How can i sleep at night?

How can I help my 13 month old sleep through the night?

• My 13 month old son has never been a particularly good sleeper and we are still yet to get a full nights sleep! He is fine at daytime naps, has one in the morning and again in the afternoon. He is put in his cot awake and has a little chat then falls asleep and wakes up after approx 60-90mins very happy. The problem comes at night, his bedtime routine has always been consistent and I have no problems with getting him to bed and sleep at night, the issue us the frequent wakings during the night. Sometimes I will hear him wake up and have a whinge then go back to sleep, other times he will scream the place down but after a few mins (with no intervention from anyone) he will go back to sleep. However, there are times of between 2-4 times a night where nothing will calm him down apart from a bottle. We had night weaned him months ago but sickness led us to starting it again and now we have tried desperately to wean him again but it is not working this time round. I have had nights where I have left him to cry without giving a bottle and he can go on for hours. The longer he is left the more wound up he becomes and can't calm down. The only thing that works is a bottle, after that he is settled in seconds. He is taking 8-9ozs twice a night so must be hungry?? The easy options is just to keep with the bottle and then it only disturbs us all for 15mins a time instead of the hours of endless crying. But, I know this can't carry on but I just don't know what to do! When he is left to cry I go and check on him and comfort him that I am here but it's time to sleep, I never pick him up or fuss over him, but as soon as I go to leave the room he goes absoltely crazy again. This only happens during the night as daytime is fine and bedtime at night is fine. What should I do???

• Answer:

  I'd feed him. If the situation were different, and the crying happened during the day, where he cried and cried and the only thing that soothed him was feeding him, which immediately calmed him down, you'd think he cried because he was hungry, right? The same thing applies even if it's at night instead of during the day. And so sorry to say this but...sometimes you DO have to carry on with this. We are told a complete and utter lie when we become parents: babies should sleep through the night at X months of age. That's baloney. There is not set age when this happens. When kids go through growth spurts, they tend to wake again in the middle of the night to eat. If they are hotter or colder during the night, they burn through calories faster and need food more frequently. And in some studies of hypoglycemia, doctors have realized that not all people can deal with the long fast in the middle of the night, period. Their blood sugar drops too low, and they need food in the middle of the night. This is even more common in children 5 and under, who may be less capable of dealing with low blood sugar in the middle of the night. Makes sense really, when you think about it. It's a stretch of 8 hours or longer without food - we'd never expect them to do it during the day, right? And while most adults can do it at night, it takes a while for this to happen with infants and small children. Even re: liquids rather than food - how often do adults at least want a drink of water in the night because their mouths are dry? The bottle is the only thing that babies have to get the same thing (because they don't do so well with plain water. Kidneys don't process it right in large amounts for a while). One thing that might help with this, if it's nearly every night, is to try and rouse the baby when YOU get up to go to the bathroom, or wake up for another reason. They you were already awake, and you'll not get woken up later when you were trying to sleep, yes?