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My 4Y Old wont sleep throught the night!

Karen - posted on 09/06/2009 ( 5 moms have responded )

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My 4 year old goes to bed really well at 7pm every night. The problem is she wont stay there - she will wake anything from 1 - 5 times a night at varying degrees and every single time she will come into our bed. We have tried lights on, lights off, stair gate accross our bedroom door (which she can open!), waking her before we go to bed, reward charts, bribary - and are rapidly running out of ideas as well as patience - PLEASE HELP!

Any ideas would be gratefully received!

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Becky - posted on 09/08/2009

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does she take a nap during the day? you may need to cut it shorter OR none at all. I have a 4 year old that sleeps on average 6-7 hours w/out a nap. We have had the trouble since he was born.
I let him sleep with me now, it's just easier on all of us. The put he in into bed and leaving him there, returning him did NOT work for us. We tried it for 10 days and not a stitch better, so we gave up!
I think so kids are just wired differently, but I would check out or ask a dr about food allergies. I have a friend that has a 4 year old with gluten allergies and it interruppted his sleep.
good luck!

Leanne - posted on 09/07/2009

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my son never slept through for the first 4 years of his life... i did a bit of reserch on the preservative 282 most commonly found in bread products... within 1 wk of bring free of 282 he was sleeping through. google it and make ur own choice:-)

Skittles - posted on 09/07/2009

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Try sleepy time tea its herbal and my kids love it. its very soothing and it helps them fall asleep and get a rested night sleep. MyDD is 8 and when she gets the tea she doesn't get up unless of course to go to the bathroom. I love it if I've had a long day and can'tget to sleep and it tastes good

Lisa - posted on 09/07/2009

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Karen, I'm afaid what I have to say you wont find any comfot in. My daughter who will be 8 in November still doesnt sleep through the night. In fact last night she was in our room 4 times, just long enough to wake me up and for me to give her the hug she wanted and to tell her that she needed to go back to her bed.



At one point we even tried an air mattress beside our bed thinking that if she was in there with us she would stay asleep, but she would still wake up several times at night.



I mentioned this to our pediatrician on her last visit and he actually offered me a prescription for something that would help her sleep but I am not ready to take that route yet. I am just hoping that eventually she will grow out of it.



Good luck, I hope you have better luck than I have. :)

Lucy - posted on 09/06/2009

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i only have a baby so have no first hand experience but i saw a show where a nanny said that a lot of times waking is due to habit and wanting attention. She suggests that you take the child back to their own bed, the first time just saying 'bedtime' and tucking them in and the following times not saying anything at all, just putting them back safely in bed. This way they get no attention and eventually realise that there's no benefit to getting out of bed. You have to be consistent though but it seemed to work on the show! I would imagine this would be hard because you have to get out of bed yourself and you might be really tired but it would be worth it if you can break the habit!

good luck xx

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