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Posted by Elaine on March 22, 1998 at 09:32:58:In Reply to: toddler posted by Chris on February 23, 1998 at 13:18:41:
Chris,
I have a four year old who woke up several times a night until she was three. I thought it was normal. I also nursed her until she was two and figured that probably had something to do with it. After she turned three I realized what I had been missing with several hours of constant, uninterupted SLEEP and I was a completely different person.
When my second one was born she was even worse. She woke some nights every TWENTY minutes, but usually every hour to three hours. She wasn't hard to get back to sleep...just laid her down and patted her, left her awake like they say to do...etc.
ANYWAY...
After ten months I could stand it no longer. I was literally going insane from sleep deprivation. I was a lousy parent! I started going to my doctor over and over begging, demanding some help!!! He suggested stopping nursing. I did, didn't work. He suggested letting her cry. Read the books, did like they said & let her cry 3 minutes, then 4 minutes then 5 minutes, etc. before responding, all the way up to 30 minutes, didn't work. I tried diet, temperature of the room, clothing, bedding, lighting, how much she ate before bed, tried with and without naps...NOTHING worked
UNTILLLLLLLL....
I requested my doctor do a blood test on her. Turns out she was a little ENEMIC. Put her on IRON, and believe it or not, this thirteen month old baby who had never slept more than two hours at a pop her whole life started within two days SLEEPING FROM 7 AT NIGHT TILL 7 THE NEXT MORNING!!!!!!!!
The doctors say they don't know what the correlation is, but whatever it is, it worked for me. After two weeks on Herbal Iron she started getting sick at her stomach and I took her off of it, thinking perhaps it's honey base (purified so it should have been OK) was perhaps too hard on her little system. Immediately she started waking all night again. Went on for ten days before I finally went to the pharmacy and got the regular pharmacutical over the counter iron (called Barre Ferrous Sulfate Iron Supplement Drops) Put 3 - 4 drops in her bottle twice a day and again, started sleeping all night. That was about a month ago.
Everything was going great until 3 nights ago. She woke up 3 times that night, three times the next night and twice last night. I don't know if she built up a resistance, she's got an ear infection or something or WHAT...I go to the doctor in 3 days and I'll try to find out then.
I wouldn't suggest you start your toddler on IRON, but I would suggest you go to your pediatritian and get a blood test and see if he/she DOES need to be on iron. Couldn't hurt.
Until then, I wouldn't suggest letting him/her cry. There are a million reasons for a child to cry, and being spoiled isn't one of them. Sometimes they just need to be HELD. I figure even if the iron doesn't work for me, they are little for SUCH A SHORT time that I should enjoy what I've got while it's here. It's hard to do at 3:00 in the morning, but when you're rocking her, remember you won't be rocking her forever, and it feels kind of nice, doesn't it? Gotta concentrate on the good stuff or you go nuts.
Hope this helps.
Elaine
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