My ped's blanket approach on sleep training

st.augbride · April 2013

So we just had dd's 4 month appt and our ped asked about her sleep. Dd typically goes to sleep between 7:30 and 8:30 and wakes up around 3 or 4am to eat, then goes back until 6am. To me, this is awesome and I'm quite happy with it. Some nights she deviates from this and those are harder, but this is the typical pattern. Anyhow, my ped says this night waking at 3-4am is still abnormal and we now need to sleep train by leaving her to cry until 5 or 6am rolls around, even if the crying goes for 90 minutes. Umm, did I miss the memo that 4 month olds (3 months adjusted, mind you), no longer need to eat at night ever again? I didn't engage in the conversation with the ped, just nodded my way through, but that just seems so crazy to me! Anyone else get this from their ped, or are we the only ones whose baby still wakes at night, lol?

mben1119 · April 2013

Your pediatrician is way off base. DS didn't start STTN until 6 months, and I consider that to be lucky. He still wakes every now and then to eat, and he's almost 18 months. There is no magic age/weight/whatever that babies all start STTN. And to recommend CIO at that? Get a new doctor, or just disregard all parenting-related advice.

vettymama · April 2013

It is so hard to take advice from Pedi's when they say stuff like that. If your baby is eating at that time, LO is hungry. My baby is almost 6 months and sometimes eats twice a night!

st.augbride · April 2013

Yeah, she said this to us with ds too when we started seeing her (he was 6 months at the time). He was a terrible sleeper until over a year, so I think dd is amazing! Ds didn't STTN until 14 months old.

Cellis · April 2013

mabenner1:
Get a new doctor, or just disregard all parenting-related advice.

This. My ped is kind of like yours and told me to let DS cry because he was waking at 1 am, 3 am and then 5 am. She felt the 3 am wake up wasn't necessary. I did listen to her at first, but quit because I just didn't feel comfortable doing that. I didn't change pediatricians because she at least seems to know her medical stuff, I just ignore her on parenting advice. My DS goes to bed at the same time as yours, wakes up at 3/4 am to eat and is up at 7:00, but he also wakes up around 11 pm to eat again. I consider this awesome since he use to be up every 2 hours. Don't worry, your baby is just fine and probably likes to eat more like mine does.

jobiann · April 2013

I would never let a baby cry for 90 minutes!

Our son did STTN, until a few nights ago, Saturday he was up at 3am and last night he was up at 12:45am...very weird.

g8trkim · April 2013

What??? First off, I WISH DD would sleep 8-4... that would rock. I think that's great for a 4 month old. After 8 hours, I'm sure the poor thing is hungry. I'm assuming that you're not taking this advice. Scary!

Wild_flower25 · April 2013

my pedi told me to let her cry at 2 months. smh

Mine wakes around 2 or 3 am. I am fine with this until 6 months, then I'll decide if she still is really hungry or if its just a habit.

southernbear · April 2013

So, holy crap, I just posted this exact topic on the Attachment Parenting board. Like, the exact same thing. My doctor even had the nerve to print out this RIDICULOUS article to have me "look over."

If you want a laugh, check it out:

https://www.boystownpediatrics.org/KnowledgeCenter/pediatricadvisor/AdvisorInfo/pa/pa_nightfd_hhg.aspx

(Not my pedi, but same article she gave me today).

Seriously, I'm going to have to approach this differently next visit. I don't know if I have the balls to tell her straight up that I think this advice is nuts, or if I should just smile and nod through it. UGH.

luna2cu · April 2013

Your doctors is giving you advice that works for them... Not you. Do what you feel is right. My son who is 5 mo wakes up twice still. I've started to give him only 4 oz instead of the usual 5 in the middle of the night. Next week I'm going to only give him 3 oz and so on until he is ready to sleep all night.

AimeeL85 · April 2013

Wow, seriously? I think your DD is sleeping awesome!

We also had my DD's 4 month appointment today and our pedi asked, I told her DD goes down at 7:30 and wakes around 12 something to eat...she then also wakes again by 4 or 5. She had a brief period where she slept straight through to 5am but not right now.

