HELP baby bath/sleep problems

[wandasmart]

my 10.5mnth old used to go to sleep fine after her last milk feed and sleep thru the night since 2.5 months until her recent illness. she was hospitalised for wheezing and baby bronchialitis. the last night in the hospital she slept thru, but not when she got home. also she used to be put into her cot and she'd turn over, suck her thumb and fall asleep with little fuss, even during her hospital stay. now however, a week after, she refuses to have me leave the side of the cot. i can't even walk to the other end of the room and sit down in the armchair. even after she turns around and sucks her thumb, as soon as i sneak out, she screams like she's never screamed before. in the middle of the night she wakes up and plays, refusing again to go back to sleep for over an hour.

i'v been told by one friend to be strict and she'll fall back into the routine 3- 4 days later, and someone else said it's too early after the illness to try controlled crying.

the other problem we are having is that she used to love the bath but now is a screaming terror. we are using the baby bath inside the big tub. she arches back or stands up and cries hysterically. have taken her to the pool, and although she's not as enthusiastic as before the illness, she still is calm, splashes her arms and kicks a bit playing.

i don't want to seem unfeeling, but i'm quite anxious to get her into the old routine.

 

[nanzbier]

She's probably still not feeling well. I notice that my daughter gets extremely clingy to me while she's at the peak of her teething. She wants to be held all the time and in general is always cranky even after a good nap. I would have a very hard time using controlled crying knowing that she isn't feeling well. However, after 1-2 weeks of no sleep, I realize that its not good ifI'm not functional. And...controlled crying ALWAYS worked for me. I guess whatever you choose, be consistent.
I'm sorry...I can't help out with the bath....I can't guess why she would cry. Did you introduce a new toy perhaps?

You are not being unfeeling about wanting her back in her old routine....I think every mother deserves good sleep!

Let me know how things go.....

 

[wandasmart]

well i put some bonjela on her gums last night just in case that's why she's cranky but it didn't help at all. when she finally fell asleep, she slept until 4am then woke up crying. well i guess i'm thankful she slept that long, hoping it will get increasingly longer until it reaches 7:30-8ish again.

as for the bath, i sat in the bath with her tonight, she didin't cry BUT she wudn't really want to sit. she'd periodically lean forward to flick a toy (didn't introduce anything new since she WAS loving her baths!) and then would stand up again. she was slipping all over the place as well (havn't stuck anything on the tub to prevent that) and also would turn around from time to time (to check i was there?) and cling onto me. i'm goign to try again tomorrow, and maybe slowly help her gain back some confidence in the bath??? i have no idea what else to do?? i can't even buy a bath seat as she won't sit down really. and she keeps wanting to grab the shower hose, but i stop her as worried she'll pull it down and conk one of us in the head.

 

[hermoine]

Hi Mamalicious,

I donno if this is the "right" thing to do, but my son had to go to hospital once, and like you mentioned. He too, turned clingy the way your daughter did, though he was also a very independent baby b4. We let him sleep between us until he was sound asleep and would then move him back to his room. This went on for a couple of weeks I think , then we started cooing him into sleeping in his own bed, we would sleep next him (all curled up) until he was fast asleep, then we would leave. Slowly, we slept on the floor with him on the bed....then we just sit next to the bed watching him dozed off....then graduating to reading to him, then lights off and let him doze off by himself. Whole process takes a long time, a couple of months or even more, and it's quite tough to be patient. But hang in there. It will pays off. And the bonds between you and your daughter will be stronger than b4 as well!

Regarding bathtimes, again, either me or my husband will have a bath or shower (sometimes he prefers shower) TOGETHER with him and slowly graduating to him bathing alone again. We let him hold on the shower head at times, we didn't find any problem with that. Sometimes, we let the tap ran a while to let him play and hear the water noise (then he'll forget his fear), and that has worked out quite well as well. Oh yeah, I bought some cheap soft plastic screw-top bottles from Watsons and poured some colourful liquids in them (not too full, so that you can also shake them up and show them the bubbles formed, that had made my son forget his fear too) to let him play in the baths and he loved them too. (eg Yellow-John's baby shampoo, Green-Mouthwash etc etc)

Hope that helps! Do update us!