Hi Moms! My 2.1-year-old has recently switched over to a toddler bed. He sleeps well through the night, and seems to enjoy his new "big boy" sleeping status. However ... he is up around 4 a.m., quietly gets out of bed, and then comes into the bedroom to wake us up (or play my husband's guitar!). Needless to say, he is getting up way too early. He goes to bed somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. Before the switch to the toddler bed, he would stay in his crib until about 6 a.m., which was working out fine for everyone. My question is, how do I get him to stay in bed? He does have toys in the bed, attached to the rails, to occupy him, as well as his stuffed "friends." Placing the childproof doorknobs on the doors is useless, since he learned how take them off and turn the knobs a LONG time ago, and locking him in his room is simply out of the question (that just feels wrong to me). We have been sternly telling him to "get back in bed," which does work---for all of 20 seconds----and then he's out and about again. Do any of you have a "trick" up your sleeve for keeping your little ones in bed? My husband's friends have recommended the yelling/threatening strategy. I'm sure this works with some children, but not with mine, plus, I'm not a fan of yelling to get my point across. I just can't think of anything to try. He's a little young yet to be reasoned with and, although he knows his numbers, he's still too young to grasp the "clock" strategy (i.e., explaining to him that he shouldn't get up until the clock reads 6:00). Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
-T.
Wow! I got so many terrific responses, and I thank you all. I decided to put the gate up outside his room. So, if he gets up early, he can either play in his room or the room next door, which is his "toy" room. He's always very quiet in the morning. He doesn't mind the gate. So ... the good news ... this morning he got himself up at 6 (through the baby monitor, I could hear him shuffling around his room and looking through his books, etc.) and at around 6:15, he came to the gate, said, "I out," and we started our day! It was wonderful. I love the ideas from both Hilary P and Connie M regarding the different clocks. I will definitely be getting one of those! My son loves gadgets like that, and he already operates his own clock/radio, so I have no doubt he'll grasp this new, cool way to get up in the morning! I guess I just needed to have a little more patience, and allow him to get used to his new bed and the freedom! (A little background: My son gave up naps about a month ago, although he will spend time in his bed just "relaxing" during the afternoon. Also, he's just one of those kids that no matter what time you put him to bed, he just gets up (typically) around 5:30. So, in order for him to get a little more sleep, hubby and I try to have him in bed by 7:00 or 7:30.)
Again, thank you all so much for your support and advice!
-T
Where is his crib? Hopefully you havent given it away. If you still have it tell him if he cant stay in his room where he belongs then he will have to go back in the crib..and then do it. If there is room in his bedroom put the crib back up along with his bed. Then when he gets up in the morning, polp him into the crib. he will get the message
I agree.. you can't lock them in. When my twin boys first went into toddler beds, they kept getting up, so I put a child proof door knob on the door and one of my boys would cry for hours! After speaking with his teachers, they let me know he was probably terrified that he couldn't get out of the room. So much for my good maternal instincts!! What we did was to put a gate on the outside of the door. That way, the boys could open the door to their room and see out, but they couldn't get out. After a few nights of crying at the gate, they were fine with going to bed.
But that didn't necessarily stop them from getting up early, although at least they were confined to their room. My boys go to bed at 8:00 and usually get up around 6:30. I got them a great clock from www.americaninnovative.com
It is called Teach Me Time. (they know have another one called Ok to Wake). The clock we have glows yellow when it is time to sleep (8:00) and then it glows green when it's ok to get up (6:30). Obviously, you can set the timer to have the lights go off when YOU want them to go off. You can also hit a button and it will say the time out loud. WONDERFUL product and my kids love them! Teach me time is about $40 and the Ok to Wake is $30 (not sure why OK to Wake is cheaper. It looks like it's even a better option for this situation).
I see that someone else wrote in about a night light, but I also wanted to tell you about the one that I have, since it works WONDERS! It's called the Good Night Light (I think only sold online), and it might be the best $40 I've ever spent. It's a night light that you program the times into, so it's a blue moon when it's sleeping time, then turns into a yellow sun when it's wake up time. I made a big deal about it with my son when we got it for him (he was about 2 1/2 at the time), and he loves it. He likes to show everyone that comes over his special night light. He has never gotten out of bed before he's supposed to with this light. I think it gives him confidence of knowing when it's time instead of wondering, so we all love it :) Good luck!