She didn't seem concerned. I do remember her telling me when DS was 4 months that technically they should be able to STTN without eating, but I don't remember what she considered STTN....DS woke up a LOT as a baby and didn't STTN until 16 months.

I wouldn't mess with a good thing. If you try to stretch her until 5 or 6 who knows what she'll do, it could totally throw her off and she'll start waking even earlier or more often.

sstaton1 · April 2013

Our doctor says that as long as they are still eating a decent amount at the nighttime feedings, they still need it. Now if she was just playing with the bottle, only eating 1-2 ounces, then he said I should consider cutting that one out. And he did not say to CIO, he said just to get her and try to calm her down without offering a bottle. Hopefully after a few nights of this she would sleep through that feeding. Not sure how it will work out in real life though. She still eats like a pig at her 4/5am feeding.

anonsouthernbell · April 2013

southernbear:
So, holy crap, I just posted this exact topic on the Attachment Parenting board. Like, the exact same thing. My doctor even had the nerve to print out this RIDICULOUS article to have me "look over."
If you want a laugh, check it out:
https://www.boystownpediatrics.org/KnowledgeCenter/pediatricadvisor/AdvisorInfo/pa/pa_nightfd_hhg.aspx
(Not my pedi, but same article she gave me today).
Seriously, I'm going to have to approach this differently next visit. I don't know if I have the balls to tell her straight up that I think this advice is nuts, or if I should just smile and nod through it. UGH.

you should print out the article that talks about CIO negatively affecting a baby's brain.

southernbear · April 2013

anonsouthernbell:
southernbear:
So, holy crap, I just posted this exact topic on the Attachment Parenting board. Like, the exact same thing. My doctor even had the nerve to print out this RIDICULOUS article to have me "look over."
If you want a laugh, check it out:
https://www.boystownpediatrics.org/KnowledgeCenter/pediatricadvisor/AdvisorInfo/pa/pa_nightfd_hhg.aspx
(Not my pedi, but same article she gave me today).
Seriously, I'm going to have to approach this differently next visit. I don't know if I have the balls to tell her straight up that I think this advice is nuts, or if I should just smile and nod through it. UGH.
you should print out the article that talks about CIO negatively affecting a baby's brain.

Do you have a link to share on that? I'd love to read it.

southernbear · April 2013

southernbear:
anonsouthernbell:
southernbear:
So, holy crap, I just posted this exact topic on the Attachment Parenting board. Like, the exact same thing. My doctor even had the nerve to print out this RIDICULOUS article to have me "look over."
If you want a laugh, check it out:
https://www.boystownpediatrics.org/KnowledgeCenter/pediatricadvisor/AdvisorInfo/pa/pa_nightfd_hhg.aspx
(Not my pedi, but same article she gave me today).
Seriously, I'm going to have to approach this differently next visit. I don't know if I have the balls to tell her straight up that I think this advice is nuts, or if I should just smile and nod through it. UGH.
you should print out the article that talks about CIO negatively affecting a baby's brain.
Do you have a link to share on that? I'd love to read it.

Disregard - found your reply to my post on the AP board. THANKS!

wells2010 · April 2013

That is crazy. Waking up once per night is not bad at all. My pedi tries to give me unsolicited advice about things like this. He said to not feed her if she wakes up at night, because then she will expect to be fed if she wakes up at night. Well, if she's waking up hungry, then obviously she needs to eat. I'm pretty sure breast-fed infants are eating on demand and I am going to keep feeding her that way...

He also told me (after I told him about her spit ups) that I should add rice cereal to her bottles so she doesn't spit up as much. I flat out told him NO. My husband laughed at him. The pedi will tell us to do this and then get pissed off at us when we bring in our obese toddler in a few years... Meanwhile, LO is clearly just a "happy spitter" and is gaining weight just fine.

Thankfully we all just have enough brains to filter out what is good and not so good for our own kids.

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