3.5 year old overtired and cranky but refusees to sleep HELP!!

Joana - posted on 02/06/2011

Talk to your pediatrician about using a Melatonin suppliment. It is all natural, not a prescription medication, and available over the counter & in liquid form. IT WORKS WONDERS for my 3 1/2 y/o - he's asking to go to bed within 30 minutes of taking it :-)

Kristy - posted on 02/06/2011

Wow, that doesn't sound like fun. If she isn't having naps anymore, make her go in to her room and spend an hour or half hour, whatever suits you, in their to have some quiet time. Tell her she doesnt have to go to sleep but she needs to lie down and look at books, talk to her babies or anything else that you can think of. This will be a fight in its self as she obviously is going through the terrible threes. They say two is terrible, i think they got that all wrong and it is actually the threes, lol! Anyway see if you can get daycare on your side and get them to do the same, quiet time instead of nap time. As for the eating of dinner, if she wont eat her tea then go without and if she is still hungry say just before bed, then offer her a banana and yoghurt. If she wont eat these, which are healthy then off to bed she goes without dinner. With the tantrums, my daughter is just gone three but she would have them for an hour, all i did was not threaten the naughty chair, instead ask her to get on it if she doesnt then pick her up and put her on it. She will scream, yell and whinge but just ignore her ( i know how hard this is, 10pm at night and dd screaming at you) but you need to do it and just keep saying every so often when you calm down and can talk to me nicely i will answer you then. This may take a week or three, but after a while they stop and realise that the tantrum doesnt work. Dont yell just calmly put her on that naughty chair!! It took my daughter 4 - 6 weeks of me being consistent and calm and now she doesnt have many tantrums and if she does they are over in ten minutes and peace is restored :)) Be consistent with what you do. The bedtime thing, take her hand and put her back in bved, and keep doing it, dont make eye contact or talk to her, if she starts screaming then tell her when she calms down you will tuck her back in. I don';t know if any of this will help you, but remember you are not alone and kids wont starve themselves for to long. A day or so and they are soon eating again.

Lucinda - posted on 02/05/2011

Hi Marcy, first thanks for understanding :) At least I knwo my daughter is doing the same stuff others her age are and as with you she won't eat whatever we eat. I have tried to bribe her into at least trying new things (tonight it was sweet potato fries) but she is stubborn that way so its hard. thanks fo rthe advice..

Marcy - posted on 02/04/2011

Wow, you have your hands full. my son gets up daily about 6ish and we leave for school at 7:30. I don't pick him up from school until 4:30 and some days he is unbearable. Here are a few thoughts. When you pick her up can you bring a lunch box with you with some healthy snacks in it and a drink? The whole thing with the bath time is normal....my son does the same thing. I gave up trying to get my son to eat what we eat. My hubby and I eat a lot of fish and salad. He wants nothing to do with either of those. What I have found to be helpful is to make a batch of pasta and a batch of rice at the beginning of the week. I also bought my son some really neat kids chopsticks which he loves to eat with. During dinner we ask that he have at least one "polite bite" if its a new food. This he will do.

For him its all about making him feel special. Typically my husband doesn't get home from work until 7ish so I feed him first. I am sure your hands are full but at that age its the smallest things that mean the most to them. Have her help you make dinner (if she can). In regards to wanting junk...just get rid of it. We have a snack drawer in our kitchen that my son can go to anytime he wants and it has raisins, wheat thins, etc in it.
Oh yeah...one more thing. At night after bath time I let me son bring his sleeping bag in the living room and crawl in to it. We then either read books together or he watches :How to train your dragon." He won't fall asleep in his bed so I just let him fall asleep in the living room and move him later on in th evening. Good luck.