Keeping 2 1/2 Yr Old in Bed!!!

Maybe a boy is harder to keep in his bed.... IDK. My girls loved their bed and had no issues. We did have a gate at the door and we made the bed fun and neat to be in. I think the more attention that you give him and keep going into the room , it will distract him to bed time and routine. I know that it is easier said then done.....it has been a long time since we delt with this transition.

MAYBE .... move his bed outside his room and he has to sleep in the hallway until he is willing to stay in his bed. to look in his room and not being able to get in there may be a good compromise.

The excitement wears off after a bit. Remove all distraction, take him up earlier and try reading a bit longer if it calms him down. And as was posted before Super-Nanny him. I had a few spells like this and I would stand outside the door quietly then take my daughter back to her bed (no interaction) over and over again. Each time she got out I put her back in. The first night was a screaming test of wills (her screaming, not me!). I stayed quiet the whole time. The next night was tears. The next night I only had to put her back in about three times before she gave up! You have to show that you will patiently do it all night if necessary! They do give up eventually. So clear your schedule for a night or two. Get help if you need it with chores or other kids. Exercise him hard that day and calm him down earlier. Drink one glass of wine for calmness of spirit, say a little prayer and then hunker down for the evening!!

I am in the same boat, and what I have been told to do, I have so far failed at.

Basically, the technique used by "Super Nanny" is to just walk the child back to the bed--no talking, no emotion, no extra kisses--just to bed, cover with blanket, leave. Repeat over and over and over again, even for hours at a time, until he stays there every night. I would LOVE to do this, but I am just too tired and I have a 9 month old that occassionally wakes during the night too, so I am just not ready for the battle.

Good luck to you, though!

Hi A., I have a boy who was a non-sleeper too. Well, he's STILL noctural (almost 20 now), but he's the only of the three who had any sleeping issues. So, here's what I did:

I basically gave up. tehehe

When he was 3, I stopped trying to force him (like others have said, I too had 2 younger ones, plus, I'm not a good sleeper myself, you know?). He and his brother (20 months younger) shared a room.

I put the younger Quality Sleeper (yay!) to bed, waited til he was in a sound sleep, then brought the elder, NonSleeper (boo!) up.

I took him to the store, let him pick out a flashlight. And here was the rule, he was allowed to choose 3 books to look at quietly (and even THAT required policing, he'd drag it out, had to be a time limit on choosing books, too). There was no restriction on how LONG he could look at his books quietly with his flash light. Never needed it, turns out looking at books with his flashlight in his dark quiet room was enough to put him to sleep.

Turns out, he just doesn't seem to need the sleep the other two do. He's now a sophomore away at college and does manage to get himself up and to class on time anyway.

So that's what 'worked' for us. Maybe worth a try, right. As soon as the focused turned from YOU MUST SLEEP NOW, to the reading of books, his own secret little thing, that was the end of the overtired crazies!

:)

I say just let it go..... my 3 year old plays for at least 2 hours. Well her thing is "reading" to her babies by flashlight. We say as long as she is in her room and not bugging us, so be it.
We put her down at 9 and most nights we hear her until 11. She wakes up at 730am or so and takes a long nap (3 hours) during the day. Some days she does not nap and will then only fall asleep around 10....
We figure she isn't cranky and being a horrid toddler, so we just roll with it. She got the night owl gene from me, so am trying to be understanding :)

The "supernanny" way does not fit into my parenting philosophy. My son always stays in his bed. He knows to call for me and I will come. Keep your bedtime routine the same. Then I stay with him. This is one of the reasons I don't like toddler beds. Why not just go from a crib to a full or twin size bed? I mean, it's not like he can stay in the toddler bed forever. I cuddle my son in his full size bed until he goes to sleep, I leave, and then he stays there until morning. Yes, if he is sick he does call for me and I go in there. I firmly believe that the bed should be a safe and loving place, not punishment.

Duct tape.

Just kidding.

Tell him that if he won't stay in his bed, then he will have to go to bed even earlier because he isn't going to bed, he's goofing around. When he is sent to bed it's not play time, it's night night time.

If he needs the time to "wind down" before getting in to bed and falling asleep, start the process a little earlier.
One thing that worked with both of my kids was that they had "babies", my daughter had her dolls and my son has his stuffed puppy, they were enlisted in being quiet and still and covering up their babies so the "babies" could go to sleep. They had to be quiet. Sometimes they sang or rocked their babies but they did it in bed and fell asleep pretty successfully that way.
It's worth a try.

I don't know if this will help but my grandson loves movies so what we and his parents do is lay down with him and watch a movie at bedtime. We have a small DVD player we put on the floor so he can see it and he gets to watch it as his "quiet time". Pretty soon he is asleep. Make sure the movie is low key and not action packed.

N.

You're lucky he stayed in the crib so long! We've been doing this for a year already with my 2.5 year old son! My son has always taken an hour (from the time I lay him in bed) to calm down and go to sleep. He shares the room with his two big brothers, so I put them to bed first since they fall asleep fairly quickly. Then I put little man to bed, and I don't know what he does in there, but as long as he's quiet and doesn't wake up his brothers, I don't care. Sometimes he asks for books before I leave, which is fine with me. No matter what, he takes an hour, and the books help him to stay in bed (which is nice since I don't have to pick him up off the floor later). Give him another week to get used to the freedom, and he should calm down and get back to his usual sleep schedule. Hang in there!