I really do not know what to do. This is my second child but I did not have any problems like this with him. My daughter is 13 months old and is very stubborn. She eats table food and she started to nurse less, however she has recently started eating less table food and increased nursing. She absolutely refused a bottle when she was younger even when it was breast milk. She does take a sippy cup now however she refuses cow's milk. I have tried adding Karo syrup, strawberry and chocolate powder, even diluting it with skim milk. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to first, get her to stop nursing; and second, to get her to start drinking milk?

Another big problem I am having with her is that she has had trouble sleeping on and off since she was born. Of course early it was just normal baby behavior. She started sleeping through the night and then she would wake up several times during the night. She went back and forth like this in about week intervals. Now it is MUCH worse. For the last 2 weeks she has woken up around 1-2 am. She stays awake for 2 to 3 hours. She will cry when she first wakes up and then she will start to play. She then starts to cry after 2-3 hours. She does not always want to nurse. She just wants me to hold her and maybe play with her. I have tried to let her cry herself to sleep, but that does not work. I have tried to nurse her as soon as she wakes up hoping that she will not wake up too much and will be able to go back to sleep, again no go. I have tried to leave a sippy cup of water in her crib, tried leaving the sippy cup and a little bowl of Cheerios in case she was hungry, tried leaving toys for her to play with. Still NOTHING works. She is not over sleeping during the day. In fact she will wake up even if she only had one short nap and is extremely tired.
I am at my wits end. I need sleep. Please help. By the way, she still usually wakes up by 8am.

Hi. I have two kids and my first one stopped a bottle at 11 months old and refused to drink milk from then on. I tried the same things, chocolate milk, strawberry, etc. But to no avail. However, he did eat lots of cheese and other dairy products so I didn't get worried about it. The doctor told me as long as they get enough dairy in other ways it's okay.

As for sleeping, I also had that problem. However, now from experience, I do believe that kids form habits and they need to just break them. If you wake up with her or take her out of her crib or feed her, then she'll continue her pattern. With my second child, when she cried, I just let it go. I peeked in so she couldn't see me, made sure she wasn't in any distress, and then let her go. Let her cry until she put herself back to sleep. It takes a few days, but eventually she stopped waking up. A few days of not sleeping is much better than getting up every day for years!! haha!! And your child is 13 months old, so she really doesn't need to be fed in the night. She will be fine. Just let her amuse herself until she falls back to sleep.

I wish you luck!!

quote:

If you wake up with her or take her out of her crib or feed her, then she'll continue her pattern. With my second child, when she cried, I just let it go. I peeked in so she couldn't see me, made sure she wasn't in any distress, and then let her go. Let her cry until she put herself back to sleep. It takes a few days, but eventually she stopped waking up. A few days of not sleeping is much better than getting up every day for years!! haha!! And your child is 13 months old, so she really doesn't need to be fed in the night. She will be fine. Just let her amuse herself until she falls back to sleep.

Yep, this is the way to go. Took a little longer with my 2nd son as I remember, but eventually it does the trick, they need to learn how to comfort themselves.

While I never had the milk problem with my boys, we definitly have the sleep problems covered. My oldest used to only go to sleep if someone was with him...I finally got him to stop and he know at almost 7 will finally go to bed on his own. My middle son will stay awake all night if he could. He stays up talking and playing by himself for hours...I figure at this point if he isn't waking his brothers up and is safe in his room I'm okay with that. The youngest is hard to get to sleep and hard to stay asleep. There has not been a night in three years that he has not woken me up for some reason, even if it's just to say I love you. Eventually they grow out of it as evidenced by my two oldest. Just hang in there and stick to your plan. If it's to leave her in there crying then follow through with that. Let us know how it goes.

The question is how long should you let her cry? I have let her cry up to 30 minutes. At that point she still seams to cry at the same level when she started (ie, does not appear to be slowing down). Her room is next to my son's and I definitely do not want her waking him up.
With my son I had to let him cry himself to sleep at the beginning of the night. That only lasted about 15 minutes and he did not wake up in the middle of the night. As far as checking on her without her seeing I am unable to do that. She stands in the corner of her crib looking at the door when she cries.

I feel like a bad mom when I let her cry for a long time. Does anybody know how long is too long to let a baby cry?

quote:

I feel like a bad mom when I let her cry for a long time. Does anybody know how long is too long to let a baby cry?

i just cant do it. faith starts with a little whimper and if i pick her up or lay my hands on her she often stops.

if i let her cry (total peer pressure from friends and family) she gets all worked up, wide awake, wailing and tears. i've tried twice and just cant do it.

she's only 8 months so i just cant bear the tears. frankly i love that i can turn tears in to smiles by just picking her up. i dont know if i'd feel the same if a spouse or other child was being disturbed though.