Help! What is wrong

[ldinsmore]

My 7 month old son goes to bed between 7-8:00 pm sleeps fine for about 2 hours than he's up and very restless every hour from than on. He eats dinner around 5-5:30 and has 6 oz just before bed, could he be to full and that why he's not sleeping well? I give him mylican for gas relief. I go to bed at 8:00 because I know what lies ahead for the night, I;m getting very little sleep. I've done some research and has any one ever heard of or used Gental Care Bay zzz, it's an all natural relaxant for babies who are restless. Also he is constipated alot and I think that might have something to do with it, when he wakes up he cries and stifens up, what can I do for that??? Please help this first time mom>

[ra11en]

I don't think you're over feeding him, sound like just right to me. For constipation, I would introduce some watered prune juice or prunes baby food...we did watered gerber white grape juice every day and it worked like a charm. Kept her very regular.

How are you handling his restlessness? Getting him out of the crib, feeding him, something else? Around 7mo my daughter went through the same thing, and changing her daytime nap schedule helped her sleep better at night. Around 7mo is when we shifter her to 2 naps a day, and they were much more scheduled - one in the morning (around 10am) and another in the afternoon around 2:00. While adjusting her daytime nap schedule, we held firm on the night time schedule. I would take her out of the crib once in the night and if she woke up again we let her cry it out for the most part.

By 7mo he should be ready to learn to self soothe if he isn't already. That means a lot of crying it out so you might want to rule out anything else before you start that if you haven't already.

Also, what about teething? When I knew my daughter was teething I would give her a dose of tylenol or motrin before bedtime just to help her through the first part of the night.

I've used the Gental Care Baby ZZZZ but didn't notice that it helped my wee one at all. Might help yours though! Doubt it would hurt. :)

[ldinsmore]

At night when he's restless I go in and if he's still asleep I just rub his back. Usually that''s what it is restless in his sleep.If he is awake if it's been awile I will give him 4 oz if he didn't finish his bottle earlier. How much of the white grape juice did you give. He is not a great napper never has been, but at day care he nappes around 9-10 and sometime around 2. Some day she will not take a 2:00 nap. Is there anything else that you know of for restless sleepers that I might be able to try? Thanks

[ra11en]

I'm not too experienced with restless sleepers in babies unfortunately. My daughter is incredibly mobile in her sleep, but it doesn't seem to bother her enough to wake up for the most part. When you say restless, is he crying or just moving a lot?

I'm a huge proponent of routines, especially sleep routines. And if he skips his 2:00 afternoon nap, you may want to move his bed time up a little - when they get overly tired they don't sleep as well as they could.

I would usually mix about 1 oz gerber white grape juice and 3 oz water, twice a day at snack time. Around 1 yr I moved to half juice, half water. I watered the prune juice the same way, but she really didn't like that one very much.

Have you tried massaging him before bed time? That could help with tense muscles and would fit well into a routine right before the formula. I would let my daughter lay on the floor of her room with the lights down low and spend about 5-7 minutes massaging her legs, arms, and back. She didn't seem to pay much attention, but it did relax her a lot and gave me some wonderful moments with her. Now days she is much too active to lay there that long, but it was good for us both while it lasted. I would rub Lubriderm sensitive skin lotion on her which helped prevent excema.

Getting a good routine instituted can have a huge impact on their sleeping, but it doesn't go easy usually. You have to be prepared to implement the routine and stick with it, only altering it to suit his natural changes in the months to come (i.e. moving to one nap a day around 1 yr old).