ToddlerGuide

Sleep

Night waking after 12 months

Waking at night is still common after the first birthday. Your job is to decide whether the child needs you, a diaper, or a boring return to sleep.

A wooden house-shaped nightlight with star cutouts glows beside a stack of botanical picture books, folded cream and teal blankets, and star-patterned pillows on a rug.

A wooden house-shaped nightlight with star cutouts glows beside a stack of botanical picture books, folded cream and teal blankets, and star-patterned pillows on a rug.

CDC's 18-month list includes moving away and looking back to make sure you are close. CDC milestones by 18 months is describing daylight, but the same check happens in the dark. A child who has new words and new walking may also have a new reason to call for you at 1 a.m.

Illness, teething, and a missed nap make nights louder. So does a long gap from dinner to breakfast. A small planned snack before the bedtime sequence is different from a party in the kitchen at midnight.

If you go in, keep it brief. Lights low. Voice low. The lesson is that night is still night. If you start a new game, you will be asked to play it tomorrow. That is not a theory. That is how learning works at this age.

Try this

  1. Decide in daylight what a night visit includes: check, dry, settle, leave.
  2. Keep the same plan on Friday. The clock does not become a holiday.
  3. Look at naps and bedtime before you invent a new night feed.
  4. If you are dropping a night bottle, read that post and change one thing at a time.
  5. Write down three nights. Patterns are easier to see on paper than at 2 a.m.

Two adults should not run two night plans. Pick one. The child is collecting data. Mixed data makes longer nights.

The hour range does not disappear because waking is common. CDC milestones by 2 years still cites 11 to 14 hours. If waking is stealing the total, fix the total with an earlier bedtime or a restored nap. Do not wait for the child to become reasonable. Tired toddlers do not become reasonable.

In the house this month

A night light that is too bright becomes morning. If you need a light for safety, keep it dim and warm. The room should still say night.

If two children share a room, the waking one can teach the sleeping one a new hobby. A temporary hall mattress for an adult is a solution some families use for a week. It is not a personality change. It is a construction project.

Do not introduce a new stuffed animal, a new song, and a new bottle on the same night. The child will require all three forever. Add nothing you do not want to do in February.

If waking started with a cold and continued after the cold, you are in habit territory. Return to the dull visit. The first three nights will be louder. That is the cost of the new lesson.

What you can skip

Skip a new stuffed animal, a new song, and a new bottle on one night. Skip starting the day at 1 a.m.

Skip two different night plans from two adults. Pick one plan.

Keep the range in view

Waking is common after 12 months. Brief dull check-ins teach night. New feeds and new shows teach day. Count the 24 hours. If the total is short, fix bedtime or the nap before you add a circus.

Check in if

Call your pediatrician if snoring, long pauses, fever, pain, or a day total that stays far too short. Night waking alone is not a diagnosis.

Related ages: 12-18 months, 18-24 months. Pillars: Sleep.

Sources

  1. AAP endorsement of AASM pediatric sleep duration recommendations. Pediatrics. 2016;138(2):e20161601. publications.aap.org
  2. CDC. Milestones by 18 months. cdc.gov/act-early/milestones/18-months.html
  3. CDC. Milestones by 2 years. cdc.gov/act-early/milestones/2-years.html