2 year old diabetic still nursing through the night please help!!!!

[krystal3]

I have a 25 month old son who was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 11 months old he sleeps with me and my husband and he is still nursing all through the night ( average 4 times at night).  I would like to move him to his own bed and stop him from nursing but I don't even know where to start.  If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it.  I am pretty much on my own with this my husband has to work at 4:00 am every morning so he can't and won't get up with the baby through the night. He has NEVER slept through the night.  Someone please help!!

[imsmum]

I guess the first thingis to speak to your ped about the nursing vis a vis his diabetes to check about any restrictions on how you go about it.  Then I would take a look at Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution as she has a good method in there for weaning off night feedings for co sleeping babies.

[Florencia]

In the book Baby WHisperer Solves All Your Problems there are also very useful approaches to wean toddlers. Also, you have to check with your ped, cause there are different indications for his condition, it is my understanding that diabetics have to eat in shorter intervals, so I don't know how this is matched with sleeping through the night. Will PM one of the health and medical moderators for you to see if they can pop in with extra insights.

I would start eliminating the cosleeping first. You can start placing him on his crib/toddler bed and sleeping next to him on a sleeping bag/ mattress on the floor. Once he's used to sleep on his own, you can start moving the sleeping bag/mattress every other night closer to the door, till you're finally out of the room.

The standard advice for weaning is to stop cold turkey. Is he breastfed during daytime too? You can find more advice about this in the Breast Feeding and Feeding Solid Food/Weaning Forums. You just stop offering your breast and offer a hug as a replacement for the comfort and closeness. You hug him, lay him down and he'll soon understand it. Again, i don't know if this is doable under his condition, because only your ped/specialist will be able to tell you how often and what does he needs to eat.

Good luck, remember that you have to be prepared for loud/crying sleepless nights during a sleep training process. OFten is worse in our minds than in reality! HTH and keep us posted!

[*Nicola*]

Hiya

My dd also has type 1 diabetes although she was diagnosed at 2 years old. 

My first stop would be the diabetes nurse to determine whether your son NEEDS to eat during the night.  With a clear starting point you can then decide how to proceed.  Ciara does not need to eat during the night unless she is has a hypo which, fortunately, is very rare.  I would imagine that this would be the ideal situation for most kids with diabetes.  It is likely then that your ds is feeding out of habit rather than need.

Having said that, reducing his night-time feeds will have an effect on his bloodsugars and therfore on his insulin regime, so unless you are ok to monitor and adjust yourself then you need to get your nurse on board.  Hopefully you have a good nurse  .

The other thing that springs to mind is to be prepared for the effect that the stress/crying associated with reducing feeds may have on his blood sugars.  I know that stress or excitement plays havoc with Ciara's.   

Where do you live?  I belong to a UK parents support group which has tonnes of members with very young/young children.  There is also a US sister site.  Feel free to pm me for more info, or for a chat.  It would be good to compare notes

x

[Lan]

Hi krystal,
Nicola and Florencia gave you some good advice, what does your doctor say about night feeds? If  he doesn't need to feed at night, one way to wean him AND make sure his blood sugar stays relatively stable is to cut out a feed every every 3 nights, and then adjust his food intake during the day. Cold turkey is usually the way to wean older toddlers, but depending on what your doctor says, this might not be the best for your son because of a big fluctuation in blood sugar levels.  So at first you could do a late evening feed (before midnight) and an early morning feed (around 4 am), but try to cut out the one around 1-2 am. Then once that one is dropped, you could try cutting out the late evening feed, or shifting it a bit earlier. Then after a few days you could work on shifting the early morning feed back later.

If he does need to feed during the night could you replace  1-2 night breastfeeds with a cup of fluid instead?

Could you get someone else to help you for a few days? Or try dropping the first feed over a weekend or when your husband doesn't have to work? It really is easier to wean if someone else goes to your son in the middle of the night. Otherwise he might get really confused about why you breastfeed him at some times and not at others.

I think it would help to have a talk with him first before you stop the feeds, explain to him that the doctor says he is old enough now not to nurse during the night and you are going to help him learn to sleep.  In the last BW book there is story on how Tracy helped a family with a nursing and co-sleeping toddler which might help you, but it required Dad to help out a lot!

Finally, to let him know when it's time for the early morning feed, you could try one of those silent alarm clocks, I've seen ones with bunny ears that pop-up instaed of an alarm. Explain to him that it's not time for a feed until the ears pop-up - he should be old enough to understand. When he wakes up in the night for a feed explain to him that the clock says it's not time for a nurse yet, and he should go back to sleep. YOu might have to pick up/put down to help him get back to sleep though.

[krystal3]

Hello everyone thank you all for your advice.  I figured you were right, the first step is getting him into his own room, so that is where he has been sleeping.  He doesn't seem to mind being in there.  I go to bed with him and read him a story then nurse him and he goes to sleep in about 5 minutes then I leave.  When he gets upset that does throw his blood sugar way out of whack.  I tried to go cold turkey on the nursing and he got so worked up that he dropped his blood sugar to 3.1 (he should be between 6-12). We had to take him to Childrens Hospital yesterday because he has a bad infection under his foreskin (he is not circummsized and it is not retracting like it is supposed to yet) so I figured after his infection clears up in about 7-10 days I will start to wean him.  I spoke to his doctor and nurse there and you are right he does not need to nurse through the night he is just doing it out of habit.  I live in British Columbia, Canada and they don't seem to know alot about how to wean a diabetic child but his doctors help me out as much as they can.  So again thank you everyone for your advice and support I will keep you posted on how it goes.

[imsmum]

Sometimes the breastfeeding clinics are better for that kind of advice.  You might want to check if the hospital where you gave birth (if you used one) has a clinic or you can get your doctor to refer you to one.

[*Nicola*]

Hi Krystal

As your ds has had diabetes for most of his young life it is likely that you know it inside out.  Personally, I would wait until the infection clears up then get some advice here on weaning night feeds.  Do you keep a full chart of food intake/levels/exercise etc? If so, maybe recording the effect of the reduction in night feeding would help you to determine if it is affecting levels etc.

Good luck and keep us posted x

[krystal3]

Hello everyone this is an update with my little boy.  He is totally weaned now.  on July 27th I had to have a hysterectomy done and was hospitalized for 5 days so my son had no choice but to stop nursing.  They gave me dry up pills so I would not feel guilty when I returned home.  He is doing better than I expected he is gaining weight and is happier then ever.  Now instead of nursing time we have a lot of cuddle time.  Thank you everyone for your help and support.

[Florencia]

Hello Krystal! Bittersweet news but I'm glad you guys get to spend time together. I hope you're feeling better from surgery now. A rough weaning, I must say but sometimes cold turkey is the best we can do. I hope you 2 keep well and that you stay in touch. Receive a big warm hug from here!