5 month old throws a fit at bedtime?

Question

I have a 5 month old little girl and for the most part she is a pretty happy baby. However, every night shortly after her last bottle when she starts to get sleepy she has an hour long crying fit. She is totally inconsolable during this time. I'm thinking she knows its bedtime and she just doesnt want to be away from mommy and go to sleep.

I was curious if anyone else has had this problem and how they handled it, and if this is a normal phase for her to go through?

Answer 1

You know what I thought I was the only person in the world going through that! My now almost one year old has been doing that since she was 3 mos old. The docs all told me it was colic, but what 12 mos old do you know that is going through colic still!! My suggestion since you are using a bottle is give it to her with some water in it to help her calm herself. Make sure that you are giving her enough "down" time before bed, IE read her some books, sing to her, rock her a bit. I know I was told all the time that you have to let them fall asleep on their own, but for now during this point in her life she may also going through seperation anxiety, the best way to nip that is to allow her to doze in your arms and try this for the first few nights about 30min to and hour before her normal cranky time! Another thing that may be going on is she may be a bit scared of the dark, or something else is bothering her, I know it is hard to deal with a screaming little one and it is hard not to feel guilty about it but let her cry it out a bit on her own if you want, sooner or later she will fall out and you can continue on with your evening as you normally would if she were quiet, just do not go back in and "play" or "talk" to her, as she will begin to feel like it is a game and she will win you out! Good Luck and hope this helps you out some!!! Have a great day/Night.

Answer 2

Not too unusual. She may just need to have this fit in order to get that last surge of energy out in order to sleep. Pretty common for active babies.

But if the routine is not working, then try changing it. If you have a partner, or relative who lives in the home, how about they try feeding the last bottle to her and putting her down?

Also, you could try other changes in her routine -- bath then bottle. Or play time on her tummy then bath then bottle. Or bottle, then bath, then bed. Try letting her have more activity just before you put her down, since that's what she is doing anyway.

Or, trying rocking her to sleep.

All of these are viable options, and all are alternatives to letting her cry for an hour!

Hope one of these works for you! (And her!)

Answer 3

Be glad she does it then, and not at 2 AM!
Do you have a night time ritual? Bath, story, bottle, bed?
Sometimes the ritual or rocking may help calm her down.
Make sure she is listening to calm, normal noises, [ no loud rock, screaming zombie video games, etc. ] and getting attention - she will outgrow it if you are consistent.