Help with Toddler Who Wont Stay in Bed

I have had friends who have made sticker charts for that age and it made a WORLD of difference! She gets a sticker every night she stays in her bed and when she gets three stickers, she gets to buy a toy, go get icecream, have special time with mommy, ect.

Hello,

My name is S. I have a 2 year old daugther and the doctor told us to make it easier for her to get out of her bed. We did!!!
The first 3 weeks were Hell! Lol!!!
She will get up at 0400 or 0430 and come to our bed and did not want to go back to sleep.I thought I was going to go crazy but finally she stop and she is now staying on her bed and she doesn't want to come to our bed until we called her.;)
So be patient and hopefully you will get a very nice night.;) Good luck T.!!!

My friend went through this too and the best thing to do is just keep putting her back to bed. My friend said it took two weeks of constantly putting her son back to bed (eventually he just gave up), but the key is to not have a discussion with them, just simply put them back to bed. Putting a gate on the bedroom door is another solution. This is what we did. They may spend a few nights on the bedroom floor, but again, you just keep insisting that they stay in the room. Good luck!

I don't know if you watch Supernanny but she offered advice about this one night and it has worked with our son. When they repeatedly get up you just keep putting them back in bed. At first telling them it is night night time and then after a few times of that saying nothing at all, just putting them back in bed. And also not giving in to any stall tactics no matter what. They learn that they won't get their way and eventually just stay in bed. Good luck. I know it is a frustrating problem.

If she really likes the fire engine bed, maybe you can use it as leverage. My daughter is still in her crib at night but we let her sleep in the guest bedroom for naps. I tell her I'm going to check on her and if she is not laying down and being still we will have to nap in the crib. Of course, if she is still, she will fall asleep!

Hi,
I'm not sure if you believe in spanking, but I had a friend who had the same problem and she spanked him and he learned very quickly it's bed time. Also, my cousin has twins and I remember when they were 2 or 3, she had the same problem. Her Dr. told her to lock the door. She heard some crying and banging on the door the first few nights, but it worked. These solutions sound very harsh, but it's the only time I heard it worked. My daughter gets out of bed at night right after bedtime and I usually take away a privilege if she continues to do it. She usually stops for awhile. She is 4 years old, though. Good luck!

I have 2 1/2-year-old boy/girl twins, too, so I realize how tought it can be when they don't sleep through the night (particularly when you have to work in the morning). We went through a few weeks of this and finally got them to stay in their beds. We had to be adamant that they were not allowed in our room and had to physically get them back in their room. Sometimes it seemed to do with the time at which they went to bed. I have heard to go earlier and later, depending on the source. Earlier didn't work for us, but we let them stay up 15-30 minutes later than they had been (they go to bed between 7:30 and 7:45 now). We also get everything out of the way before we leave the room for the night - kisses, hugs, drinks, potty, etc. We remind them before they go to sleep: "Are you supposed to get out of bed in the middle of the night?" and "What time do you get up? When the sun comes up." That seems to have helped because they can see the sunlight through their bedroom window. A neat nightlight also helped us.

We didn't do it, but I have heard about people reversing the doorknob so they can lock the kids in at night or putting a safety doorknob so they cannot open the door by themselves.

I hope this helps. I hope at least some of this works - it's horrid when you have to function on virtually no sleep. Take care and good luck.

T.
I can't remember where I read about this, but you may want to try a method called "Twinkle Interruptus" (the funny name that the inventor came up with). Put your child to bed after having gone through their ritual nightly routine. While you're in the middle of your last book/song, etc. tell them "Oops, Mommy forgot to turn off the water/kiss Daddy goodnight too/start the dryer, etc...I'll be right back". Leave them in their bed and room alone for just a minute or two, then come back in. Continue w/ the book/song/etc., then come up w/ another reason you need to leave for a minute or two longer. Repeat this process until you're leaving the room for 8-10 minutes at a time. At some point you should be able to peek your head in and find a sleeping toddler in their bed! I've never tried this myself, but plan to, when the occasion arises. My daughter still hasn't figured out how to escape her crib, thankfully!

