night weaning not going so well

Emily is 15 months now. Still not walking, but standing without holding
onto anything for a few seconds at a time, crawls up the stairs, crawls off
the couch, pushes around her walker, all unassisted. But my doc is still
insisting we bring her to pediatric physical therapy since she isn't
walking. I flatly refused again yesterday when they called to schedule an
appt, but it is so irritating...

She is still relatively small, at around 20 lbs, but she eats well, and is
not a picky eater. The problem is, she still cries 3-4 times per night. We
have tried to let her cry it out, but most of the time, she just becomes
more insistant. The only thing that calms her down, and it works like
magic, is a bottle. I don't want to do this anymore! We have tried putting
water in the bottle, and she just won't go for it. So we have tried cutting
the milk with water, about half and half, but it doesn't make her wake any
less. We feed her well through the day, she takes a tippy cup all day, but
won't accept it at night.



What tactics can we try now?

Emily is 15 months now. Still not walking, but standing without holding
onto anything for a few seconds at a time, crawls up the stairs, crawls
off the couch, pushes around her walker, all unassisted. But my doc is
still insisting we bring her to pediatric physical therapy since she isn't
walking. I flatly refused again yesterday when they called to schedule an
appt, but it is so irritating...

why don't you go once and see what they say? you don't have to implement
anything they suggest, but you may find the physical therapist reassures you
that you are doing the right things, or you may pick up some positive tips.
Most likely, the therapist will examine her and determine that her muscle
tone is fine and will let you pediatrician know and he'll be off your case.

She is still relatively small, at around 20 lbs, but she eats well, and is
not a picky eater. The problem is, she still cries 3-4 times per night.
We have tried to let her cry it out, but most of the time, she just
becomes more insistant. The only thing that calms her down, and it works
like magic, is a bottle. I don't want to do this anymore! We have tried
putting water in the bottle, and she just won't go for it. So we have
tried cutting the milk with water, about half and half, but it doesn't
make her wake any less. We feed her well through the day, she takes a
tippy cup all day, but won't accept it at night.

If you give in eventually that just reinforces that if she cried harder she
will get her milk, given she's accepted 50/50, I might be inclined to do
that instantly, always at 50/50, then after a week, or 3 days or something,
change that to 40/60, or even 45/55, so you're very slowly reducing the
amount of milk, rather than trying to jump straight to water. Just right
now, I wouldn't worry about the fact it's a bottle at night, because the
solution is getting her away from anything at night (or maybe one feed -
some children do need that), not getting her off bottles. Does cuddling and
walking around calm her down at all? If the above doesn't appeal, or doesn't
work, then you might want to consider other ways of soothing her, so it's
not a case of crying it out, but soothing it out.

Anne

"determined" wrote in message
. ..
Emily is 15 months now. Still not walking, but standing without holding
onto anything for a few seconds at a time, crawls up the stairs, crawls
off the couch, pushes around her walker, all unassisted. But my doc is
still insisting we bring her to pediatric physical therapy since she isn't
walking. I flatly refused again yesterday when they called to schedule an
appt, but it is so irritating...

William didn't walk till 15 and a half months. It didn't look like he was
going anywhere then suddenly he just took off and that was it. Within a
month he was walking just as well as his peers and now at 20 months runs all
over the place. I understood that 18 months was the rough cut off point but
even then not strictly worrying. No-one ever said a thing about it to us
because it's within the normal range. This is just me personally I'd tell
them to bugger off and come back and hassle at 18mths. As it turned out
William was slow because he was practicing his talking, and now talks better
than most of his peers - so it's all swings and roundabaouts.

Can't help with the weaning Im afraid as William dropped his last bf at 8
months and we never gave bottles at night. He still wakes in the night 2-3 a
week but has a dummy and a stuffed cat for comfort. Good luck with what ever
you try. No sleep sucks!

Jeni

In article ,
"determined" wrote:

Emily is 15 months now. Still not walking, but standing without holding
onto anything for a few seconds at a time, crawls up the stairs, crawls off
the couch, pushes around her walker, all unassisted. But my doc is still
insisting we bring her to pediatric physical therapy since she isn't
walking. I flatly refused again yesterday when they called to schedule an
appt, but it is so irritating...

I'd be asking the Dr exactly why he thinks there is a problem. If she wasn't
crawling or standing, there might be cause for alarm, but on the face of it
she seems quite normal.

I'll get back to you on the night waking when DS2 sleeps for longer than a
six-hour stretch at night. He's 21mo.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue

determined wrote:
Emily is 15 months now. Still not walking, but standing without
holding onto anything for a few seconds at a time, crawls up the
stairs, crawls off the couch, pushes around her walker, all
unassisted. But my doc is still insisting we bring her to pediatric
physical therapy since she isn't walking. I flatly refused again
yesterday when they called to schedule an appt, but it is so
irritating...

I can't really help you with the night weaning...

