18 Month Old Wont Sleep All Night

You are right, it is just a comfort thing for him. He's probably not hungry and just needs to be close to you. Maybe instead of feeding him when he wakes up, just hold him close and cuddle him. Eventually when he wakes up he'll know he's not getting wha he used to and put himself back to sleep.

If your child can say boob and you are only breastfeeding for a comfort thing, I would quit breastfeeding. You really aren't doing either one of you any good, especially if it is infringing on sleep, which is just as important as anything.

I hate to tell you, but when I weaned my 22 month old daughter, she started sleeping through the night. I started by giving up all day feedings first then stopped the night feedings. She is now 2 and still sleeps through the night. I can be hard at first but if you stick wiith it you will be happy with the results. I understand what you are going through, my now 2 year old, got up almost every night until I weaned here. She is small for her age, so I justified it as she "needed" the feedings. but then it turned into more of a behavioral thing for both of us. I know how much easier it is to just breastfeed them, then to let them cry. Good Luck!!

I agree with the other mothers who say this is a comfort thing. My son was doing the same thing at about 18 months. We finally subsituted a comfort object - a special blanket and a stuffed animal. Now he almost always sleeps through the night. If he does wake, he can put himself back to sleep by seeking out his comfort object.
Good luck and may you soon be able to sleep all night!!

My daughter did the exact same thing only with the bottle instead. It becomes a habit and a game.... I was weak and let it go on til she was 2.5 yrs.old..The bottle was my daughter's only comfort item, not a blanket or pacifier, or stuffed animal a bottle. It's wonderful you have decided to breastfeed your child but keep in mind the longer you nurse the harder it may or may not be weening. I've already decided for my next child the bottle or boob is gone by age 1 only because of attachment issues.

My advise it may take a few nights but put your son in his crib if he wakes up ignore him. He will scream and you will feel so horrible and guilty but you have to be firm... After a week I'm betting he'll be sleeping again.

K. - he is waking up to breastfeed - for no other reason. He wants to be comforted. He will not go hungry if you do not feed him and he will continue to wake up if you continue to offer to feed him. When he wakes up, start just rocking him, giving him water, or having dad go in and rock him. Then, slowly let him cry through the time alone. He will fall back to sleep, but it will take some crying in the beginning. This is what we had to do - the crying is painful to listen to, but once the few days/week is over, our son was fine and slept 12 hours straight through.

I may not have breastfed, but had the same sleep issue with my bottle fed son. Daycare said that he didn't need a bottle or cup or nuk to sleep so I tried and went and bought him a "special" cup. Its a gerber sippy with jumping green frogs on it....and since he LOVES to jump...he could relate and it was exciting for him. So he gets milk in a cup with a snack before bed about 1/2 hour and then we snuggle for a bit and I tell him its bed time and it works! Its been a week and he's 21 months old without the bottle!!! The first few nights were tough and we had to let him whine (not cry) it out. But its good for him too because he also gets a better nights sleep!

I nursed my son until he was 15 months, and weaned because I was pregnant (20 weeks). I can only say - I am so glad I did. He is now 18 months and sleeps all night. In fact, as soon as we had weaned completely (which was hard - but worth it) he started sleeping 8 - 10 hours in a row. He had NEVER slept that long before we weaned.

I started by eliminating the day time nursings. Skipping the first thing in the morning nursing was easy because we just got up and had breakfast right away. After about 2 weeks we then we started skipping his morning nap, which was right around 14 months, which was a great way to skip a second nursing, and he was then so tired after lunch that we started skipping that third before nap nursing almost right away. Bed time was harder, but because we had a routine for his afternoon nap, we followed the same for bed time and within a week he was down to the 1 night time wake up. I let him have that one for about a week and a half, then eliminated it. That was the hardest one to get rid of, because he would then wake up every 1/2 hour until morning after he didn't get his nursing, but it only lasted about 3 or 4 days, then magically he was sleeping all night. Which was HEAVEN.

I never let him cry it out, or made him "suffer" I still got up with him, and just told him that there was no more nursing, and would either rock him or sit by his crib until he fell back asleep.

Good luck - and let us know how it turns out!

J.

I just wanted to let you know that I am in exactly the same place. My daughter is 18 months old and has been waking several times a night just to nurse for a minute. I always let her because like you said, some sleep is better than none. Well, last week, I finally had enough and didn't nurse her when she got up. I put a pillow on my chest so she couldn't get access (she's very crafty and it seemed easiest). She had a huge temper tantrum but finally went back to sleep. A couple of hours later, the same thing. The third time she woke up that night, she took some water from a sippy and went right back to sleep. The next night she woke up twice and had a pretty big temper tantrum the second time, but did eventually put herself back to sleep. Each night has been getting better, less waking, less crying, less time to get back to sleep. Last night she actually slept 8+ hours in a row (by far the longest she's done in over a year). When she woke up at 5 am, I gave her her sippy and she went back to sleep, no nursing! It was a few rough nights for both of us, but it's already getting so much better. (Oh, and when I was trying to wean my older daughter, I used to wear a 1 piece swimsuit to bed so she literally could not get access and it worked very well. I've just been too lazy to do it this time).