2 Year Old Night Wanderer

My son did that so we got a crib tent. You can find them at walmart or anywhere really. It zips so they cannot get it. That solved the problem easily.

Do you put up a baby gate? That is the only way I get any sleep at night...I'd be too agraid that my 2 yr. old would be into everything! N.

When my child did this at about that age, my doctor suggested we tell him it was not okay and we would be putting up a gate/ or lock the door (we have done both at different times)if he did. He even suggested two if he would climb over one. It made for a few nights of beign very tired, but it did pay off after that. Hope that helps.

Hey! I have one of those. My youngest (22 month old) has been doing this for the last 4 months. It's driving me crazy. I find myself waking up at all times of the night just to make sure he is in his crib. Sometimes he's been out and about and I guess back & I never even noticed. I feel terrible because he is fearless about everything. I'll find toys in the middle of the floor, books out of place, the computer not as I left it, things out of the fridge that I guess were in his way & he decided to take out. But what worries me most is that he's a climber. I have found things moved around on top of our entertainment center that is about 5ft tall. He has tried to play DVD movies & computer games on on our DVD player or play them on our computer. The other day my printer was jamed & when I opened it I found a computer disc jamed in there. My printer is on a shelf that is about 6ft up over our compter desk. I'm afraid he is going to serouisly get hurt. I have found him in action but nothing I say or do has made him stop. He climbs during the day too as long as no one is looking. My poor 4yr old is my eyes when I have to step out of the room or even just try to quickly use the washroom. He yells "Mom, he's climbing again", then he quickly moves out of the way. He knows I'll be running in.
My 4yr old never did any of this. Plz share any suggestions. Good luck!!!

R.T., you have touched a few nerves in my mind. The first is, thank goodness, your 2 yr old night wanderer is just wandering in your bed. Mine actually wandered out to the parking lot of my building when I went to work at 5am one day. Thank GOD, a neighbor recognized her yelling for "mommie"-before getting hit by a car; and my mother (who was visiting from out of town) realized the door closing was not me and it was my daughter. My daughter has never done that and as a divorced mom, I feared her wandering outside while I was sleep. Be thankful it's the bed and not outside your home.

Secondly, my mom always said that I should never allow my duaghter to sleep with me because it would be difficult later. However, I cherished the cuddling and it was just the two just us so it wasn't such a big deal for me. This lasted for 2 years, plus I commuted to work from state to state daily which I believe contributed to her wanting the closeness at night. She has always had her own bedroom with a twin size bed as she never liked the crib to begin with. I decided one day it was time to give her a little push and I started with designing a really cool Dora room that she did not take to right away. A few weeks of putting her to bed in her own room finally yielding her staying all night.

Even now, she will come into my room every now and then but it is rare and I miss the cuddling already. I believe every child has their timing for everything and your little one will too feel independent enough to stay in his own room at night.

Best wishes,

I agree with jennifer and mover her to a toddler bed. A gate may not keep her in her room unless it is taller than than the side of her crib.
Also take a look at her nap schedule at home or at the sitters. If she is still taking a nap she may not need it anymore and this would help her sleep through the night. My son was totally done with naps by age 2. Some sitters put children down even if they don't need it just so they can have some down time.

I would not recommend letting your child sleep with you on a regular basis. My sister did this and it took till 4th grade until my brother in law did not have to lay down with their son because my nephew could not sleep alone.

Best of Luck

If she's climbing out of the crib, you may want to consider moving her to a big girl bed and then put a gate in the doorway so you can hear her if she needs you.

My fear is that she'd get hurt climbing out of the crib one of these times and keeping her confined to her room with either the door closed or with a gate will stop the wandering.

I nannied for a family with a similar problem. The child was getting up and climbing out of her crib. Sometimes unnoticably, sometimes with a loud thud. It was scary to think she could really hurt herself doing this, not to mention the trouble she'd get into by the time we noticed she was out of her crib. They ended up doing a brilliant thing that totally solved the problem. They got one of those crib tents that zippers shut from the outside. It's totally safe because the mattress actually goes inside the tent and then you know your child is safe. It didn't traumatize her or anything, just made her a bit mad at first! Oh well, cribs are for sleepy time! Here is a link to the one they used, it's from the One Step Ahead Catalog.
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

based on your indication that your daughter makes a trip to the potty before heading back into her bed, i am guessing that she's probably at least 2-ish?

