my 9 month old son will not go to sleep by his self day or night, I have to rock him and then he never stays asleep for more than 3-4 hours a night. He doesnt want a feed in the night, he just gets annoyed and cries for sum reason. I've tried giving him half a tea spoon of hot chocolate in his milk before he goes bed, that always worked with me, and also I've tried the just leaving him to cry for a few minutes technique but that doesnt work, hes got a bad temper. I dont know what else to do
Some kids are just more difficult than others, born with more difficult temperaments...
Sleepless infants
Infants who don't get enough sleep or sleep poorly are often characterized by difficult temperament and as highly stressful to their parents. Babies may suffer from their poor sleep quality and from the adverse responses of their exhausted and inpatient parents.
Contrary to a widely held belief, if not treated, more than 50% of the babies who suffer from sleep problems continue to suffer from sleep problems when they grow up to the preschool and school age periods. Many studies show that parents can improve their infants' sleep quite rapidly and significantly with the help of professionals or information they obtain from parenting magazines or books on infant sleep. It has been shown that parents can benefit from learning about infant sleep when they are expecting a baby and later prevent the occurrence of sleep problems from the early days of their baby's life.
Prevalent sleep problems It is estimated that 20-30% of the children suffer from common sleep problems in the first 3 years of life.
Night-wakings - The most prevalent complaint. The baby wakes up many times during the night for short or extended periods.
Difficulty falling asleep - The baby requires long and often highly demanding rituals to fall asleep.
Inappropriate sleep schedule - the child falls asleep at inappropriate hours and cannot sleep during more appropriate hours of the night.
Nightmares - the child wakes up frightened but responds quickly to the parents and calm down with their help.
Night terrors - the child wakes up in a terrible scream, appears terrorized with eyes open or close and does not seem to respond to the parents or even resists their intervention.
Fierce rocking and head banging - the child uses body rocking and head banging in the transition to sleep or during the night.
Breathing problems during sleep - the child has repeated breathing cessations or difficulties during sleep. A non-prevalent event but a very prevalent concern of parents during the first year of the baby's life is the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome which relates to the occurrence of infant death during sleep without any explainable cause.
Developing Good Sleep Habits
Help your baby to learn to distinguish between daytime and nighttime hours. This can be achieved by keeping your child's room dark and quiet at night, and refraining from involving the child in social activity at inappropriate hours.
Create a ritual or permanent pattern of behavior before bedtime. This can include bathing, feeding, a story or music and other calming behaviors or ideas about "quality time."
Try to end all social rituals, pampering and feeding before the baby is put into her crib to go to sleep. Encourage your child to fall asleep in his/her crib from a wakeful state even when it involves a brief "protest."
Try to learn to identify your baby's symptoms of tiredness and respond appropriately to her sleepiness signs and rhythms. Changes in the timing of sleep or other considerations can be made gradually and at a very slow pace, and not during drastic and short interventions.
Refrain from exaggerated and quick reactions to light crying or other forms of protest during the baby's falling asleep process. In many cases, briefly waiting will end in the baby's falling asleep without help.
If you enjoy communal sleeping with the baby when she's young, do it happily and out of free choice. It is desirable to refrain from developing this pattern as a response to the baby's sleep problems if you don't want it to develop into a rigid pattern that will be hard to change later.
It is very desirable to refrain from giving sweet food and drink during the night. There is no need for parents to purposely wake-up their babies for feedings if the babies are healthy and well-developing. Their sense of hunger will self-regulate their schedule.
The baby's daytime naps do not usually influence her nighttime sleep (other than if they take place late in the evening), and therefore, try not to prevent their occurrence. In most cases, inappropriate prevention of naps would lead to more severe problems at night.
http://www.tau.ac.il/~sadeh/baby/about_sleep.html
I had the same problem. I rocked my daughter to sleep every single nap an d bedtime for 10 months. and I asked teh doctor what to do and she said to let them cry it out and they will get used to it.
if you want maybe you can try it out with naps during the day only for now untill you both get used to it.
but my daughter.slept in our room in a playpin next ot our bed up untill 10 months and she woke up constantly and had to be rocked to sleep everytime.
so what I did was put her in her crib in her room so she cant see you and cry for you to get her. I sat with her in her room for a few minutes sang a song put her in her crib with her blankie and closed the door. hte first couple of nights were rough. but you have to let them know that you ARE NOT going to get them that they have to sleep in there and go to sleep by themselves. and they WILL stop . just dont give in. be. strong.
I did this and she cried really loud for about 15 min. and crashed out. your baby may cry for a while but he will get tired and he will go to sleep I know its hard but trust me it works. and its sooo much easier on you. just tell him ok its time to go to sleep good night. and if when you put him down he fusses just say its ok its ok and walk out. let him cry it out. not only will it help his lungs develop he will be extremly tired from the crying and he will sleep better.
now my daughter sleeps in her own room from 9pm to 9 am and she still cried almost everytime I put her in there but never for more than 15 min.
babies may cry for 10 to 60 min. but after a couple nights of this the time will shorten and he will understand that you are not going to get him out.
thats why he is crying because he knows that if he does you will come get him . so show him who is bose. lol
good luck I really hope this helps
I've had the same problem - I bought the book the No Cry Sleep Solution and it was like a lightbulb going off. We started a good bedtime/naptime routine involving bath and reading 2/3 book and I put my 9 month old in his own room. But honestly, it was the naps that did it. I started to make sure he got proper naps during the day, twice a day. I did the research and it's common knowledge that without naps your baby gets overtired and then won't sleep during the night. It sounds counter-intuitive, but I tried it because I was desperate. He gets two naps a day - one 2 hours after he wakes up and another about 2/3 hours after that. He sleeps anywhere from 1-2 hours each nap. Once we had a good nap schedule, he started sleeping much better.
Finally - the time he went to bed was important. I moved his bedtime up to 6pm, which was very hard to do. He wakes up at 6am, very early, BUT he sleeps straight through the night. If I put him to bed later, like at 8pm, he won't sleep through the night and still wakes up at 6am.
I hope this helps!
and no no no you should never sneak off the bed or to anywhere. it only causes your baby worse seperation anxiety. you have to tell him where you are going, when you will be back, and if you want you could also try giving him a special blanket or stuffed animal . or even a shirt that you have worn so it will have your scent on it and he can sleep withit this may help a lot so he feels as if you are nearby. and it will comfort him.
maybe he sees a certain shadow or somthing that might look scary and you might have to get him a night light just to make him feel safe you you could get him a pillow with a disighn that makes him happy or a blanket that he will like a lot to make him happy thats what my mother did to me when I was little because I would do the same that your son does so good luck hope I helped!! :)
Well I use to not let my baby sleep druing the day and if I did it was only for a hour or so. Warm milk always helped my son but my girl was a bit more fussy she use to lay we me till last years she 4 well almost. Yours truly, Demika Ray
well my mom got me a strawberry shortcake nightlight a hello kitty pillow and a care bear blanket when I was little I still have the blanket I cant sleep without it