My son used to do this as well. I figured that (1) he was waking up, so he would get up, and (2) that he has little concept of time, so he didn't know when to stay in bed and when to get up. What we did was put his night light on a timer. When the light comes on, it's bedtime. When the light goes off, it is time to get up. We chose this method because it would tell him when it is time to get up and because it is the least likely to wake him up (so he can sleep in on those days that he needs it). If he got up before the light went off, we put him back to bed and told him to stay in bed until the light went off. It took a few days for him to get used to it, but it is working great for us. If your son doesn't have a night light, maybe you could come up with some other kind of signal.
Hi T.,
I didn't have this problem, but what if you tried putting a "special" (big and enticing/easy) alarm clock in his room and with his help, setting it for 6 a.m. Show him how to turn it off himself. Maybe put him to bed at 8:30. Seems like he gets his requisite 8 hours and is ready to go. But if you tell him he can turn the alarm clock off when it rings and THEN come out of his room, he may be intrigued at the "job opportunity" and wait it out.
Good luck!
I don't know if you want to get yourself into the situation that I have but it really works for me. My son doesn't wake up everynight but if he does and it happens to be 4 AM or a similar time that is not okay to get up I walk him back to his room and lie down with him. With mom or dad laying with him he goes right back to sleep and sleeps until an appropriate time for waking up. While I know it is not necessarily a good habit to get into it works great for us - especially since he does not wake up everynight. My son like yours will not go back and stay in his bed just by telling him to.
Good luck!
My son just switched over to a toddler bed as well. We have a gate because without that he keeps getting up when we put him down at night. Also we have the gate for safety reasons should he get up and roam the house when we are asleep although I think this in unlikely bu its just a precaution. You have to feel comfortable having a gate though. My son at first was also getting up early the first week but now this week he's been sleeping later so maybe the novelty will wear off and your son will stay in bed. We have more of a hard time settling my son down at night but it seems like you don't have that problem. Good luck. Hope this is helpful.
I would gate him in. If he is just barely two, he is too young to understand that he mustn't get out, or that if he gets out a second time, he'll be gated in. Yelling/threatening a just barely 2 year old isn't likely to be effective, he'll learn that he can't get out and wander around if the gate is up. I'd also get rid of the toys dangling - I feel that he shouldn't think anytime he wakes up is playtime. When is he actualy waking up? IF he's waking much before 6:00, I would think about rearranging his naptime, perhaps he needs an earlier or shorter nap.
Oh, we have a 3.5 year old escape artist who ends-up in bed with us around the same time each morning.
Have you considered moving his bedtime back to see if that's the problem? Or perhaps reducing the length of his nap during the day?
I personally don't like the idea of baby gates, etc. to keep the child in the room (in the event there is ever a real emergency).
But, you could also put him back in his room, turn on a light and tell him he can play until you come get him a little later. As long as you have safe things in his room, I would be OK doing that. Our son just wants to snuggle. He's not ready to get up, he just wants our body heat.
Put him back in his crib with a crib tent - i had to do this with my stubborn one
We use a child gate at our sons door. This way he cant roam around the house when we are asleep but he can roam around his room. We just feel that is safer. We just tell him to be a big boy and get back in his big boy bed. OVER AND OVER!! lol Just be consistant.
if/when he gets up, just put him back in his bed, tell him, like you do, it's not time to get up yet, wait until mommy comes and gets you, and go back to your bed. keep at it and eventually he'll get the idea. six hours isn't enough for a two year old, you know that. just stick to your guns! no, yelling doesn't help - in this situation it will just upset him and make him less secure, making him want you even more.
We use a baby gate that is fixed (screwed into the wall) to the door jam of our sons room. He hated it at first. He'd stand at the gate and scream and shake it. But now he doesn't mind it at all. It allows him to open the door and look out and we can look in on him, but it keeps him confined to his room.
At 2.5 he does not yet have the ability to stay in bed, he does not have developed impulse control, I think a toddler bed is premature, also for saftey reasons I would put a gate on the bedroom door. But NEVER climb over the gate while holding your baby, I did this 3 yrs ago, my pants caught the top on the gate and we both took a horriable fall and crashed to the floor, never multi task while holding your child. I learned this lession. There is nothing wrong with co-sleeping, it makes the bonding stronger, you may wish to just bring him into your bed, he is looking for contact, don't push him away.
