When Do Babies Start Sleeping All Night

All babies are different, but we used some of the methods found in On Becoming Baby Wise and found it to be extremely helpful. Never really got into the crying to sleep part, but I think the scheduling was really helpful.

I was always told that a baby would start sleeping through the night at 12 lbs. My son was 4 months and my daughter was 4 weeks (and 11 lbs). So, I believe it depends on the baby. The idea of elevating the head of her bed is a good one. My friend's baby with GERD had to sleep like that. A pillow or a rolled blanket under the mattress should work.
Good luck!

my daughter is 6 months old... at 4 months she started sleep[ all night long... what a blessing!!! but all babies are different... some don't sleep through the night until their terrible two's! some parents get lucky and have a new born that sleeps all night long... I have found that if I keep Jaidyn on a set schedule and do NOT deviate from that schedule, she will sleep through the night for me... it's the days that we don't get that last nap in or a nap at all for that matter that she will have problems all through the night... so, try to keep her on a routine of some sorts and sooner or later your precious little one will give you the greatest gift of all... SLEEP! =)

H. K

It depends on the baby. It also depends on whether mom & dad wake the baby during the night every 2-3 hours during the first 8-12 weeks. I personally think that is insane, because a few short months later you have to break them of the habit which is a misery for mom, dad, & baby. As they grow and gain weight, they will sleep longer and longer, in between waking up, crying and letting mom & dad know they are hungry. Also, make sure they are comfortable, and do not bundle them in blakets and warm PJ's any more that what you would be comfortable in as they will get too hot, and wake up. Other than that.....I will have to say some babies just sleep longer than others, i.e. my nephew who is about to be 2....he has yet to sleep through the night, and he is not much of a napper. If you have checked & tried everything you know to do......it may just be that your baby is a night owl. Good Luck to you, and all new moms (I have 3 children, and am enjoying 85% of my nights to myself now)
P.S. My oldest is a teenager, and I believe that is truly when they start sleeping through the night.
e l gunn

As mentioned already, babies can begin sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old -- read BabyWise (and BabyWise II for other helpful advice). However, since this baby has health problems, she may not be able to follow the routine laid out in BabyWise. Check with the doctor about that.

Hi,
It's too early to expect any kind of schedule before about 5 months old. After that, it all depends on the child. Some are good sleepers and sleep all night early and some are not. It's very common for them to not sleep all night until around a year old.. I really love the book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Weisbluth. It talks about all kinds of sleep problems even in older kids without trying to lock you into one way to fix them (ie "cry it out").

I have an EXCELLENT tool for you. Cost is $19.99. Homemedics or Conair sound machine. Usually there are 6-8 sounds to choose from. White noise or ocean waves works best for our babies. The Homemedics brand has a timer. I don't think the Conair brand does. A friend suggested this to us and it works UNBELIEVABLY WELL! Good luck and bless you in your endeavor. (We foster/adopt babies)

I used the advice from the book "Baby Wise" and my first daughter and she slept through thte night from 6 weeks old. I believed the "nay-sayer" with my 2nd child and didn't do the "Baby Wise" book. They told me that my first child would have seperation issues, and many other personality defects because of what I did.

Now my girls are 8 and 10. They are perfectly well adjusted and know that their parents love them. My first child can go to sleep anywhere I tell her to sleep and my 2nd one stil needs to be rocked to sleep and she didn't sleep through the night until she was about 5.

I say it's better to do the techniques from "Baby Wise" and get it over with than to drag it out and make both of you miserable over the years.

Does that help?

My angel also had GERD. I was told she would sleep at 12lbs, then at 6mo, and so on. Well after 12 1/2 months of age she now sleeps though the night. She had to outgrow some of the GERD, start eating more to have a full belly and then she slept. Ask you pediatrician about adding Oatmeal Cereal to her bottle as she is now 4mo and this will help keep her from waking in the night out of hunger ... it also thinkens the bottles and therefor this is likely to sit better on her tummy and come up less. don't let her overeat at meals because this will also come up... Do not use Rice cereal as this increase constipation in babies ans will cause you worse sleep. You also want to use mylicon at every feeding to keep down belly gas that can decreae her appetite and cause pain. Elevate her head when she sleeps. Keep her upright for 30 mins after every feeding. See about medications that my help... we went through plenty. Burp well after every feeding. And if your little one is like minie then she eats often and only small amounts... i was burping her every 2oz and it helped as she just had so much air in her... at 13 months we finally take 6-8oz without stoping and can eat approx 36-48oz a day with small meals in between.. as compared to days of only being able to get 18 oz in her... she unfortunately learned aversion and it took sometime to break. I know what you are going through and I sympathize greatly as I had never needed sleep so much in my life until my little one arrivied. I hope you get some sleep sooner than me. And see the specialist it will help some. Best of luck with yoiur newest little blessing.