Matt didn't walk until he was almost 20 months old. We went to the
paediatric physio and she said he's got hypermobile joints so should be in
high ankle support shoes (not necessarily orthotics). I bought the shoes but
he started walking on his own and hates the shoes anyway.

Going to see the physio won't hurt (unless it's really expensive! mine was
on public health care) and it might even help. At 15 months I wouldn't be
panicking about her not walking, particularly if she can stand unassisted
(even for a few seconds - it indicates good balance and is a precursor to
walking) and pushes around her walker. That all sounds like it's going in
the right direction towards walking.

Good luck with whatever you decide. And good luck with the sleeping. Matt
night weaned around 10 months by himself but he still wakes up a couple of
times a night most nights and just needs a reassuring pat or a cuddle. If
you can get it down to that, it's not too bad even though you still get
interrupted sleep.

Engram

"determined" wrote in message
. ..
Emily is 15 months now. Still not walking, but standing without holding
onto anything for a few seconds at a time, crawls up the stairs, crawls
off the couch, pushes around her walker, all unassisted. But my doc is
still insisting we bring her to pediatric physical therapy since she isn't
walking. I flatly refused again yesterday when they called to schedule an
appt, but it is so irritating...

There is certanily nothing wrong with getting an evaluation, as it may help
her or it may prove that there is nothing wrong. I am not sure why you would
hesitate to have someone look at her even if it was for reasurrance.

She is still relatively small, at around 20 lbs, but she eats well, and is
not a picky eater. The problem is, she still cries 3-4 times per night.
We have tried to let her cry it out, but most of the time, she just
becomes more insistant. The only thing that calms her down, and it works
like magic, is a bottle. I don't want to do this anymore! We have tried
putting water in the bottle, and she just won't go for it. So we have
tried cutting the milk with water, about half and half, but it doesn't
make her wake any less. We feed her well through the day, she takes a
tippy cup all day, but won't accept it at night.

One of two things has probably happened, she is accustomed to you coming in
and giving her the bottle, so there will be resistence in taking it away. Or
she really is hungry. If taking the bottle away is the route you want to
take, then you will need a plan and then stick to it and you will have to
stick with it more than one night. It may take a few weeks or very little
time at all, depending on your consistency. Or, you could just let her have
the bottle and hope that it is a short phase. Good luck.

Sue

Matt didn't walk until he was almost 20 months old. We went to the
paediatric physio and she said he's got hypermobile joints so should be in
high ankle support shoes (not necessarily orthotics). I bought the shoes
but he started walking on his own and hates the shoes anyway.

I posted a question based on this problem when Ada was about 14 mths, it
seemed to me that she was trying to walk, but we being let down by flexible
ankles, I mused about supportive shoes, but many many people told me that
wouldn't work as the child loses the feed back from the feet that they need
to learn to walk (it's why the standard recommendation is no shoes until 6
weeks after learning to walk). Being severely hypermobile myself, I have a
text book which is pretty reliable and I find no mention of using supportive
shoes to aid walking, merely that delayed walking is a feature, but solving
that doesn't appear to be important.

Anne

Re the walking, I would say don't worry. She sounds within normal
limits. My first didn't walk independently until 18 months. At home,
he could cruise (hold onto furniture) most places he wanted to go, and
we had wall to wall carpet with padding underneath, so crawling was
easy. At 18 months we visited in a house with hardwood and tile
flooring and, poof, no more crawling.

Re the sleeping, may I suggest reading the Ferber book? Or my posts
from about 2 years ago? My first was quite skinny and woke for night
feedings. In fact, he nursed every 2 hours or so day and night. Now
he is still skinny, but he sleeps consistently from 8pm to 6 or 7am.
The turning point was making several small adjustments to ensure he
was warm enough in bed.

It is good that you are thinking and researching options. Making a
plan. Good for you.

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
Being severely hypermobile myself, I have a text book which is pretty
reliable and I find no mention of using supportive shoes to aid walking,
merely that delayed walking is a feature, but solving that doesn't appear
to be important.

Remember Anne, your child has not read books and studies and therefore real
life experience and suggestions people give may help in certain situations.
I think you rely too heavily on what studies and books say and not enough
into experiences and/or anecdotes from people who have been there.

Sue

"Chookie" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"determined" wrote:

Emily is 15 months now. Still not walking, but standing without holding
onto anything for a few seconds at a time, crawls up the stairs, crawls
off
the couch, pushes around her walker, all unassisted. But my doc is still
insisting we bring her to pediatric physical therapy since she isn't
walking. I flatly refused again yesterday when they called to schedule
an
appt, but it is so irritating...

I'd be asking the Dr exactly why he thinks there is a problem. If she
wasn't
crawling or standing, there might be cause for alarm, but on the face of
it
she seems quite normal.

I'll get back to you on the night waking when DS2 sleeps for longer than a
six-hour stretch at night. He's 21mo.


ugh!