Problems Staying in Bed

I have a 2 1/2 yr old too. I went through this as well. My husband and I decided that we would keep a schedule and not change it. First a bath, get dressed, brush teeth, read bed time story, say night prayers and say goodnight. Sometimes he would cry because he wanted to stay up but after a couple of nights he was fine. He knew the drill. You got to remember your the parent. I know it's hard to give in sometimes to your child but if you give in too often they will undermine your authorty. Good luck.

Hi S.,

You are going to think this is totally bizarre, but it worked for us. My daughter has always been hard-headed and stubborn, and when she was your son's age, she would not stay in bed as well. My husband and I brain-stormed, and came up with an unconventional idea. We purchased a small tent and set up her room safari-style. We removed the bed, put the tent in her room, and voila!~there she slept until she was 6 years old. I know, weird, huh? But it worked for us. We were literally at our wit's end, and willing to try anything. Perhaps this could be an option for you as well. I hope this was at least entertaining, if not helpful!

A.

S.
that is very common...they all do it....there are two parts of my response..
1. try having a daily routine before bed time..ex. dinner, a little mommy and me time, brush your teeth, bath, pajamas..then bed time..try putting him in his bed and just sitting outside of his door, not really paying much attnetion to him..and everytime he get's out of his bed in a calm voice say its bed time...your gonna have to do this a million times at first...but eventually he will get used to the routine and just fall asleep...He wants a reaction out of you, so by you just sitting on the floor outside of his bedroom he can see you, just try to ignore him...(I saw this on nanny 911)..and it helped me..

2. eventually he will get more independent and not want to sleep with you...I say this becuase they are only little once so I try to enjoy them in everyway I can(especially when I am tired and want some sleep)..If you find that #1 isnt useful or yor just to tired to try that then let him sleep with you, when he starts day care (if not already there)..then he wil gain more independence and not want to sleep with mommy, but he is a big boy and want his own bed...
Good Luck..to you...

I am so glad you asked this i am going through the same thing

I am having an identical problem with my daughter (who is a little over 3) and from what I understand it's something you just have to be firm with until they grow out of it. You don't want to trap him in his room because when he starts potty training he needs to have the option to get up and go to the potty in the middle of the night. The problem with our situation is that there's no real way to force a kid to stay in the bed while you're sleeping. Just keep doing what you're doing and put him back in his bed every time you notice him in yours. Actually, something we did that occasionally keeps my daughter in her own bed is that we told her that she grows the most when she's sleeping and when she's in mommy's bed she won't grow because it's a grown up bed and the people who are supposed to be in it are already as big as they want to get. I know it's a silly concept but it works sometimes because she knows she can't be an astronaut (her dream) as long as she is so little. Worth a try I guess...I wish you the best!

I was going to say essentially th same thing as Tricia, but also if you want to have some kind of a barrier in his door they make a couple different kinds of baby gates that are climb proof. I use a baby gate to keep my dog in the kitchen and she would climb out to when I used the wood/plastic ones that have the diamond mesh pattern as the gate. However, at Toys R Us they have these baby gate that have a plastic pole across the top and bottom and then the gate part is fabric. This way they don't really have a foot hold because they can't hold on to the weave of the gate and there is no support across the middle of the gate to give them an extra step.