My 19 month old won't go to sleep without being rocked

[TraciZ]

Our Dr. told us that rocking our 1 year old to sleep was fine as long as he slept all night, and he does! My problem is that he's now 19 months old and won't go to sleep without it. I put him down for naps during the day and walk out of the room and he falls asleep in a few minutes, but when I try it at bedtime he gets so upset that he's short of breath and practically vomiting! I give him a glass of warm milk, brush his teeth, turn off the lights and rock him to sleep in front of the TV then carry him to his crib and he'll sleep right through the night. Is he getting too old for this? I tried sitting by his crib and laying him down when he stood up and not talking to him which I thought I'd seen on Supernanny. He got so upset even though I was right there and he could touch me that I gave in and rocked him to sleep. I need some opinions if it's time to tough it out and put him to sleep on his own, and also the best way to do it. Thanks Supernanny fans!
Traci Z

[tstoner]

We had a similar problem with my daughter but it wasn't sleeping that was a problem it was nap time. She AlWAYS took a nap in her swing and of course one day she became too heavy for it...and being a new mom I didn't think it would be a problem putting her in her crib to nap! Well boy was I wrong...the motion of her moving soothed her and with her not moving in her crib made it difficult. But what I did to trasition is I would rock her in her chair and then lay her down. She would cry and I would let her cry for about 5 minutes and check on her, let her know I was there, try to calm her down and walk back out. Granted this gets old after awhile, but it honestly did work for me. Eventually she started sleeping in her crib with ease, they just need the reassurance that they are ok. That rocking motion is calming for them so maybe try another alternative to calming....maybe play a lullaby to help soothe them. Just take baby steps, heck I would be soo excited at first when she would sleep for 15minutes at a time in there...and the more we did it, the longer the time got!
What ever you choose to do I wish you the best of luck and hope you find a good method for you and your little one!