Q: My daughter has a very irregular sleeping pattern. She is 1 year and 3 months old. Some days she goes to bed only after 12 AM. We get frustrated sometimes and end up scolding her. Due to this she starts shouting. We are trying our level best to change the sleeping pattern. Any suggestion or guidelines will be very helpful to us. Most of the times when she eats her meal, she needs to go to the toilet. Is there anything, which we can do, to control this? We were advised to clean her hands regularly. We are doing this, but even then, the situation has not improved much. Please help.

A:Regarding her sleep pattern, you have not mentioned that if she sleeps late, how she behaves. Is she uncomfortable or has any other complaints. Is she sleeping more during the day and that is why she sleeps late at night. If she is otherwise fine, comfortable and playful, I don't think you should allow this to affect you much. Some times mild sedation may be used on intermittent basis to regulate sleep cycle, but personally I would not prefer this. Hopefully, with time it would settle down. Regarding passing stools after having meals may be normal in many babies, which is called Gastrocolic reflux. Which means as soon as baby eats food it stimulates intestinal peristalsis (motility) and she passes stools. It is nothing to get worried about.