Teaching your child to fall asleep

When children 6 to 18 months cannot fall asleep on their own and are waking throughout the night

First, I recommend working on falling to sleep and then working on the rest of the night later. Parents should go through a strict bedtime routine and then place the child in their bed awake.

The bedtime routine will vary based on age. For a 6 month old it would typically feed (bottle/nurse), bathe, dress, feed a little more and place in bed awake. For a 12 month, it often would be bath, brush teeth, read, prayers and place in bed awake. If your struggling to teach an older child to sleep, get them tired by letting them play outside for a couple hours in the evening.

After 6 months old, I recommend the parents let the child “cry it out”. There are many books on the market to help parents with sleeping problems, if you cannot stomach crying it out then find a book and try their method. We have read some of these books and even tried their methods and were frankly disappointed.

When you do decide to let your child cry it out realize that the first night will be horrible, but the 5th night will be worse. I do not recommend frequently checking on the child as this serves to only anger the child more. It is okay to check on them as long as the child is unaware of the parent’s presence or if your worried about the child’s safety. If you try to let them “cry it out” you cannot give up and go to them. If you give in, then you will only encourage more crying in the future as you are rewarding the child’s crying behavior. You should not begin to let your child “cry it out” unless you are (1) willing to let them cry all night and (2) believe that doing it is in your child’s best interest.

Many children will bang their heads or vomit in their beds when upset. If you allow these things to cause you to give up then you will get more crying, vomiting and head banging. If the child vomits in their crib, I recommend you change the sheets and clean up after the child falls asleep.

After two weeks, your child will have learned to fall asleep on their own. During the initial two weeks go to your child if they wake in the middle of the night. After, they have learned to fall asleep on their own most children will learn to put themselves back to sleep in the middle of the night.

Updated November 2010 by
Dr. Gordon, Windermere Pediatrician