So my LO wakes up at night and she's always super thirsty. When I go in there to give her a drink she won't lay back down, so I end up bringing her in our bed. I was thinking of putting a sippy of water in her crib, but I'm not sure it's a good idea. I'm afraid she'll choke and I won't know about it. I know when she is older I will allow her to have a cup of water next to her bed at night, but do you think it's too soon for that? Does anyone else do this?
Re: Sippy in Crib
Me and DH debated this as well. We decided that having access to water all night might not be a good habit to start when potty training is a year away. Then again DD goes down pretty fast once she gets something to drink, we might have decided to do it if there were issues getting her back down.
I will add I also thought I heard that them drinking lying down increases the risk of ear infections, but I could totally be wrong on that one and it's too late for me to google.
Number two
No, you're right. Actually choking (airway obstruction) on water isn't going to happen. If a kiddo aspirates and starts to cough, though, sometimes he/she may vomit. I'd think that would be my biggest worry.
OP, I have heard of others doing this before, but it's not something I would personally be comfortable with. Sorry you're having to get up in the night, though!
Ok, I'm going to throw this out there...don't get mad! Are you sure she's really thirsty? Assuming she's getting adequate liquids during dinner, she shouldn't be dying of thirst in the middle of the night. Sounds like it's a ploy to get you to come into her room and then eventually take her into your bed. And now it's become a pattern. I would try to break the pattern...you will probably find that leaving a sippy in the crib isn't going to solve the problem.
But to address your question, I would not leave a drink in the crib. I'm not comfortable with that either.
We have been putting a sippy in bed for a long time now too. I don't see anything wrong with it.
I've been considering it too. It's so dry here, even if I'm drinking all day I go through 4-8oz of water each night. I've heard him have that little dry cough before at night and wondered. But since it's not interrupting his (our) sleep I'm not going to do anything yet.
I didn't even think about the potty training issue!
Your LO will not choke or vomit if she's decent at using a sippy cup, which clearly she is. She can handle it. I think the worst that could happen is she could spill it somehow, which is also not a big deal with it just being water.
It is NOT bad for her teeth for your LO to have water. If anything it could be good for her teeth.
This might mess with potty training in some way, but it's not time for that yet so maybe this still works.
She could just be trying to get in your bed and this is a habit of some kind, but in that case I don't see how adding the sippy would make matters worse, as long as you enforce ignoring her when she cries and don't just cave every time.
HSHHC actually recommends leaving a drink with the kid so that s/he can put him/herself back to sleep in cases like this.
I'm not sure there are that many compelling reasons not to have a sippy of water in the crib. I'm not sure I would do it, but DS doesn't have this problem AND he's still not that into sippy cups and water, so our situation is totally different.
Not mad in the least, the only reason I think she is getting up because she's thirsty is that she was still getting up in the middle of the night for a bottle when we weaned her. So she was still used to having liquid during the night. We tried CO but she was relentless and FI couldn't handle it. I'm going to try and put a sippy in her bed tonight and see how it goes. I'm not worried about her teeth because it is just plain water.
Thanks for the input everyone!!!