Do you send her to her room when she's been bad? She assumed anything having to do with her going to her room meant she had been bad, so she would fight it. I started making her go to my room when she was misbehaving and it stopped being such a drama. If this is not a problem now, it's something to keep in mind for later.

Hello T.
I couldn't help but laugh when I read your post. I to have 2 1/2 year old boy/girl twins who have been crawling out of their cribs since they were about 18 months. I can recall a time when I heard them playing in our bathtub at 3 am, because they had crawled out and open several doors to play there. Not long after that, they were watching TV at 5 am. It scared me to think that they would have free reign of the house when I was asleep, so I took some drastic measures. I still use a baby monitor, so I can hear what is going on, but I also put the door lock on the outside of the door. This keeps them safe in ther baby proof room, and if they need me I can hear them. (the door knob covers didn't work) I also remind each baby that they are to "be nice" to their sibling, and comfort them if they start crying.
Last, but not least, My favorite idea was to create a "double" bed for them. Basically a platform bed the size of two toddler beds put together. They sleep together, in the same bed, which I think helps. This was something we had to make, as you cannot find one anywhere!
I hope this helps. If you get more advice, please share it with me.
BTW.. where do you work?

T.,

Good luck! My 2 year old went through the same phase. All I can say is "Be patient!" They will learn that if they do not go to bed they will be very tired the next day.

We just "toddler proofed" my little guy's room so that all he could get into would be his books. Yes, there are books everywhere when I get him in the morning. But he does eventually fall asleep - in the bed no less. Oh, we also use a safety gate on his door. This way he can only roam his room as our bedroom is downstairs.

Hi, T.!
I have 3 year old twins and had the same problem with getting them to stay in bed. What I had to do was frustrating, but the girls stay in bed now. I started out sitting in their room until they went to sleep, which took a while at first. I wouldn't talk and if they tried to talk to me, I would gently say 'shhh' as not to get them worked up again. As they got used to this, I would sit farther and farther away until I was out of their room, but they still knew I was there. I was eventually able to put them to bed and do my own thing and now have no problems with them. I know how frustrated you are, and I hope my advice helps you. Feel free to contact me....I definitely know where you're coming from. Good luck!

Hi T. -

I feel your pain! We just got our son into his toddler bed a few months ago and I thought I was going to go crazy getting him there.

I wish there was an easy answer. You didn't mention how long you've been trying this, but it took us a good month to get the sleep routine back under control. (and some nights we still struggle) We put his crib back up, and when he wouldn't stay in his bed, after a time he ended up in his crib, which he hated, so he started to relate the consequence a bit. But we also found out that if we just sat up and rocked him forever until he fell asleep, then put him in his bed, he would stay usually through the night. Some nights, we would be rocking until 10:30 at night, but it was still better than the constant running back and forth from his room to the living room, etc. which only woke him up more as it was such a fun game. We let him take toys with him to bed, and slowly but surely he started to stay. He knows he can't come out of his room and some nights he just stands at his door daring us to come and get him. We don't. He gets tired and eventually falls asleep. Sometimes on the floor.

If he gets up in the night, he comes to us in our room and we snuggle for a minute until he's droopy again and then back to bed. We've had good luck with the middle of the night, so I don't have much advice for that. (only that I will be repaid tenfold in the teenage years, I'm sure)

For our son, the "big boy" concept seemed to really work on him. He helps me change the sheets, we "pretend" to go "night night" throughout the day, and we let him choose what animals to have on his bed, etc. He enjoys the freedom of being a big boy and we encourage that as much as possible.

Until your daughter is sleeping consistently in the bed with no issues for at least a month, I would highly suggest you put the crib back up with a safety net, etc. as a way to get your sanity back. She'll cry and cry and it will break your heart, but she'll get it pretty quickly, and you'll be able to get a good night's sleep!

Good luck -

S.