Help-can't Get Son to Sleep at Night!

Okay...I have a few thoughts. I don't think it is a delayed reaction to the new room.

First, I think you might be on to something with the whole not playing in his room thing. Try that for a little while.

Second, be very careful on how you are responding to him and your emotions when you are tucking him in. I know that it is difficult to be calm when you are worried about him, but you need to be VERY self-assured when you are putting him to bed. Kids "learn" to fear based off of our reactions to things. If you act like there is something wrong, then he will think there is something to be afraid of. For example, my kids are not scared of the dark. However, we read a book talking about various emotions and one of them is "scared" and it shows a picture of a little boy afraid of a dark thunderstorm. That night, my daughter tried to pretend to be scared of the dark. I know that she was pretending because earlier in the day she pretended to be angry, be sad, be silly and all the other emotions. So I calmly told her that was just a book and we weren't going to pretend to be scared. She stopped immediately. Had I reacted differently, I am sure she would have become scared of the dark. We purposefully skip that page when reading that book now and she has never said she was scared of the dark again. So basically what I am saying is, watch your emotions. Make sure you are very calm and straightforward and cheerful "Its time for bed now. I love you. I'll see you in the morning. Good night."

Third, make sure he is not "overtired". When my kids don't get a good enough nap, they have a harder time falling asleep.

Finally, I had a similar situation happen with my 2 year old girl when she was around that age. The first time it happened, I did overreact. She was probably just overtired, but I was worried she was in pain or something. So I sat in there with her for 3 hours. She liked that. She played that game with me for a little over a week. Finally I decided enough was enough. I calmly told her it was bed time and I would see her in the morning. I gave her motrin just to make sure she wasn't in pain from teething. Then I left. I let her cry for 20 minutes. Then I sent my husband in. She is not so excited about having Daddy in there--I guess he's not as comforting or as fun or something. Anyway, he went in and CALMLY told her that she needed to be quiet, "it is night night time. Go to sleep." He kissed her and then left. She cried for another 20 minutes or so and went to sleep. The next night she cried for maybe 10 minutes. The next night I didn't give her any motrin and she cried for maybe 5 minutes.

I would like to point out, that I am NOT a cry it out fan. Up until that point I had not let her cry it out for more than a few minutes when I knew she was exhausted. I have 3 other children and I have never let any of them cry it out. However, we had gotten into a little pattern that she liked. She knew I would come in there if she screamed really hard so that's what she did.

So, with all that said, my best advice for you is trust your instincts. If you are pretty sure there is nothing physically wrong with him, and he seems fine the rest of the time, he has probably just developed a habit that you need to help him break--however you choose to do that. He is your son...you know what will work best for him. Good luck!

It seems the issue started after playing in his room. I would take the toys out and use another room for playtime. I have my daughters toys in our living room for that very reason. Luckily it has worked and she goes to sleep no problem. We even put her into a toddlers bed a couple of weeks ago and we told her that when she woke up to stay in bed until we came in and she does. She doesn't always listen to us with other things so imagine our surprise when that worked so easily! Anyway, I would try making the room a place to go to sleep and get dressed only and see if that helps. It may take a few days before he starts sleeping as usual again but stick with it.

Good luck!

Hello R.,

I think the whole toys in the room thing is playing a big role. Also just moving into a new can be too. i have the kids toys in the living room ( kid section, not the whole room), for this reason at night. My son will talk to himself or play all night long if he could.

remebering back, we moved into a really big house when he was about 19 months and the first few weeks(2-3) he was fine and the afterwards he had sleep problems. The exact same ones you are having. It seemed like he had realized that we moved to a bigger house and was uncomfortable with our rooms being farther apart.
A few things we tried was having my husband sleep in his room, but not in bed with him. CIO, which did not help! Finally what seemed to work pretty well was giving him a stuffed animal to go to bed with. Also making sure he slept in his room for naps and giving him extra assuance that mommy and daddy are here anytime he needed us during the night and day.Also, we out up transformer stickers and stars on his wall so he could look at them at night and make it more fun. Oh and a night light in his room! It took a couple of weeks of getting used to his new room, but after a while he did fine.

I just know now that he doesn't do well with change. Now I always try to get him involved with the change or make it fun. The stickers really helped!! I hope this helps..

N.

SAHM of a 3yr old(boy) and a 9 month old (Girl)

My daughter did this exact same thing. She is 18 months old and about 5 weeks ago she started screaming the moment we layed her down. Then she climbed out of her crib 2x and ran down the hall saying all done done done. After 2 weeks of crying and climbing out of her crib 2x we moved her to a toddler bed. During those 2 weeks we would sit quietly in her room, not looking at her till she fell asleep...nothing else worked. Since we moved her into her toddler bed...not a single issue. She isn't getting up, she isn't fussy, she isn't having a problem. The transition was perfect! I think they become more aware of their surroundings. If he is in a crib, maybe lower his rails so he can get out if he wants to. That's my 2 cents... :)