Ideas for Helping Three Year Old Stay in Bed and Sleep Through the Night

Since you said he is afraid of something coming into his room, have you tried making a "Monster Be Gone" or "Monster Repellant" spray? Let him help you make the monster spray using a recipe. (You make up the recipe of course!) Find an empty sparay bottle, put in water & maybe a few drops of essential oil to give it a scent. That way he can smell it to know it is working. Let him choose where it needs to be sprayed before his bedtime/naptime. I never did this w/my daughter because I heard of it after she was older & no longer afraid. But, I've heard from MANY parents who used it that it worked for them. There were some that tried & it didn't, but it couldn't hurt to try! For some reason my daughter was afraid when she slept on her bed but wasn't afraid of "camping" on her bedroom floor. (I had to put a sheet ofer teh side of her bed so she couldn't see under her bed.) She did that for months. I don't know why it worked, but it did!

Otherwise, you are right... he is afraid, just let him sleep with your until he feels safe again. You will get more sleep w/him in bed with you rather than getting up all night taking him back to bed. This too will pass.... I promise!

Good luck in helping your little guy feel safe!

J.

K., I would suggest a visit to the public library. Go to the children's librarian and ask for books regarding, afraid of the dark, moving, and siblings. I think good books and quality reading time might really help. His participation with you at the library will also make him feel more grown up.

Good Luck, M.

Have you tried talking to him about all the stuff going on? He might be able to express it better if he is prompted. Talk to him about how hard it must be that daddy is away and tell him why he is away, and reassure him that it wont always be like this. I would offer him a little extra snuggle time before bed or an extra book. And just be consistant with taking him back to his bed when he does get up. We gave my son a clock and when there was a 7 in the front he was allowed to get up but not before. Might help. Good luck.

I don't really have any advice - we are going through something similar with our almost 2 year old. We sold our house, but the one we bid on fell through, so we moved in with my in-laws last weekend. Our DD keeps asking to go home and I'm trying to explain it to her, but she's too little to really understand. She is fighting going to bed (we usually put her down around 7:30pm, but Monday night it was 9:30pm before she fell asleep). Then she woke up around 3am with a nightmare so it was 4am before we got her back to sleep. We haven't brought her to bed with us, but I have stayed in her room part of the night every night since we've moved. I'm kind of coddling her at this point and hoping she'll be more comfortable each day. Last night went a little bit better, so hopefully we'll continue in this direction. But I'm interested in hearing what people say as I fear it will just get worse when we do eventually move again. Good luck!

Kristen-

I don't have any advice but just wanted to send along my thoughts to you as I just posted about a similar but different issue with my 22 month old. Since I became pregnant, her sleeping habits have gotten really bad. The difference with us is that we'll occasionally put her in bed with us so I don't know if that is part of the problem? She now knows if she fights it long enough, we'll put her in bed with us? But I can't figure out WHY she is waking up? Is she tossing and turning and waking up?

I like the PP idea about using a monster spray! I would think your son would like that too. Maybe if he gets scared in the middle of the night, he could just spray it then go back to sleep. Or you could put it by his bed and tell him as long as it's in your room, no monsters will come in.

Good luck!