Nights with a toddler can be challenging….Sometimes toddlers don’t fall asleep very easily or readily. Sometimes they fall asleep easily but then wake up frequently. Sometimes they fall asleep easily but then wake up for a period of hours during the night and then go back to sleep.
The one thing you can count on in toddler nights is that it will change every night!
Many mothers ask about night weaning their toddlers, or how to get their toddlers to sleep longer. Here are some outside resources about toddler sleeping and toddler nights that you might find helpful for you and your family. You are the expert on your family, so take what works for you and your situation:
- Night Weaning, 12 Alternatives For The All- Night Nurser from Dr. Sears: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070800.asp
- Night Terrors from Dr. Sears: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T071300.asp (This link may not be working, but perhaps if you search the Dr. Sears website it will come up).
- The Dangers of Sleep Training: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T070700.asp
- Elizabeth Pantley’s Eight Sleep Tips For Every Child (although I quibble if 70 percent of children under the age of 5 have sleep problems, then perhaps fractured sleep is actually normal, but that is just a quibble! See the sleep article by Katherine Dettwyler below.) http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth/advice/0071381392.php?nid=104
- One of my favorite articles by Katherine Dettwyler, PhD in Anthropology, about sleeping through the night: http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsleepthrough.html
- Why Nurse Toddlers, also by Katherine Dettwyler, PhD: http://www.kathydettwyler.org/dettoddler.html
These are some of the links I have found helpful over the years, and I hope you will enjoy them as well.
Many blessings,
Carrie
I came to the same conclusion about toddlers and sleeping! Seems like 2 is near the age they can consistently sleep through the night.
A book we found useful as co-sleepers and two of our toddlers thinking I was an on-demand milk-bar was:
Good Nights, byJay Gordon and Maria Goodavage.
Thank you for this!
My daughter just turned two yesterday, and she is still nursing heartily. I am about to visit inlaws this week and I’m already worried about handling perceptions. We cosleep and weaning seems very long from now. I love our closeness but I also struggle with fatigue at times…. And expanding our family is on the back burner with irregular cycles due to the breastfeeding…. But that’s another story. Thanks again for this timely post!
Thank you for this. While I don’t quite have a toddler (10 months) I get a bit tired of people (with 12 hours sleeping 4 month olds) being shocked that my son still nurses 2-3 times a night (and I don’t mind at all.)
FYI: The Dr. Sears night terrors link gets an error message.
Love the Deyywyler article. It makes me much more relaxed about those crazy restless sleeping nights with my son when I’m awake more often than asleep (at least it seems that way at 2am.)
Thank you Katelyn, I will check out that link!
Many blessings,
Carrie
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Thanks for the reminder! I have an almost 3 year old and we’ve had some of those night recently. She gets a cough, she needs more of me, etc.
Thanks for this post! I really love Dettwyler’s article about sleeping through the night. It helps me to cope when I read about how NORMAL it is for a baby to wake up several times a night, like my little guy. He’s 13-months old and I’m following his lead. I know one day he’ll be ready. In the meantime, I have a blog completely dedicated to baby sleep! Everytime I learn something new, I share it with the world. Hopefully, it might help other parents too.
Thanks again!!
I loved the anthropologist’s article. I have a 15 month old who nurses several times through the night and is a light sleeper. When I tell other mother’s that she nurses a minimum of 15-20 times a day they are usually flabbergasted. Now I don’t feel like my daughter and I are so abnormal.
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Thanks!
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