I would make a big production of getting her into a big girl bed (toddler bed) and I think at her age, you can probably do a certain amount of reasoning (if i recall my older daughters when they turned 2) or should I say 'bribing'? Find a reward for her staying in her bed all night, so she has some incentive. If that doesn't work, I would make sure her room is very well childproofed, then put a gate on her doorway.

It has been a long time since i've had to do any of these things, and we are getting ready to move my son (15 months) to a big boy bed - we are just talking about it with him - we plan to put it in his room for a while first with the crib in there and hopefully transition him at around 17 months - unfortunately we need his crib for our new baby... we already plan to utilize the gate idea... and we will be using a monitor so we know when he's up and about.

Good luck!

p.s. - just had a thought... if she is able to deal with being awake during the night, maybe she needs to dump a nap, or have a shorter nap.... ??

I handled the situation the same way my mother did. The first time I tried to talk to my daughter and explain that we each had a room and we needed to stay in our bed at night...mommy was tired and she needed her sleep and so did she.

The second time I got very stern and rose my voice a little and told her she was not allowed out of her bed or her room until mommy came and got her (I have a monitor to listen) If the sun was not up then it was night-night time and she was supposed to stay in her bed.

The third time I got very stern, explained the whole deal again and then swatted her behind. I told her the next time she disobeyed then she would get a spanking.

She was to stay in her room and her bed until I said she was allowed to get up or the sun was up and then she could come straight to my room.

That worked and she's pretty good about it.

My son did exactly the same thing this past summer. We got rid of the crib and set up the "big boy" car toddler bed. We also put one of those foot pedal gates in his doorway since it is harder for him to climb, not impossible, just harder that way he can't wander the house at night. Most mornings we find him sleeping in the doorway with a collection of stuffed animals. He sleeps, we sleep, everyone is happy.

Hi, my children are grown, but I had this problem with my oldest son. Put the rail down, and close the door. If the room is safe (no exposed sockets, wires, etc.) she will be fine. My son actually would play quietly and if he got tired would go to sleep. Now if your daughter knows how to open the door, the rub a little vaseline on the inside knob. Usually little hands can not turn the slippery knob. Hope it helps.

C.L.

Once my daughter could climb out of the crib we converted it to the toddler bed and put a gate in her door. She was silent when she got out of the crib, so I wouldn't know she was out. We kept few toys in her room, and would take a toy away if she got out of the bed at night to curb the tendency to get up and play all night.

This may be terrible advice but just let her sleep with you once in awhile. My daughter comes into our room every night and I gave up as when they are older they will no longer want to do it and I cherish the cuddling.

I had a son that did the same thing. I put him in a small toddler bed because it wasn't that high up and put a gate up in the doorway. He couldn't get out and he was able to get back in bed by himself. My son was 18 months old when he started to do this. Good Luck!

We put a baby gate at the door of our sons bedroom from about 2-3 years of age. He actually liked it because I think it helped him feel secure. Of course the problem came when the potty training started so that's when the gate came down.

Hi there!
I am all for the baby gate on the door. I would do the big girl bed and the gate. She may yell and even fall asleep on the floor at times, but it does work!
Good luck!
K. :~)

Hate to say it but it's time to get rid of the crib.....Make it a big event, but part of the event is that she than as a big girl has to stay in her own bed at night, when you are a big person, they don't get out of their bed at night.....hope that works I have 4 and it seemed to work pretty good for me!

I wouldn't say this is the best answer but try putting her back to bed and you stay in a rocker there until she falls asleep. You couldd wind up a music toy. When she falls out, go back to bed. Don't do this forever; you don't want her to get use to you NEEDING to be there for her to sleep.

I agree with the suggestions to put get her a toddler bed and a gate at the door. It worked for us! Now our twins are 5 and they no longer have a gate at the door (or toddler beds). Becuse we've talked to them about things, they know that it is OK to come in if they are feeling ill. As she gets older you might want to talk about the fact that you each have your own rooms, but whe won't understand that now. You also don't want her to think it's NEVER OK to come in, because she should feel comfortable coming to get you if she's really sick.

