Teething bites!
Hello Everyone,
Joakim has been acting sooo strange lately. He has been absolutely clingy to me at home. Wants to be held and nursed all the time. I've been holding him more than usual but I've stuck to my guns of no more than 3 nursings per day.
His nap schedule is completely out of whack. He naps 20-45 minutes in the am (normal) but he will only nap 20-45 minutes in the afternoon. He used to nap 1-3 hours in the afternoon. He now cries and fights for one hour to get just 20 minutes of sleep. He just screams and cries. When I go to calm him down he lays down quietly but will not go back to sleep. he just keeps his eyes wide open. If I leave, he screams! Even if I get him out of his crib, he will cry because he is tired. The only solution has been for me to lay down and lay him on top of me.
Feeding him has also been a bit of an issue. He is not interested in table foods or stage 3 baby foods. He is happy eating 3-4 packs of Gerber 2nd foods and cereal rather than eat more solid food. He has been extremely whiny and cranky for no apparent reason. I am drawing a serious blank! My husband and I think he is teething his molars, but can all this odd behavior be attributed to that? We also thought it may be time to wean out his morning nap. But that just seems too soon for me.
His nightime routine is still pretty much the same, down at 7ish up at 7ish. No problems there.
One side of me tells me to just let him cry because if not he will learn that whining and crying will get him his way. The other side of me fells like I don't know what's wrong and I don't want to be hard on him if he is in pain or going through a phase. I'd rather err of the side of spoiling him than neglecting him.
Joa just turned 11 months. Any advice?
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Update:
Joa is back to a semi-normal napping schedule. Eric was out of town last week, which means that I had to take him with me everywhere and I messed up his sleep routine pretty good.
His naps have been great though. He has been going to sleep as soon as I put him down without even a whimper. Today was a different story, but for the most part he has been great.
Tonight we gave him some tylenol because we believe he is in serious teething pain.
I did the washcloth thing when he was teething his front teeth, I don't know why I hadn't tried it with the molars. I used a burpcloth and only wet a tip of it, that way he still had a non-frozen piece to hold on to. I've increased my nursing also.
I know we will get through this season. Thanks for your advice.
Debra
Hi Debra, sorry this is so long in coming. things have been crazy here and I kept meaning to get back in and share some advice!
This does sound like typical molars, they are soooo hard to come in and they even heart when they are older. Jessica is getting her 16 year molars and she is having a good bit of discomfort with it
When my kids were little and going through the unpleasant teething I took a wet washcloth and placed it in the freezer until it was really cold (not frozen) and then let the kids chew on it. This really worked wonders and for Morgan, who seemed to have more discomfort than the other kids, I would lay her down for naps with the cold cloth and she would chew on it while falling asleep. It helps to sooth the pain and gives them something they can chew readily to help the gums soften.
His sudden clingy is probably just cause he doesn't feel so hot right now. Molars are the worst teeth and mommy sure makes him feel good
I wouldn't encourage letting him cry it out because he is really having a tough time and you are his comfort in life. Hold him, give him the cloth (so he may chew on that more and cling to you less) and lay with him to fall asleep.
As he begins to feel better (if he isn't already) he will slip back into more normal attachment. I won't say his nap time will go back to the normal length but it should come pretty close. At 1yr babies tend to want to stay up longer during day hours, don't remove the nap though he really does need sleep but he may lean towards shorter afternoon naps. You could try laying him down a bit later than normal since he is still napping in the a.m. he may not be tired enough yet by the usual nap time, give him another 30 minutes before laying him down.
These are a couple tricks that worked for us. Hope they can bring you some peace in your home as well
and let us know how he is doing.
Mikki Hogan Publisher of UniqueParenting.com