worked so I was very concerned because it was the time she should be sleeping all night. Took her to the Pedi and he suggested a sleep study( she was 9months) Come to find out she had restless leg syndrome(and I also thought she was hungry) and this caused her to wake up. Becuase there is no cure for this at a young age the only way I could put her back to sleep was just giving her a bottle, or I'd nurse her. I hope your situation is diffrent because this was not fun for me, and she finally started sleeping thru the night after she turned 2. Good Luck

1. If you haven't already, introduce him to cereal.
2. When he starts to cry, wait 5 minutes. Then go to him but DON'T turn on the lights or pick him up! Pat him gently, quietly soothe him, and then leave. If he starts crying again, wait 5 minutes and repeat. Gradually lengthen the time you wait. He may simply need to learn how to put himself back to sleep. My daughter did this until she was 6 months old, and I read this system somewhere. It worked for her.

If he takes the bottle to bed it will rot his teeth, but he is obviously hungry. I always fed my son formula before he went to bed, I just didn't leave the bottle in his crib. I held him and fed him with some cereal mixed in with the formula when he woke in the middle of the night.It is hard to ignore their cries. Maybe they might need a diaper change or they're hungry, so I always got up when my kids cried. I hope this helps.

i would try feeding him right before bed it sounds if he is not geting fool from his milk,try that for a few weeks if that dont help then get a nother doctor to look at him.good luck

have you started to feed your son yet? when my son was little he could never get enough to eat so one night at his last bottle( or the bottle i gave him to go to sleep) i also fed him a little oatmeal. he slept all night.it seemed to fill him up for the night.I was the one waking up to check on him because he was sleeping so long(for him)hope it helps good luck.

I HATEEEEEE it when doctors do that!!!!!!!!! Your little boy is only 9 months!!!!!! There are a TON of babies twice his age that don't sleep through the night! You know your baby, NOT the doctor. If you want to feed him(because he's hungry and it's your job) DO IT!!!!!!! Sorry, but there are VERY few good pediatricians in this world, and it really makes me mad when a stupid one convinces a mother to ignore her motherly instincts and listen to them instead. There is a reason we have such strong urges to take care of our children, and when we ignore that our children and our relationships with them suffer. Please listen to yourself!!!! You know you don't want to hear him crying. I really doubt he is waking out of habit. A lot of babies really need human touch at night too. Sorry I had to vent, but I hope you don't take your doctors word as the gospel. :) He will sleep when he sleeps.

give your son rice cereal or oatmeal at beadtime instead of the milk or water. mix it with his formula or breastmilk, whichever you normally use...that should fill his tummy enough that he won't wake up hungry in the night...

as for the doctor telling you that milk before bed will rot your son's teeth... you have a 12 yo...are her teeth rotted? if you are worried about it, you can continue to give him the milk or the cereal I suggest but get a baby toothbrush and gently clean his teeth before putting him down (do not use tooth paste at this age).

Good Luck!

Hi B.,

My little girl did the same thing, and I just think different kids have different sleeping habits. I was not the "let them cry it out" mom. I just felt like if she had a need, I wanted to fill it while she's a baby, whether she lost her pacifier, had no blankets on, had a bad dream or seemed to be hungry. She started sleeping through the night about 13 months old. Don't let that scare you, your little boy might start sleeping through the night any day. But, I can tell you that she's now the easiest baby to get to sleep. We read her a book after her bath around 7, she points to the crib, we put her in, and she sleeps soundly until 7:30 or 8am. I think it made her feel comfortable and confident to have mom and dad pay attention to her needs and respond so, that now, as an 18 month old, she doesn't have hang ups about sleeping.

We did formula, then later, at 12 months whole milk before our daughter went to bed, and aroun 14 months, we stopped the bottle altogether replacing it with a sippee cup and a week later, nothing. So, I really don't think that's an issue at all.

Hope this helps!

My son did that as well. My Dr said that teeth rotting will only occur if you put a bottle in the bed with them and the milk is not swallowed. Water has no nutritional value and does not help the hunger. Giving an 8oz bottle of formula before bed according to my Dr is not a problem. When my son would wake up we would wait at least 15 min before going into the room. He got to where he would just go back to sleep. If not then try patting his back, if that does not work then try only rocking. Giving more milk should only be used as a last resort because their bodies get used to getting more food in the middle of the night. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Hang in there... I too have a nine month old who just recently (and I mean within the last week) started sleeping thru the night. I nurse, so he was waking up once to nurse and another time to pacify. He now wakes around 5:30am (I nurse him and put him back to bed)- so really he is sleeping through the night - 7:30pm-5:30am. As for the waking up at 1 am- we feed Lucas solids right before bed, I nurse him, then put him down (STILL AWAKE) in his crib (and yes, he cries for about 10 minutes). I had the same issue with my 3 year old daughter - I've read to always put them to bed awake and this has helped with them not waking around 1am-2am. Maybe give it a try if you haven't already. Good luck - I feel your tired pain :) Take care,

Vicki

There really is an easy solution to this problem.. when your son wakes DO NOT pick him up, however do have a sippy cup ready. Give him a drink of juice or water and lay him back down, but do not pick him up. Soon you will be able to sleep through the night. He has gotten into a habit.. it is not that he is hungry per say it is because "MOM or DAD" comes when he wakes crying and I would think you probably pick him up to settle him. So leave him in his bed pat his back a few minutes after he has drank some water and honestly this should pass.

Hi B., my son was the same way, hungry all the time, does your baby eat anything other than formula, like baby food, or cereal, even mashed potatoes and a lil white gravy made my son so happy... lol... I started giving him one of those feeders with baby cereal, he was sleeping better through the night, and not long after I was feeding him good during the day, he was a better sleeper... I hope this helps...