need mama advice on eating/sleeping at night?

Question

ahhhh I am so new to parenting and a single mom

My 14 month old sometimes doesnt eat dinner well then he will wake up an hour or two after bed time and I am worried he is hungry. I have already gave him a bottle milk, should I get him up and see if he wants to eat or let him cry so he doesnt devlop bad habits? I hate hearing him upset:(

Answer 1

You need to stop giving him a bottle get him on a sippy cup. You need to make sure he is eating at dinner or right before he goes to sleep. If he wakes up in the middle of the night give him a sippy cup with whole milk or juice and let him go from there I know your not suppose to give a baby a sippy cup to bed but watch him and take it away after he falls asleep works all the time. good luck .

Answer 2

Make sure he doesn't get any food or milk for 2-3 hours before dinner. If he eats a good dinner and still wakes up, give him a bottle, a bottle of water. Maybe leave one in his crib so he can roll over, find it himself and learn to comfort himself without Mom.

So he doesn't eat a good dinner. Wake him up 30 minutes before you go to bed and give him a bottle of milk. After that bottle put him back in bed. Turn on lullaby music or a story CD. Then you go to bed.

I agree that you should not let babies cry, but yours is old enough to throw tantrums, demanding mommy's attention, demanding milk in the bottle, whatever. They may have to cry a little to get used to comforting themselves. They may have to learn that tantrums don't always pan out. You can reset the music if you like, but don't let the baby see you or hear you or there will be a tantrum unlike any other. You want to teach the child that once you put them in bed, they stay there until morning when you take them out.

Above all, NO juice or milk in the crib. If baby falls asleep with that in their mouths, it will rot their teeth. I've seen it happen. Only water in the crib.

Answer 3

By 14 months, he will eat if he is hungry. I would try getting him to eat at dinner but not feed him again after that (other than milk). He needs to know that he should eat when it's time to eat. If he doesn't eat with the rest of the family, and then you feed him hours later because he's hungry, he's developing a bad habit. If you start now, soon he will know that he better eat at dinner time or he will be hungry later on. I know it's hard hearing your baby cry, but I bet that within a week he will start eating better at dinner and be completely satisfied with a bottle later on. Good luck!

Answer 4

Doesn't the 'not eating' drive you crazy???
I have an 18 1/2 month old who will very often skip meals, or take one litte bite. He also is not interested in veggies, so I sneak them in whenever possible. After being concerned here are some pointers my pediatrician gave:

1. Limit his milk in a sippy cup to no more than 20 oz. a day (keep track).
2. Offer balanced meals of a protein, fruit and veggie.
3. Try to only give snacks after he has had a good meal.

I offer my son milk before bed to fill his tummy (though he sometimes wakes at night). If he wakes, he gets cold water in his sippy cup. When he skips dinner, I do offer him a snack before bed as 'one last try". It's just important they know they have to eat 'at meal times' to be fed.

Hope I helped!

Answer 5

He's hungry -feed him!

Unless this is something you truly resent doing he will outgrow it in his own time. Also sleeping through the night at 14 months is pretty good. Only about half of toddlers do at that age.

http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/sleepstudies.html
Armstrong KL, Quinn RA & Dadds MR. The sleep patterns of normal children.
Medical Journal of Australia 1994 Aug 1;161(3):202-6.

Night time settling requires more parental input from 18 months.

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.

Abstract: A longitudinal study of the development of sleep patterns addressed the issue of continuity and change in night waking in the course of the first year. Mothers of 118 infants, who took part in a follow-up study of normal babies, completed a sleep questionnaire at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Regular night waking was a common characteristic throughout the first year:
Baby's age % babies waking at night
3 months 46%
6 months 39%
9 months 58%
12 months 55%

Answer 6

sweetmommy2 is a bit quick to say get him off bottle. Alot of kids have a bottle of milk before bed until they are 2, he is still only 14 months so he should still be on bottles my son is 17 months and he loves his bottles there is nothing wrong with letting them have one!
As for the food I think they go through stages, if you are really worried about him not eating his actual dinner maybe try feeding him something that you know he will enjoy and eat.
As long as you get a bit of food into him at night its ok what ever it is. Of course try him with his dinner first or what I did was try to confuse him by giving him one spoon of fruit then one spoon of dinner and it seemed to work.
Good luck

Answer 7

my daughter would wake up every night til she was one wanting a bottle...little did i know then that they stop needing to eat in the middle of the night somewhere in the range of four months! You should evaluate why he's not eating dinner and maybe cut out an afternoon snack to ensure that he eats. also, he may be just wanting attention from someone in the night when he wakes, and if he's been recieving that, then he'll continue to do this to get it. I dont think its necessarily because he's hungry, because chances are good that at dinner time, he probably ate enough that he should sleep through the night. **also, never give your child a sippy cup to fall asleep with. this makes for messes, and a harder time potty training. just try to comfort him, tell him good night, and walk away. that's not mean...its teaching him to be able to sleep on his own and to not be afraid when he does wake at night.

Answer 8

Why doesn't he eat dinner? Is he snacking too late? He needs to eat when dinner is served. Make sure you offer a variety of foods-something from each food group. Do not feed him in the middle of the night-you are setting yourself up for more problems in the long run-too many problems to list!

Answer 9

Never let your baby cry. They have needs and sometimes they are not on our 'schedules'. His body knows when he needs something. Only cruel people can ignore their baby's needs.