How Do I Get My 1 Year Old to Stop Eating in the Middle of the Night?

I always gave mine a snack and small amount of water before bed, brush teeth, book, bed. Worked for me!

I so feel your pain. We just got our 18 mos old daughter to sleep through the night and we have a 3-1/2 yr old son. After a certain point, we had to realize that she really didn't need to eat during the night and she just had very bad sleep habits ... and in our very very very tired stupor, we were doing whatever it took to get her back to bed and not wake up our other child. After awhile, it became clear that this wasn't good for anyone, no one was getting good sleep. A friend of mine loaned me the book "Sleeping Through The Night". I was not / am not a 'let your kid scream til they puke' kind of Mom at all. But this book really really helped us. We kept assuming that she would just start sleeping through the night one day ... this book helped us realize that we were contributing to her bad sleep habits. We both read the book, switched the kids rooms so our son was in our room and she was in his room (in a crib by herself), followed the book to the letter, and even though she screamed for 1-1/2 hrs straight the first night (w/occasional visits from me to tell her it was bed time, etc.), she then slept through the night for the first time ever. Second night she cried for 10 mins, then slept through the night. And with very few blips since, she has continued to sleep through the night. I can't stress enough how strong willed she is. We are amazed it worked! We made sure we discussed it with our son first -- told him that his sister was going to be very sad at bed time and he shouldn't be scared and we would be right downstairs if he needed us. Because he knew what to expect, he did really really well. I can't emphasize enough how a few nights of bedtime crying / new routine / etc. is completely worth it in the long run. Again, I recommend this specific book ("Sleeping Through The Night") and the most important thing is to be consistent. I also used to let my daughter randomly cry it out some nights and it always backfired. The book makes a lot of sense and you just need to be ready to follow what they say and, above all, be consistent. Good luck!

provide a bottle or cup of water. Is he really hungry or does he just need comfroting? If he is indeed hungry perhaps you will need to increase his calorie intake. or provide a light snak before bedtime. You will need to check with your pediatrician about this. Are there other issues such as night teroors occuring?

Is she eating solids? What time does she go to bed? Have you tried to wean her off the bottle? My only suggestion is to feed her right before she goes to bed or have your 3 year old stay with family for a weekend and let your youngest cry it out. Good luck!!

It looks like you've gotten a lot of good suggestions. We had the same problem with our girls. If all else fails, give "crying it out" a chance. I know it seems awful at the time, but it took us only a night or two. Those one or two nights of the rest of the house having to hear it were SO worth the restful nights of sleep that followed.

I got an inexpensive "sound machine" from Target and put one in each of my kids' rooms. The 3YO slept through the middle of night wake-ups. When the 1YO would wake, I'd rock him back to sleep but NOT feed him. He fussed for about a week in my arms (certainly not as loud) until going back to sleep. Sleeps right through now (18m). I can't say enough about those sound machines...worth EVERY PENNY in our house! They're now part of the sleep ritual--ours can either plug or use batteries so we take them with us when we travel...

if you know that the one year old is ONLY waking up for food, or drink than maybe its because.. he or she isnt getting enough of it during the day time hours? try to feed them a little more maybe with snacks, or just before bed time? but definatly at one years of age they should be sleeping through the night without hunger problems.
they are old enough at that age as well to understand the word no. try to comfort him or her instead of offering food. ?maybe its a dream or diaper change they need? i knwo what you mean tho about waking up the whole house! i have two little ones and its pretty hard to keep everyone happy

My ped. always went against feeding in the middle of the night. he said once you start doing that it's hard to get the child back on a normal sleeping schedule. He suggested letting him cry it out. Even though this was heart wrenching it did work and took about 3 or 4 days to get back on his normal sleeping schedule.

We started on the Dr Jay Gordon sleep plan right before Christmas to wean my son from night feedings. My son can now go 6 to 7 hours w/out milk. He too use to wake up 2 or 3 times a night. My son was 13 months when we did this plan. Here is a link to it:
http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/ap/sleep.asp

She will cry some but on this plan you never leave her side. We cosleep and even if you do not cosleep, i'm sure you can modify this plan to suit your needs. Good Luck and let me know if you need anything else!
C.

Is this something new? If so it could just be a growth spurt.

Have you tried having a snack right before bed?

My boys would sometimes have bad dreams and then wake up and want to eat, because well, they were up. The bad dream stage passed for us in a couple of weeks.

I hope that this was helpful. L.

I can relate I am a 33yo Full time working mother with a 4yr old and a 1yr old. My 1 year old had never slept through the night up until last week. I had finally hit my sleep deprevation limit and we made the call to do our best to end the night waking. First I gave him back his pacifier, so at the 2am wake time instead of a bottle I would give him his pacifier hold him for about a min and then put him back in the crib. He would scream for anywhere from 1- 1.5 hours but after about 3 days he stopped waking. Then I needed to break him from the 5am feeding. So I did the same thing I did at 2 am. Give him the pacifier, hold him and them put him back down. This took about 3 days too. And then a revelation came to me. Once he turned 1 (1/20) I stopped giving him milk or formula. (he has serious belly issues) Since I stopped giving him any milk or soy beverages he has slept 11-12 hours plus naps. It is a miricale. The Dr. Told me to give him cheese and yogurt for the calcium and vitamins for the vitamin D. So I am. I have to say he has slept 7 nights in a row now!!!! That has never happened ever! It is 7am right now and he is still asleep! Really it was a few weeks of hell, my husband used ear plugs, but it has paid off.
Good luck! -E.

Hi C.,

You might want to try giving her a bottle of water instead of a feeding. Especially, if you know she is getting plenty of calories during the day. Give her the last feeding before bed and then if she wakes give her water instead of milk. She should start to feel it is not worth waking for. Also, she might like knowing that she not only gets a bottle but you too. So if might be a bit of both.