My 10 month old baby girl suddenly won't sleep through the night

by Letitia
(Jacksonville,Fl. usa)

Question: My 10 month old baby girl suddenly won't sleep through the night. What should I do? Is there a solution? Help Please!

Heidi's Answer: Hi Letitia,

There are quite a few possible reasons for your baby girl suddenly not sleeping through the night anymore.

It will be easier to find out with a bit more details from you about how often she wakes at night now, at what times, is she just fussy or does she cry/scream when she wakes, but also how she is during the day (naps, crying, ...) and anything that has changed recently in her routine or environment.

So let me start with giving you some possible causes and ideas to improve sleeping.

Have a look at this page with an overview of most typical sleep disturbances such as a baby cold, teething, baby separation anxiety, ... If your daughter is not ill, teething and separation anxiety are most typical at this age so it may be worth to check out the symptoms and what you can do to keep her sleeping well.

Also, she may not even have any illness or 'official' sleep disturbance. She may be going through a new developmental phase (crawling, walking, understanding more of the world around her, ...) or experience changes or stress in her environment. That can also suddenly keep her up at night. Then the key is consistency in the routines and sleep habits you had before (stay in her room when she wakes, gently putting her back to bed without much attention, ...). She will then pick up sleeping better again once she has coped with the phase.

Besides this, sometimes it is enough to just go back to the basics and double-check her sleep schedule, bedtime routine, sleeping environment ... You'll find an overview in the free e-book Baby Sleep Essentials here.

Or you may go for a complete approach: all the basics, discover why she wakes and then apply the best suited technique as I discuss in the No-Tears Sleeping Through the Night guide.

Good luck!

Kindly,
Heidi