I too have had children who did this, in particular, my surprise baby son who arrived when i was 40......his sisters were 17 and 14-yes, it happens! Anyway, he just would not sleep on his own, period....we seriously tried everything short of sitting in his room half the night and watching-or tying his door shut like we had done with his sister years ago...(she would just lie on the floor and yell through the crack under the door...not fun.) I just decided I was too old and tired to go through it, so-we relented and let him in. I will tell you this went on until he was 10 years old! My girlfriend said " Do you really think he will still be doing this when he's 14? He'll give up eventually." She was right of course, but, it did mean less privacy for me and my husband. It just depends on how YOU feel, not everybody you know and are related too....As he got older, he always would recall a frightening dream that would trigger the need to be with us. Just so you know, I am a preschool teacher with a degree and mother of 3, I am now 53 and have to say, some things just are not worth all the hub-bub, but you need to be the one to decide.
E.

we used a gate at our child's room door, they could wander all they wanted in their room, often I'd find them asleep at the gate with pillow and blanket :)

I agree that her own room is probably the safest and you might want to keep her confined to it at night. If you're not comfortable with the door being closed, consider a swing gate. We have one for our bathroom door by The First Years. It's a pressure mounted one that you step on a pedal to open, but it would require too much pressure for her to open it on her own (my 6 year old daughter has to actually jump on it twice to get enough weight momentum to open it). It's pretty unobtrusive and you can leave it open by day. My friend's daughter was a wanderer too, beginning at around 2 1/2. One morning they woke up in a panic because they couldn't find her. She fell asleep in the kitchen pantry - and had closed the door. They were so exhausted (probably from repeated wakenings!) that they never heard her get up even with the monitor in their room.

i would at least try the gate and the big girl bed. my oldest did this at age 2 and we made the mistake of just letting her in our bed. well, it took us 5 years to reverse this and get her sleeping in her own bed. it was awful. yes, the cuddling was great, but take the time during the day time to do this!! it will also start to affect your marriage. trust me!!!! as tired as you may be, just keep walking her back to her own bed. she will eventually get the point and stay in her bed to sleep.

Hello over-worked mother of 4 that works outside of the home! I'm an over-worked mother of 4 that also works outside the home....

My daughter starting doing this at 2.5. We tried the same route - getting up, putting her back to bed, several times over. She's stubborn and would start crying really loudly on the second trip - waking our 1 year old twins... AURGH!!! We put the dog in her room to help with 'being alone.' The dog was good about waking us too - if she went anywhere besides our room. Finally, I bought an inflatable Dora bed ($15/20?) and put it at the foot of our bed. I told her that if she insisted on coming into our room at night, she wasn't to wake us up, but should just go to her Dora bed and sleep. She's 3.5 now and sleeps through the night in her own room. It was really just a phase. My pediatrician said that nightmares/immagination really start developing around the 2's.

I got her out of the habbit when she was 3 by offering her a reward for sleeping through the night like a big girl in her room. I would pick up small gifts/hair accessories for her and let her pick something out each morning. After 3 successful nights, I increased it to 2 nights in her bed before she got a reward and then to 3 nights, etc. When it got to 4/5 nights, she forgot about the reward and she's been in her room ever since.

Best of luck to you!!

Put a baby gate in her doorway. One Step Ahead makes a taller gate (i.e. harder for climbers to escape) and can be found at www.onestepahead.com

When we had this problem, I took a tip from Dr. Dobson that worked for us. I made a pallet on the floor next to my side of the bed. Anytime our son wanted to crawl in bed with us (which was every night!), I had him lay on the pallet instead. The first couple of nights I did have to crawl on the pallet next to him (a feat of flexibility since I was actually 8 months pregnant!). After that he finally took the cue and began crawling onto his pallet. After a few weeks he gradually began sleeping in his room all night. It may take awhile, but it is definitely worth it!

This is advice from the supernanny on TV, who says that consistentcy is the most important thing. So if she keeps climbing into your bed you have to keep taking her back to her bed and the most important thing is not to engage in conversation with her about it, just take her back. If you give up and let her sleep in the bed she will continue to come back because she knows mommy will eventually give in and let her stay. In the morning though I would talk to her about her behavior and explain she must sleep in her bed and not mommy and daddy's bed.