I think alot of this is having a cold and teething, but seriously, we're all a bit on edge around here with the lack of sleep...
and what about tossing food on the floor? NOTHING is working. Time out, slaps on the hand. If you are not RIGHT there when she is done eating, she just tosses it as far as she can.
whew, I have a very cute, strong willed human being to raise.
HELP!!!!
9 comments :
A woman in our church told us to read this when we felt more exhausted with Carter at 6 months than when he was born. He was waking up EVERY hour during the night and was only taking 45 minute naps!!
http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Sleep-Habits-Happy-Child/dp/0449004023
I always tell people this book changed our lives!! :)
i was going to post about the same book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. very helpful for our girls!
thanks ladies!!!! (this is brooke, not josh:)
hey friend! When Eli started throwing food I gave him a break from his high chair. I have a child size table and chairs in my kitchen - he loves to sit in them and act like a big boy. So I just put his food on the table and let him eat there - Amazingly he no longer throws his food. He's back in his highchair and sits at the little table for snacks. Maybe its Annie way of saying I want to be free....Ha ha. I have no suggestions for the sleep issues - that is so hard!!
Brooke, I used Solving My Child's Sleep Problem (Richard Ferber)for Anna Grace. Our doctor referred us to it and you only need to read the first few chapters because it covers "big kid" sleep problems too. The best part about the book is a chart by age that tells you how much night time and day time sleep a child of that age should be getting. I would check it from the library read the 1st 3 chapters and copy the chart on page 19.
i have both books: 'healthy sleep habits' by weisbluth and 'solving your child's sleep problems' by ferber. in my opinion, healthy sleep habits is a great book if you are starting fresh with a newborn. however, we had a lot more luck with ferber, especially as it related to our problems with trained night feedings and him needing to learn to fall back asleep on his own when he woke up in the middle of the night. i also sort of incorporated this into it a little bit too: http://www.amazon.com/Sleepeasy-Solution-Exhausted-Parents-Getting/dp/0757305601
I can't do the cry it out thing, but the combination of ferber, and the way they approached it with sleepeasy seemed to work for us.
i feel ya. hope it gets better soon.
thanks so much everyone- I definitely have a date to the bookstore very soon. Ironically, she slept all night last night. "most" of the time, Annie will go right back down within a minute of us "rocking" her- which to me, proves she CAN do this on her own, she's really barely awake. At any rate, we've got some work to do....thanks again!!!
At our house we liked the No Cry Sleep Solution. I'm thinking of looking at the No Cry Nap Solution geared for toddlers to get some fresh ideas. But to be honest, we're living with some less than stellar sleep habits with our toddler right now. But that's more my issue than his, my not wanting to change things and bring on the tears and anxiety and wanting to just keep on snuggling until he's a little older.
The whole food throwing thing....wow! So I wasn't alone with that whole deal!!!! We tried everything too. What ended up working for us was to remain low-key about it, say "No, we don't throw food.", clean it up calmly, and move on. The lack of drama made it less exciting for him, I think. I learned quickly to read his body language for when he was about to toss it, and succeeded (finally!) at taking his plate away before he could toss it. That stage lasted for a few months, but he's coming out of it now and either signs "all done" or starts to hand me his plate. Now we're just working on how to get him to stay in his high chair long enough for us to get most of our meal eaten. He's a daddy's boy and since daddy is gone all day long, the only thing he wants to do is sit on daddy's lap during dinner instead of staying in his high chair. So that's our current challenge.
We have used Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Lady's Guide to Sleep by Kim West.
It's a combination of no cry and Ferber - we found it to work well with Emma. We are in the process of working through it with Eleanor.
We, too, dealt with the food throwing problem. I agree that making it less dramatic is helpful. We also took her food away, walked away from her and the table, and then came back a minute or two later.
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