Do you have experience with one year old feeding habits?

There are plenty of books about this; the most famous one, perhaps, being by Dr Ferber. You could Ferberize her, as they say.

She is old enough to make it through the night without eating, if she’s of normal weight. At this point you’re conditioning her to expect to be fed during the night.

I wish I had more answers for you, I’m dealing with a very picky 4 year old myself. One problem could be that you are giving her too much juice. When I limited my daughter to just one or two servings a day she slept much better.

My very favorite sleep book is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth. Another good one, especially if you can’t stand to let the baby cry is The No Cry Sleep Solution co-written by Dr. Sears.

Unless there are other medical considerations that might impact her feeding and nutrition (I remember you mentioning that your sweety has some medical issues), she is old enough to make it through the night without eating. As hard as it is on mom and dad, she is also old enough to Ferberize. I did it with all three of my boys and it was the smartest move I ever made.

My oldest son is the pickiest eater on the planet, a great book for that issue is How to Get Your Child to Eat: But Not Too Much by Ellyn Satter.

Watch for skfinkel’s feedback on this question, she always has fantastic input on subjects such as these!

My three children eat breakfast, lunch, after-nap snack, and supper. If they don’t eat much at one meal, they’ll make up for it at the next one. If they’re hungry at night, I’ll tell them that they should have eaten more supper and that they can have a big breakfast in the morning.

My children are thankfully all pretty good sleepers, but my littlest is teething right now and the nighttime crying sure does get frustrating quickly. I feel for you, not sleeping through the night for more than a year.

she does have some medical issues and we thought her feeding was related to her heart, she had surgery 6 weeks ago and I would say she is completely recovered from that, but since then her eating hasn’t gotten any better.

I will look into ferberizing, we haven’t done the cry it out method yet because you can’t start it and stop it, it will condition them in the wrong way…we both have to be committed and on board for that one.

She is only 17 pounds, she is not even on the growth curve for weight, so I don’t know if that factors in at all at this point. She is definitely heavy enough to make it through the night, even if she is skinny?

@miasmom: Do you mind if I ask what you’re feeding her? That might be the best place to start.

@maismom, You said she has medical issues and had surgery 6 weeks ago. I would say this normally, but especially because of that, unfortunately we can’t help you. Take her to her pediatrician and explain the situation to her doctor. He will already be familiar with her medical issues and patterns and will be able to not only give better advice based on sound knowledge of your daughter, but might also be able to diagnose problems that we Jellies cannot.

She still gets formula, we are transitioning to whole milk slowly. She gets that 5 times a day and then she also gets pureed solids 3 times a day. We are working on chunkier solids, but aren’t there yet.

My hubby says we are doing the best we can, but I’m the mommy so I feel more pressure, like it is my responsibilty, especially since I’m the one home with her all the time.

I totally understand how sleep deprivation is a form of torture. :)

We’ve seen doctors and nutritionists and all of their advice is to get more food/calories in her during the day, so we even add corn oil to her food for more calories. Maybe it is just her generic makeup to not eat much? I’m sure that is possible, but I feel like she should still be able to make it through the night.

@supermouse. Thank you for the book suggestions, I will look into those!

oops, meant to say genetic makeup, she is in no way generic :)

I’d usually recommend this for younger infants, but it may work for yours. Have you tried waking her and feeding her right before you go to bed? I’m talking formula or milk, here, not a real meal, in a nice quiet dark room, then straight back to the crib. Also, having a very set schedule for feeding and sleeping helps a lot.

Augustlan, I have tried that, but she wasn’t super interested in eating.

Here is what I am thinking though, what if when she wakes I give her a bottle and then slowly decrease the amount in the bottle, over a week, until she is used to not getting much…then maybe we can get rid of it altogether??? Maybe that is a horrible idea, I don’t know.

About the feeding/sleeping schedule…what time is her last nap? Trying to keep her awake more during the day may help. What time is her last meal? Making sure it’s well before your bedtime (and her new last meal time) might do the trick, too. Also, set meal times with a reasonable snack somewhere in there & stick to them. Make sure she’s not being fed on demand, or grazing all day. At that age (barring the medical situation) sleeping and eating should be according to your schedule, not hers. If these systems aren’t already in place, it may take a couple of weeks to get it sorted out & settled down and there will be some crying. If you stick to it, she should get the hang of it pretty quickly. If you’ve already done all that, I would go ahead and try to wean her off the night-time feedings per your idea above. In fact, I don’t see why you couldn’t do that while you’re doing the schedule setting, too. Best of luck to you!

Because of the medical issue and the surgery – I would highly suggest you speak with the pediatrician before trying any one method. My son had heart surgery and a few other issues and it caused some feeding issues. Some of it corrected itself, other issues the doctor had us do very specific things.