10 month old and sleep routine gone to pot!

Submitted by AnitaP on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 11:14

Hi

My son has just turned 10 months old - never a great sleeper but when younger we did PUPD and then at about 8 months we did a gradual retreat method. It seemed to work fine - for 2 weeks he slept through from 7.30pm - 6.00am and had proper naps at 9.30am and 2.00pm for approximately 90 minutes each.

10 days ago he got a bad cold and, although not totally better, he is now unable to fall asleep on his own. When we thought he was poorly we made the mistake of holding/feeding to sleep and last night when he woke at 2.30am I tried the shushing and patting, standing next to cot for about an hour but as soon as I left the room he started to cry. In the end I put him in our bed, hubby went to the next room and son went to sleep at 4.30am! I am at my wits end - should we wait until totally cold free before trying any other sleep technique? Do we need to keep up with some form of technique as otherwise will it be very difficult to get him back to a proper routine? Could it be separation anxiety as when I am holding him he does calm down but gets agitated again if I stand up as he seems to know that I will try and put him back into cot?

I do not want to keep putting him in our bed as I think that we will then be totally back to step one as it was hard at the beginning to get him to like his room but now he plays in it happily.

Usual bedtime routine starts at 6.15pm - bath, downstairs for fruit pudding and milk, back up to room, music time and gentle play, into sleeping bag and five minute cuddle with me and same 2 lullabies that I have sang to him since day one. We used to be able to put him down at 7.15-7.30 and he would grumble for about 1 minute and then turn over onto tummy and go to sleep - those are the days I need to get back to for my sanity!!

Thank you very much

‹ Fussy twins Waking up in the middle of the night to play?? ›

Hello,Illness does tend to

Submitted by Juliet on Thu, 07/12/2012 - 22:03.

Hello,

Illness does tend to set back sleep particularily if children do find sleep difficult to begin with. You have done well with the GR getting hm to sleep all night so there is no reason why he can't do it again.

Once the acute phase of the cold has passed you are fine to start sleep training again. He could be suffering from separation anxiety but GR is a lovely gentle technique ideal if he is.

You are right about not taking him into your bed as this does reward the waking. Best to start with the bedtime routine. What I would recommend is a slight change to your bedtime routine. Once you have given him the bath not to go back downstairs for food. It is better to stay in the bathroom , bedroom area so you do not lose the focus for going to bed and confuse your baby. For example your routine could be : fruit pudding,quiet time, bath time, dry and massage,dress, lullabies and into cot. Then you could do patting until he falls asleep. If he resists what you are doing leave the room for around 10 seconds - come back in and continue with patting using room leaving as necessary. Once he settle down continue until he has been asleep for 10 minutes.

Then do exactly the same in the night - consistency is the key to success. Then every 3 days move on with your GR until you are back to where you were before he got ill.

Hope that helps and let us know how you get on.

Knd Regards

Juliet