Getting a Child to Bed

You may try and unscrewing all the light bulbs and putting a lock on the out side of the door and monitoring him until he goes to sleep and then unlocking the door. I would watch a couple super nanny shows they deal with this some times. Good luck.

Unfortunately, I have no advice either. I have been having the same problem with my 28 mo. old-I'm at my wits end with it too! She stays up til' 11 or 11:30, she'll cry on & off for sometimes up to an hour! It's driving my husband & I crazy!!!! At least there is consolation in knowing I'm not alone in this!! Hopefully it's just a phase their going thru-sounds like our children are all relatively close to the same age!

I feel your pain!

We are going through the exact same thing... Our daughter is 27 months and also will not go to bed and is now walking around like a zombie half of the time because she refuses to sleep. We have done the same things as you, we have even allowed her to sleep with us ( does not work) to no avail. I also have a 7 month old who has become more mobile recently and thought this had something to do with it. Anyway, I have no advice, however, I would love to hear any suggestions that you get! Thanks
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I think it has something to do with the new baby. He could probably sense that something was changing, with you preparing for the baby, and things in the house changing. I know it is a little different, but my dog got really sick when my son was born. She is diabetic, and was always taken care of by me, and slept with me and everything, followed me everywhere. She was always great with kids, but didn't like my son for a long time because she was jealous (she is fine with him now that she has adjusted). She started acting strange before he was born, probably from the new things coming in to the house, and things being moved around. When he was born, her blood sugar went REALLY high for a while, caused by stress even though she was still eating right, and getting insulin right and everything. It was up to like 650, and should stay around 120. At 500 she could have gone into a coma. She was in a pet hospital for a weekend because it got so bad. They said it was caused by the stress of my sons birth. Maybe your son is doing this as a way to have some control of his life, with all the changes, and as a way to get some of the attention he lost when the baby was born. Even if you give him a lot of attention, it is not the same as when he was the only one. I think time will improve it, but at the same time don't give in and accept him doing this, or it won't get better. Try to have sympathy, and give him ways he has control of other parts of his life, try to give him choices, like in what he wants to do, what he is going to eat for lunch or dinner, or simple things like that. If you can, maybe have each parent take him to do something special like once a week, and let him choose what the special thing is. That will help him feel in control, and at the same time get alone time with each parent, and won't immediately solve your problem, but will hopefully help quite a bit. Good luck!

When we converted our daughter from crib to a toddler mattress on the floor at 18mo. she wouldn't stay in her bed. I tried the supper nanny thing and kept putting her to her bed over and over and over again but I couldn't keep consistent and it was taking forever and I wasn't getting the result I wanted quickly so I gave up. I then put up the child gate. She screamed at the gate for over an hour before I got her. She slept on the couch next to me and then ended up sharing my DH and my bed. I don't think the gate worked because she could see that there was activity going on downstairs. What worked for us is shutting her in her room. We put a child proof door cover on the knob. She cried for so long but eventually fell asleep on the floor instead of the mattress. I'd check on her before I went to bed and sometimes I noticed she pooped so I started checking her every 1/2 hour if she continued to cry. In the end she'd eventually sleep in her room. After her toddler bed was made when she was 20 months or so we'd still shut her in her room and one day out of the blue we left her door open and told her it's so the cats can come and visit her-she was around 22 months at this time. She stayed in her room for several hours before coming into our room. She is now 27 months and she goes to bed without crying but every night she wakes up and comes to sleep in our bed. We fixed one bad habit and created another. Our 2nd baby was born when our 1st was 25 months old so now baby sleeps in our room and although our 1st goes to bed in her own room maybe she comes in our bed in the am hours because of baby. I'm hopeful that once baby is moved into sharing a room that our 1st will stay put in her room. If not, then I will shut her in her room again to break coming in our room. As time goes on it's creating a habit that'll be harder and harder to break. We just let it go for now because of having to handle a newborn.

Note: we explain why she has to go to bed (get up early for daycare) and why she has to sleep in her bed (she'd a big girl and we each have a place to sleep).

Note: when we locked her in....she'd wake up and start crying and I'd let her go awhile before checking if she was poopy. I'd bring her to her bed and tell her to go lay down and that she needed to go night night in her bed. I explained how she has a bed and mama and dada has a bed. She'd cry but I shut the door and walked away. If I couldn't stand it or needed sleep I'd have her sleep in our room.

I guess I believe in the cry it out. Anything else didn't work for us and she became manipulative and played around with wanting our attention. Good luck.

this happend at our house with our daughter. It stated when we moved to a new house and then shortly there after moved her to the big girl bed. We have tried pretty much everything. She goes in spurts, last nigh it was midnight but she had been doing well. Try reading the no cry sleep solution. The other thing that has helped is a sticker chart with a reward. If she stayed in her room six days in a row she could get a new book or toy. Good luck we are still struggling with this and it's been going on about a year.

hi i am a mom of 3 kids a 6 year old a 2 year old and a 2 month old baby my 2 year old did the same thing when i put her in a todler bed so we put the crib back up and now she goes to bed so easy my son did the same thing so if u put him in a todler bed try puting the crib back up

My son did the same thing when he was about that age. The only thing that worked was putting him in bed and sitting on a chair next to his bed and rubbing his back. We did that every night for 5 days. Then for the next few days we didn't rub his back, just sat next to the bed in the chair, then graduatlly over time moved the chair further and further away from his bed until it was outside the door then eventually there was no more chair. This took like 2 months but it worked. He is 5 now, almost 6, and is the easiest of my three boys to get to bed. Remember to take breather time when you get frustrated with him!

OK. This book is really disorganized, but the info. I have been able to get out of it has been very helpful: Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth, M.D. They have it at the library, I bet. He talks about exactly what you are dealing with.

Good luck! Remember that this too shall pass. Well, at least your 6 week old will be sleeping longer soon.

I went through this with two of my four children. Consistency is key when getting a child to stay in bed.

Here's what I did. Now this WILL get tiring, but it does work, usually within a few nights:

1. Pick his bed time and stick to it.

2. Sit him down and explain that there will be a new routine for bed and tell him what it is.

3. 20-30 minutes before bed time, tell him it's time to get ready for bed. Then, brush teeth, give a warm bath, put on p.j.'s, tuck into bed, read a story, say prayers , sing a soft "good night" song, kiss good night. All of this should be kept as quiet and peaceful as possible. (if he needs a "drink" before bed, remember to fit that in somewhere before tucking in.)

4. shut off light, close door, wait outside the door. (You can put in a night light if he's afraid of the dark.)

5. As SOON as he pops out of bed, go in, put him back into bed and say "it's time for sleep now, good night". NO hugs or kisses and no words other than "it's time for sleep now, good night" and leave the room, shut the door (repeat until he falls asleep). {If you kiss and hug, you're giving him what he wants and he now has incentive to carry on for hours and hours.}

Now this can get very ugly for a few nights. Crying, kicking, screaming are to be expected. Your resolve has to be strong. You must be ready for a power struggle. You might be at this for a couple of hours for the first few nights. There will most likely be tears and a fit or two or three...but after a few nights of complete consistency, he will get used to the routine and look forward to it.

Believe me, I felt like I was going to lose my mind for a while there, but it didn't take too long before they actually looked forward to bed time and it was a joy to put them to bed.