My 21month old son refuses to sleep in his crib. For the past 3 weeks he has been sleeping in his toddler bed in his room. The problem is he is up 3-4 times a night asking us to lay down next to him. We have tried locking him in his room, but he wakes up crying and screaming pounding on the door. I fear he will hurt himself if I continue to let him vent. If we lay down with him, he falls asleeep right away, only to wake 2 hours later asking for the same. Should we put him back in his crib? Continue to lock him in and let him cry?? Anyone experiencing the same problem?
My husband I and I went through the same thing. The best way is to try this on a weekend or LONG weekend. Start early in the evening too. Keep putting him back in the toddler bed. If he gets up put him back without saying anything but it is time to sleep and I love you. It may take a couple of tries but I guarantee it will work!!!!!!
Have you tried letting him sleep with you? It is natural not to want to sleep alone. Think about human history as a species - until modern times sleeping in numbers was imoportant for safety reasons (the bears & lions out there you know!) perhaps this is just ingrained in our species...you don't like to sleep alone, do you?
Just let him sleep with you! He misses you during the day and wants to be with you. He loves you and won't be little for long. Enjoy the snuggling while you can!
J.,
I am sorry you have received such unhelpful advice. You are going to have to show a bit of tough love. Locking him in his room is not the answer but keeping him in his bed is. This may take a couple of weeks we like to call "Hell week" but it will work. When the little guy gets up escort him back to bed and ask him to stay there, each additional time escort him back but DO NOT Speak to him just put him back to bed. If you do talk to him there is a payoff for him getting up. Also you may want to try an earlier bed time, sometimes too little sleep promotes this kind of behavior. Children thrive on ritual, i.e., bath, bedtime story, lights out. If your gonna be a big boy you gotta have a big boy schedule.
I hope this helps, I nannied for serveral years and have raised two of my own children with a gamot of challenges. Chin up soon enough he will be a teen:)
Theory wise, babies are used to noise in our womb. I have 2 girls and 1 baby boy... since birth all were exposed to noise while dozing off (ie people talking, radio, tv... ) and, to this day, they've had no problems with REM. After dinner, place him next to you and spouse while watching tv OR simply spend every quality time you can find together... eventually, he'll doze off on his own. Do minimize nap time and don't lock him in his room... that'll only make matters worse. If all else fails, bring him to a Pediatrician for early onset stages of apnea evaluation (temporary cessation of breathing),etc... Good Luck.
Have you ever watched him sleep? You might find that he tosses and turnes after coming out of a REM cycle. I found with my son that a quiet area made him wake up after ever REM cycle. When I started putting him to bed with one of those wind up clocks that have a loud tick he slept all they way through the night.
I know it sounds simplistic but it worked for me. Good luck
H. Stanley
You can buy these pop up soft rails at babiesrus, that would keep him mostly in his bed.
Don't put him back in the crib, he wants to be a big boy,right?
Talk to him about what a big boy can do.
Bring an ipod in, set it to repeat playing so it plays all night.
If he was able to sleep in his crib, find out what kept him sleeping or not waking up to a point of really being awake,
Perhaps the space around him is to open, place large pillows by his feet and above his head, big heavy ones. Is the crib against the wall? do the same with the bed .
Try to duplicate his crib environment.
And never lock him in... my parents did that to me and I have not forgiven them yet.:)
Love H.
How can u lock your child in the room! That is cruelty to children! I understand you want to sleep, I know because I have an 8 1/2 month old who wakes up in the middle of the night once to play and I so want to turn off the monitor in our room so I can not hear her.
But children are children and they need their parents. I would love extra sleep and being I wake up at 4:30a to get ready for work, I would never lock my child in her room. Children just want to feel their parents warm body next to theirs. Have him sleep with you because that for me was my best sleep, having my daughter sleep with us. Put a noise maker in his room, put on the twilight turtle in his room (I just bought one for my daughter and she I am sure will love it when I get it in the mail)....do everything possible other than locking him in his room.
You will feel guilty if anything would ever happen to him and you cannot get into his room because of your negligience.
try to cut his nap in the afternoon, so he will be tired at night time, leave a nigth light on close to his bed.