My daughter who is 5 now had acid reflux when she was a baby, so I know what you are going thru. Try letting her lie down with a wedge under her, so she is at a tilt, my daughter seemed to do alot better with her sleep once we done that. You might also ask her pediatrician about putting her on some medication.

My Children did not sleep all night until they were a year old. but would only get up once a night after they where six months old. You might try seeing if there is a family member that she can spend the night with one night to let you sleep, or them come to the house and get up with her. My mother would do that for me so that I could get some sleep.

My children started sleeping through the night around 8 and 9 weeks old. I considered it sleeping through the night when they slept for more than 7 hours at night. I Strongly recommend the book On Becoming Baby Wise. It is a short read and walks you through a consistent routine with eating, play and sleep for a newborn through 1 year old. I know several people who used this book as a guide to their baby's routine and their children too started sleeping through the night around 2 months old. Routine is extremely important for babies. Since I have no experience with Gerd I am not sure how this would affect a baby's sleep so forgive my ignorance. Good luck with all the challenges you now have. You must be an awesome grandmother (and mother)!

Hi R.
All babies are different. I have 3 kids, now 14, 13 and 12. I don't remember which got up during the night, but most nights I was up... I started to sleep all night long (meaning none of my kids would get up during the night) when my baby girl turned 3 years old. I know there's a lot of literature around telling you to let the kids cry until they fall asleep and then it'll be ok, But mind you , 9 out of 10 times I went to see what was happening, the kids needed my attention... they were cold, they were hot, they had thrown up, they were wet.. whatever, and just once in a while they were scared or wanted a little attention.

They always needed me..

good luck

My son had severe GERD, and did not sleep through the night until he was 12 months old. He always had trouble gaining weight at first because he would throw-up most of his feedings. The doctors put him on Reglan and Zantac. He became a very irritable baby due to one of the side effects of Reglan. The only thing that we found helped him to keep his meals down was to add Rice cereal to his PUMPED breast milk. Then we fed him small frequent feedings. He was about 8 months old before he could hold down a 4 ounce bottle, therefore we had to feed him through the night. Once he turned a year and could take solids, everything improved. I am sorry you are having to go through this.

I think its probably unrealistic to expect a baby this young with GERD to sleep all night. Think about it... if my esophagus burned, and I didn't have words to communicate, I would wake up too. And cry.

Babies should sleep through the night (meaning sleep a solid 5 hr. stretch)at about 6 months but there is wide variablility. At 4 months, I fed my little girl at midnight (she didn't really WAKE up but would feed) and then would sleep until 5 -6AM. At 7 months, she now goes down at 8 PM and sleeps until 6 AM. It's a long road, with lots of set backs that happen when babies teeth start to move (~4 mo.)and with any illnesses. If your baby has GERD or even with babies who have URIs, raise the head of the bed (pillow under the end of the mattress) and try not to feed the baby RIGHT before you put him or her down. Good luck!

Most babies will sleep all night between 12 and 18lbs of body weight. Most of it will depend on how much or little they eat and how fast their metabolism is. I know far too much about GERD in infants. My daughter who is now 6 still takes prevacid for it. Until you get the GERD under control I doubt the baby will sleep through the night. Some things to try with her are letting her sleep in a bouncer, swing or carseat (strapped into all) to keep her semi-upright. Thickening feeds with 1/2 to 1tsp of cereal per ounce of formula to help it stay down. Having her side sleep between the sleep positioners instead of back sleep (helps many but not recommended by peds, only recommended by GI specialists). Starting on solids, rice cereal and mild fruits and veggies as they are thicker and tend to stay down better...foods to avoid with her would be anything with caffeine, sweet potatoes, peaches and oatmeal as they are more acidic or cause gas. You may give her twice the dose of mylicon with no side effects to help with burping and passing gas. Also, switching from a powdered formula to a ready to feed or concentrated formula did wonders for us and about 80% of infants with GERD. Another site to visit would be PAGER's (Parents of Adolescents with GastroEsophageal Reflux) site www.reflux.org.

HTH and feel free to email.

M. and Amara 8/25/01

Well I didn't know what larangomalaice was so I looked it up on Wikipedia and I am so sad that that has happened to your little angel. I also have guardian ship of 3 grandchildren. The middle one had GERD and we gave him 0.09 mg. of liquid Reglan, smells yummy, before each bottle and at bedtime. He loved it and learned that when he got some of that he was shortly going to get a bottle. He began sleeping through the night, about 10 hours at a time, after starting Reglan. When he started teething he began waking up odd hours and we were quickly sleep deprived. He now sleeps 10 to 12 hours at a time at 14 1/2 months. He is ready for bed at 8pm and is cranky until he is down for the night. He grew out of the need for Reglan at about 7 months. He could not process Oatmeal cereal until after 13 months of age but Rice cereal was a life saver, plus it thickens the milk and keeps it from burping up quite so much. He eats anything that doesn't eat him first and has no digestive problems now.

I hope your little one grows out of the larangomalaice before long because that sounds really trying. My thoughts are with you....