is it possible to sleep train a toddler?

starlite24

My 16 month old dd is a very smart strong willed little girl. She knows what she wants and she want give in. I can count on my one hand the times she has slept through the night. She will not go in her crib if she is awake, she does not know how to self soothe and I feel thats the whole problem. If i put her in bed awake she will just scream and scream. So I rock her to sleep and hope she dont wake when I put her down. Then she is usually awake again at 12 am, so I have to rock her back to sleep just for her to wake again at 1 or 2. At 2 am I am just too tired to rock so she gets in bed with me. I need a change, FAST!

mommy0411

We sleep trained my DS at 15 months successfully. It took a very long week to get the crying below 30 minutes and a few weeks until it got to about a minute of fussing but now he sleeps 12 hours a night! He had never slept through the night before we sleep trained. 

It was really hard and we had to do it with no check in's because that would just make him more upset.

We sleep trained for naps a few weeks later. We decided to sleep train because he was taking 3 hours to fall asleep with our usual methods (rocking, bouncing, wearing...)  

treble_clef

Hi! I'm new on this board:

I think it's time for my daughter to get sleep trained too. She used to be good, but now we are doing the same thing as you. My pediatrician says get ear plugs. You will still hear your baby crying, but they'll take the edge off.

Good luck!

preggyamy

I don't know if hunger is an issue, but we started giving a snack before her bedtime milk, and that has eliminated any waking up in the middle of the night. It doesn't address the other issues, but just something to think about. Sleep training is hard, but worth it in the end. GL!

jc&cat

We trained a very strong willed DS at 17 months. I am not going to sugar coat it....it was crappy! HOWEVER, you can't continue to go on as you are (and as we were too) and something needs to change. We used the sleep easy solution book and it was loud and he was PO'd at us but he became a happier kid and we were a happier family once the week or so passed. I remember when we were a few weeks past the whole training feeling like a million bucks when I put him to bed and he said "night mommy" like he always knew how to do go to sleep and slept til the morning.

The book helped us get a perspective, put a plan together and most of all stick to it. It's tough to stick it out but realize once you start, you don't want to regress and have to start again. GL!

 

starlite24

I just dont know if she would ever lay down and go to sleep. I could see her crying all.night.long. I also dont know if I can take the thought of her crying for me and I can just imagine her feeling alone and scared lol. So is it best to do checks or just leave her to cry? I think if I do checks then I want have the heart to leave her again after the first check.

TiffanyBerry

Every kid is different.  I can virtually guarantee she wouldn't stay standing crying all night long for more than a day or two - though she might fall over asleep from a standing position.

I can't say whether or not CIO would work for you.  But I would encourage you to figure out your "system" and stick with it.  Make it something you find tolerable - if it's leaving and not going back in, fine.  If it's checks every 10 minutes, fine.  But YOU have to follow the rules if you want her to.  If you say "It's bedtime, you need to go in your crib now.  I will stay for 5 minutes and we'll read a book, then I am going to go for 10 minutes.  Then I will come back." DO EXACTLY THAT.  (I found it helped my daughter if I told her what I was going to be doing - "I am going t oclean the  kitchen for 10 minutes, then I will be back.")

I would also consider a little behavior modification approach to it.  So, you might say, stay for a few minutes, then leave, and say that you'll come back if she calls you but she has to be quiet for a set amount of time first.  If she generally screams right off the bat, I might say she just has to be quiet, with you out of the room, for half a minute.  And do that for a couple days.  Then a minute, again, for a couple days.  Then two minutes, and so on.  But go slow.

When I was going through a very similar stage with my daughter, I would go in as many times as she wanted, until she was asleep.  Later, when she had a better handle on staying quiet for a while, I would only go back in three times.

JMU_Bride09

I would suggest CIO at this point. It might not work, but it sounds like your LO has figured out that she can get you to soothe her to sleep and she can avoid having to selfsoothe. It's a personal decision and one that you have to choose to do because you feel it's the right choice. Good luck!