Still not sleeping through the night...advice please!?

Question

My son is 15 months old, and is still not sleeping through the night. I was in the habit of getting up, getting him a bottle of water or milk, but lately, I've been trying to ignore the cries, and seeing if he will go back to sleep on his own....but, he usually doesn't. He cries louder. Is this normal for a 15 month old? And is there ANYTHING I should be doing differently to get him to sleep through the night? He goes to bed at 8:30, and he gets up at 6:30 in the morning, to go to the sitters. So I know to much sleep is not the problem. My sleep is being disturbed nightly, and my patience is wearing thin, I'm at a loss and don't know what else to do!

Answer 1

He will continue to do whatever is reinforced. By bringing him milk or water when he cries, you are reinforcing that crying=milk. He won't stop until you stop. He should have been sleeping all night 6-8 months ago. It's time. It takes up to 2 weeks for a baby to learn a new behavior. If you do the hard thing for a few nights, it will be well worth it in the future. Just keep thinking of the steady 8 hours of sleep that you'll soon be getting!! It will get you through these next 2 weeks.

Answer 2

Well I don't know if it will help, but statistically most babies do not stop requiring parental intervention to get back to sleep until 24 months:

Armstrong KL, Quinn RA & Dadds MR. The sleep patterns of normal children.
Medical Journal of Australia 1994 Aug 1;161(3):202-6.
Frequent night waking that disturbs parents is common from 4-12 months (12.7% disturb their parents 3 or more times every night).
Night time settling requires more parental input from 18 months.
Nearly a third of parents have a significant problem with their child's sleep behavior.
Sleeping through the night: 71.4% did this on at least one occasion by 3 months of age, but many of these relapse into more frequent waking in the 4 to 12 month period. It is not until after 24 months that regular night waking (requiring attention) becomes much less common.

Scher A. A longitudinal study of night waking in the first year.
Child Care Health Dev 1991 Sep-Oct;17(5):295-302.
Baby's age ..% babies waking at night
3 months ................46%
6 months ................39%
9 months ................58%
12 months ..............55%

Answer 3

Leave a bottle in his bed at the head and when he wakes up move the bottle so he can reach it and tell him to 'get the bottle'. After a few nights of this just stand in the door and say 'get the bottle' he will reach for it by himself. He will eventually learn that its already there for him so he will start getting it himself without waking you. Mind you thats still 10 hours of sleep a night, is he still napping during the day?

Answer 4

at 15 months she should be weaned from the bottle... some children just do not sleep through th night my son is 9 and still wakes up at night

Answer 5

my boyfriend slept by way of his very final for his capstone course. It became a presentation that he spent each week on and he took some chilly drugs and did not awaken...he made it to classification 2 minutes in the past it ended yet won an F on it. His A dropped to a C-

Answer 6

Lack of sleep in children can cause serious
health problems.If parents follow some simple
techniques for making their children sleep,
it can be avoided. I found useful information
at http://nosleep.in/sleepchildren.html

Answer 7

Hello,

Do you ever change his diaper?

With my twin girls (13 months) I figured this out when they were 7 months old. So, since they were 7 months old, my hubby and I have been changing their diapers between 12-1AM to keep them dry, happy and willing to sleep.

Hope this helps you..................... : -O