2Yr Old Waking up at Night for No Apparent Reason

When my son went through this, I slept with him once and then it kept happeneing. So I stopped the nighttime cuddling and the behvior also stopped. When he woke (or still wakes on occassion), I give a hug, a kiss, say it is still sleepy time, and tuck him back in. Seems to work for us.

It sounds like night terrors to me. Your son is a little too young to be able to explain why he is waking up. Try "Monster Spray" I used a trigger spray bottle of water with a couple of squirts of my perfume in it and sprayed under the windows, around the bed and in the doorway of my son's room. He watched me spray the room and knew that monsters couldn't cross over the spray. A friend of mine got some rose scented Glade air freshner and took a piece of printer paper and wrote the words "Monster Spray" on the paper and covered the orginal lable on the can of air freshner. As long as her kids could smell the roses they knew that the monsters couldn't come in their room and they slept great. I don't know what causes night terors but for 2-3 year olds they are very real. I know that as a parent you can convice them that they are safe without belittling them. In this case monster spray works great.

It sounds like he's going through an adjustment in his sleep patterns. Our pediatrician has told us on several occasions that it will happen to even the best sleepers.

Any chance there could be an ear infection or something you might not know about? Our daughter had to have tubes last year. The ONLY symptom that got us to the doctor was a really gross, green faucet of a nose. 3 times it got us there, and 3 times it was an ear infection leading to eventual tubes.

Our daughter was having night terrors. She was really young at around a year, but she's outgrown it. Our pediatrician's recommendation was that there really isn't much you can do when they happen other than to soothe them back to sleep as quickly as possible and hope that they outgrow it quickly. It lasted a few weeks and hasn't been a problem since.

Good luck!

We go through this from time to time. It seems to be a phase of course look at him and try to judge if it is something wrong but if not then send him back. We would go put our daughter back into bed and kiss her and tuck her in but that seemed to just make her get up more often because we would come and do all of that. Finally we just sent her back to bed told her she had to go back by herself (she got herself to us without any problems then she could go back by herself as well) and finally it seemed like she understood that we weren't going to get up with her anymore and finally just stopped coming to us.

Ha, that is funny because our daughter does the same thing. She is a little over 2 and wakes up crying every other day. No rhyme or reason to it. Dry diaper. Wants to get out of bed, get a sip of milk, watch Mickey, anything but her crib. We just had another baby and when Fin was born, I said I am not getting up with her anymore, I get up with a baby and she is not a baby anymore. So my husband is the sucker and goes in and gives her a grape, a sip of milk and puts her back down! My doctor says let her cry it out. We have done that too and nothing really seems to work. It also helps she is still in her crib. Until she climbs out of that thing, she is staying in!
I tell myself this, they won't be this age forever and I will miss it later in life. Not necessarily waking up in the middle of the night to a screaming toddler, but cuddling with them and soothing them when they want us. She is going to be 14 someday ignoring me and being embarrassed of me. Good luck :)

My middle child, now 3-years-old, has done this a lot. It was usually because of ear infections (sometimes not sleeping well was the only symptom- he now has tubes), hunger (especially during a growth spurt), or needing a diaper change (or now to go potty). My oldest did it a lot with growing pains.

I'd have him checked out by a doctor, sounds like an ear infection. Often times in the little ones we tend to mistake an asymptomatic illness for a behavioral issue.

Well, this makes me feel a little better I guess. To read that other people are going through this too. Must be a phase for 2-3 yr olds. My son wakes up 1-3 times a night, starts out with whining, and if not responded to turns into all out crying. We usually go in there and soothe him back to sleep. He doesn't need anything, usually wants to come to bed with us (we co-slept until he was just shy of 2), or have a book picked up and put back on his bed, or hand him his sippy which is right next to him. He's going through a wierd thing recently where he wants all his books in his bed while he sleeps. Half his bed is covered with books, some cars, 2 stuffed animals, and occationally the shirt he wore that day. We don't know what to make of it. If I try to take his books out saying he might hurt himself in the middle of the night, he screams! Back to the waking..we have also tried letting him just cry, we've done that 2x and he has eventually gone back to sleep but we feel bad, and he still did it the following night. So, it just seems easier to go in and soothe him. Hopefully, this will pass as he gets older. I do agree with the statement that I am kinda enjoying it while I can. Soon he will be 14 and want nothing to do with me, so I'll take all the cuddling I can get now, even if it is at 3am.