Four areas to check on if your toddler is waking up at night
Hi Mom and Dad!
Are you suddenly noticing that your toddler is waking at night!? Whether your child was an amazing sleeper or one that kept things complicated for you, both night wakings and early morning wakings are not something that any parent enjoys dealing with!
With that said.. It can be very normal to experience night or early morning wakings with toddlers! In this blog, I will share four parts of sleep that you should check and be aware of.. These will help solve your toddler’s night wakings as well as early morning wakings! By looking at all four areas, and making sure they are functioning correctly, you can restore not only your toddlers well needed 11-12 hours of restful sleep, but your own as well!
Does your child sleep INDEPENDENTLY!?
First things first.. Does your toddler fall asleep independently!? If they need to be rocked or patted to sleep, need to be fed to sleep or require a parent giving them a pacifier, then you may need a bit more support than these four areas!
If this is the case, please book a call with me, and we can discuss starting with sleep training to ensure that your child learns my proven method to fall asleep independently within 5-10 minutes.
If your toddler is able to fall asleep independently, but needs some troubleshooting to make sure to solve night wakings or early morning wakings, then please continue reading and let’s get into how to help your toddler sleep through the night!
FOUR AREAS OF SLEEP THAT MUST BE PERFECTED
TO ENSURE NIGHTTIME SLEEP
So let’s discuss these four areas… and look at your toddler’s overall sleep! Your child’s sleep habits are going to be affected by multiple components, including their daytime sleep/naps, daily nutrition and opportunities to play/engage during the day.
First Area: NAPS, Is your toddler taking 1 nap?!
A toddler (14-15 months +) should be on one nap a day, in the middle of the day (around 12:30 pm). They should have a max of 2.5 of daytime sleep!
If your child is older than 14-15 months, and still taking 2 naps a day, they are likely getting too much daytime sleep!!! This will affect their nighttime sleep. If they are getting too much sleep during the day, they will look for awake time at night. They should be sleeping 1.5-2.5 hours during the day, and the amount is age-dependent!
Second Area: Is your child drinking milk before bedtime!?
Next, we want to consider your child’s milk consumption. After 12 months, we do slowly want to wean from milk, especially from the bottle. We want to make sure that after 12 months old, your toddler is getting three full meals a day and snacks. We don’t want them to get a bit of dinner and then rely on 8+ ounces of milk right before bed! So this is something we want to change right away.
From 12-13 months, we would be weaning off the bottle and after 13 months we want to make sure not to have the sippy cup of milk right before bed (as we explained above)!
Oftentimes, dropping milk at bedtime can completely solve night-time wakings and morning wakings.
Third Area: Is your toddler requesting milk as soon as they wake up!?
Sooo.. toddlers can tend to be milk-obsessed- and this is normal! If your toddler wakes up and immediately gets a big bottle or sippy cup with milk, then they know to expect that and crave it as soon as they wake up! Which means, if they wake at 4 or 5 am, they are expecting milk, and this can be a cause of early morning wakings as well as night wakings.
We must remember that they are not babies anymore, and do not require milk as soon as they open their eyes!
So after 6 am when your toddler's morning begins, let's change their diaper, go potty, say hello to everyone and they can help their parents create breakfast. Once breakfast is ready, they can sit down and eat! Milk can be served as a beverage with breakfast.
Can you see how this is different? We do not want to associate the early morning or night waking with receiving milk right away or they will keep looking for it at night and in the early morning. This way, they can acknowledge the beginning of their day and only after that receive breakfast and milk! This will help reduce the obsession and dependency on milk first thing in the morning and last thing before bed!
Fourth Area: Is your child getting a good amount of physical activity!?
We truly want to follow an eat, play, sleep routine with our babies as well as our toddlers!
Is your toddler getting enough physical activity during the day!? Are they getting outside, seeing the sun, running around and burning calories!? They need to burn energy throughout the day to be able to sleep at night… and if they don’t then sleeping can be a true challenge!
There are so many ways to get your child physical activity during the day! Go out for a walk, get to the playground, play tag or duck duck goose at home, have a dance party! It is highly recommended to spend at least an hour a day outdoors with your toddler! Start paying attention to how much physical activity your toddler is getting during the day, especially if they are having night or early morning wakings, and let's increase these!!
So, In Conclusion…..
So let’s take a look at all four areas: Is your toddler (15 months +) getting 1 nap a day or is it possible they are still on two naps and receiving too much daytime sleeps!? Is your toddle relying on a milk bottle at bedtime or right when they wake up!? And… is your child getting enough sunlight and physical activity during the day!?
Also, don’t forget..That your child must be able to have generally good sleep habits, specifically knowing how to fall asleep independently before any of these areas can be checked. If they cannot fall asleep independently then that by itself can be the reason that there are night and early morning wakes, and in that case please call me, and lets work on sleep training your toddler, and then we can fine tune to make sure that they are not waking at night or getting up too early!
If your child is an independent sleeper, these four areas will help get your toddlers sleep just right and get them on the perfect schedule!
NEED HELP with fine tuning your toddler’s schedule, making sure they sleep independently and need your blissful sleep back.
Book a free discovery call with me. I would love to help you make SLEEP HAPPEN!
XO,
Sweet Dreams,
Raz Franklyn ,The Rested Mama
