Sleeping FAQ: 12-18 Months – Night Waking

Since illness my daughter of 1yr 1mth has been waking in the night. How do I get her back to sleeping through?

My daughter has suffered with severe diarrhea for 15 days. The doctor said that this was caused by a virus. She stopped wanting to eat and I was advised to give her as much fluid as possible. During the night I was giving her 2 bottles of either diluted apple juice or rice milk. We were advised to give her rice milk due to allergies. Her sleeping routine was really affected as my daughter was soiling her clothes and sheets due to the illness. For the last two weeks my daughter has been better. She has had no diarrhea and is eating three good meals a day. She takes 8ozs of rice milk in the morning and evening from a bottle.

But her sleep routine is awful. She wakes anywhere between 1and 5am, at no set time. She had slept through the night since 4 months until her illness. If she did wake she would resettle herself within 10minutes.

I have been doing controlled crying for 2 weeks and see no improvement. I do not give her a bottle or change her as I know it is not needed. I leave her for 15 minutes before going into her screaming. I do not take her out of her cot and with lights off stroke her for a few minutes with no speaking. She stops crying immediately. I stay in the room for about a minute. When I leave she screams again. I leave a gap of 10minutes before re-entering and increase this by double. It took 2 hours last night of this to get her back to sleep. We are all exhausted and would love my daughter to return to her old sleep routine again. I did try cold turkey one night but I cannot take that again.

My daughter has cereal and toast 4 breakfast. Lunch is either chicken or fish with vegetables. Supper is usually pasta followed by yoghurt. She always finishes everything and has a banana mid afternoon and snacks in morning.
I am wondering though as when she got the diarrhoea bug we put her on rice milk instead of formula. Do you think that this is not filling her up at sleep time as she polishes of 8oz very quickly?

My daughter naps at 1-3pm. She is settled at 7.30pm.

It can take time for a child to fully recover from an illness, especially one which was as severe as your daughter’s. As she is waking randomly in the night, rather than at the same time, her waking could be related to hunger rather than habit. Although you probably do not want to go back to feeding her in the night, as you did when she was unwell, it would be worth checking whether she is hungry by offering her milk and seeing if she takes a substantial amount. After illness a child may well have an increased appetite for a while, making up for the days when they ate hardly anything at all.
As your daughter has now regained her appetite you can begin to offer her really filling menus at supper time. Depending on the doctor’s instructions you may be able to offer her milky puddings after her savoury course, which would all help to fill her up well before going to bed. It would be worth checking with your doctor that the rice milk you are using is both calcium enriched and has the same calorific value as cow‘s milk. You will then know that if your daughter is taking at least 12ozs of rice milk a day, as a drink and in cooking, she is meeting her daily requirements.

If you feel that your daughter is waking simply through not being tired reduce her daytime sleep by 15 minutes and see if this helps the situation. On the other hand your daughter may well be going to bed at 7.30pm exhausted. It can take several weeks for the body to fully recover from illness. As your daughter is of the age to be very active and mobile during the day, she may be becoming overtired and falling into a deep sleep as soon as she is put to bed. This can often be the cause of early morning waking. Putting her to bed 20-30 minutes earlier can help this problem, although it may take a week or so for her body clock to fully reset itself.

Controlled crying is only used as a last resort when all other methods have been explored and you are sure that the waking is due to habit rather than any other reason. You should check with your doctor that it is alright to proceed with this technique and you will need to read the full description of how to carry it out, which you will find on page 45 of The Complete Sleep Guide. If she is waking through habit and you do try this method you should see the results of it within several days.

The way you deal with her night waking needs to be consistent so she does not become confused by different approaches. A toddler who is not sure whether or not Mummy will come if she cries in the night will take longer to settle back to sleep as she will be constantly checking to see if you are there or not. It can take time for a method such as gradual withdrawal to take effect but it will help her to feel reassured if she does wake at night. Have a look at page 49 of The Complete Sleep Guide for a description of this method.