Why Won't My 15 Month Old Sleep?

If he is 15 months old, he should be done with the bottle and using a cup. He should also be having his teeth brushed before bed and not lying in bed with a bottle. I would start putting him in his crib drowsy but awake so he learns to fall asleep himself.

Thank you for the chuckle of picturing a 15 yr old boy laying in mom's bed swigging a bottle! I needed that today!

:::::::giggling:::::::::
gotta be a 15 month old, right?
co-sleeping sounds like the best solution for your particular situation.
khairete
S.

I agree with Suz T. Co-sleeping will make both of you happier people.

LOL...I was going to call troll but then I figured out you meant a 15 month old.

I hope there's only water in that bottle because anything else is really bad for their teeth.
You have him use to falling asleep with you - so now you have to train him to do this without you.
You may have to Ferberize him (cry it out) - it might take several days - but once you get him use to falling asleep on his own in his crib - things will be a lot easier.

Might want to change your subject line...

The reason why your 15 MONTH old won't sleep is because you have trained him to sleep with you. So that's what he expects and demands. You let him fall asleep in bed with you.

What you should have done is not put him down after he fell asleep. You should have put him down AWAKE from little on up so that he was used to drifing off alone.

He is not having nightmares or anxiety. The only thing that's disturbing his sleep is not getting to have what he wants, being in bed with mommy.

Why don't you try putting his crib beside your bed so that you can reach out and put your hand between the slats and touch him? That way you are in your bed and he is in his. Touch only his feet until he actually lays down. You'll train him to lay down to be close to you, and eventually he will stop waking up.

I completely agree with B. You need to let him cry it out. Also, is he taking more than one nap a day? If so, reduce it to one and make it no later than right after lunch. And not for more than 1.5 hours.

Put him down earlier (7:30) and let him cry. Go back after 5 mins and soothe him for 30 seconds (rub his back, whisper mommy loves you)without talking or picking him up. Leave. Come back after 10 mins. Soothe him for 30 secs and leave. Wait 15 mins, etc. You have to be consistent or it won't work. It's hard but SO worth it in the long run.

Falling asleep while drinking from a bottle is a bad habit because it will cause dental decay. You need to gradually change his nighttime routine to fill up his tummy while he's away, then put him into bed awake, letting him fall asleep on his own.

First let him drink the bottle until he's almost (eyes closing in long blinks) asleep, then take it away, hold him until he's asleep, and transfer him.
When he does that without much fussing, start taking the bottle way a little bit sooner each time. Gradually work it until he's finishing the bottle awake, then falling asleep in your arms without the bottle.
Then do the same with the transfer. Start putting him in the crib when he's doing the long blinks. When he gets good at that transfer without a lot of crying, start transferring him more and more awake, until finally you are putting him in his crib awake and without a bottle, and letting him fall asleep on his own. This method takes a lot of time and patience. It's not 3 days like people say Ferber is. But it does work and doesn't involve a lot of screaming.

Totally on a different tack, if you think it might be teething, you could try giving him some baby motrin before bed and see if that helps him sleep longer, since motrin helps with the pain for about 6 hours.

15 MONTH old?

If you want him to sleep in his crib, you have to break the cycle that he is used to. He is crying and screaming because he is used to being with you.

I agree with others, put him down awake and NO bottle in his mouth. You are asking for dental issues if you put hi to bed with a bottle.

It may take a few nights of little sleep but you basically have to re-train him and get him on his schedule.

That said.. We personally had no issue with some co sleeping.

Let's clear up the first problem here. He should not be falling asleep with a bottle in his mouth and he should not be waking up drinking that bottle all night long. You are going to run into HUGE dental issues very shortly. He's 15 months old and doesn't need access to milk all night long. Give him a bottle and then if he doesn't finish it take it away and replace it with a sippy cup of water if he gets thirsty at night.

Next he's not having anxiety or nightmares. Some kids use snuggle in and some are extremely active while sleeping. He's probably just an active sleeper. Nothing to worry about.

If you think he's having pain from getting molars try giving him a little tylenol before bed. It'll take away the teething pain for a long period of time and give you both some much needed rest.

And lastly, there's nothing wrong with letting him sleep in your bed. Its not ideal but really we parents have to do what we have to do. My youngest granddaughter rarely spends an entire night in her crib because she wakes up crying a lot and would wake up her older sister. The ped tells my daughter and son in law every visit not to do that but really if they didn't they wouldn't have gotten a single night's sleep in 14 months.

We survived that phase by cosleeping. My guess is that they are more socially aware and genuinely get scared when they realize they are all alone. Ours would begin to rouse, "find" one of us in bed and quickly fall back to sleep. They also really did transition back into their own bed within a year or two. In the meantime, cosleeping saved our sanity.

Sounds like he might be coming down with something and feels lost when he's waking up in a different place.

I know our pediatric dentist told us a bottle at bedtime wasn't bad nor was letting kiddo have one during the night. It's the action of keeping the bottle in his mouth when he's asleep and the milk is dripping in their mouth, on their teeth. This keeps the saliva from doing it's job, rinsing the mouth.

So be sure to always take the bottle away when he falls asleep.

Put him to sleep earlier -- like 7-7:30 pm. And without his bottle. Put him in his crib at least half awake and let him put himself down (he might need a bit of help initially -- rocking, patting, etc.) -- if this doesn't work after having tried a while, consider co-sleeping.

Night terrors start around 18 months, but you can look into that and it doesn't sound like it's due to teething.

Kids this age go through lots of changes, which disturb their sleep. You said he's been like this "[t]he past few nights," suggesting the sleep issue you're talking about started happening recently. When kids are about to meet a milestone, they usually go through a period of sleep disturbance that can last a few days to a few weeks.

You have to make a choice.

1) You co-sleep and keep him in your bed always, feeding on demand, and forget about his crib. You postpone the transition to a much older child going into his bed - and you can search on Mamapedia for people who have been successful with this as well as those who are miserable with a 2 or 3 or 5 year old in the adult bed. An active sleeper can keep Make a plan now on how you will deal with this.

2) You talk to the pediatrician about feeding a child that age in bed and letting milk collect and coat his teeth at night. You are setting yourself up for dental problems for him. Also, you should learn whether a 15 month old needs to eat at night (my pediatrician told me that my 6 month old could go all night without feeding, and he'd make up for it during the day). You will probably learn that he does not need to eat for nutrition, and so he is using a bottle for comfort. So of course, when he wakes up (as all babies and all adults do), he has no idea where he is because he's in a crib and not with you. He needs to go into his crib while he's still slightly awake. He has not learned to self-soothe and to settle himself down. You have to teach him this. I doubt this has anything to do with his teeth. You can talk to the pediatrician or get a book from the library on the Ferber method. Yes, there will be a few nights of difficulty but he will learn to calm down if you do it right.

As things stand now, your baby is not getting deep REM sleep necessary for brain development, and you are a danger to yourself and others if you are driving while sleep-deprived. So the current situation is completely unacceptable for all kinds of reasons.

Please educate yourself on Ferber and on co-sleeping, decide what you are comfortable with now and down the road, and make a more educated decision. Whatever you do, stick with it until it works. Consistency is key, and it's actually very comforting for babies and toddlers to have the same routine.