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My two year old cries every night at bed time...HELP

Janette - posted on 08/23/2012 ( 3 moms have responded )

10

6

For as long as I remember my daughter would cry herself to sleep only about 5 min. so id say goodnight close the door she'd cry and I'd cringe. Now she's two and in a big girl bed. We do the same thing every night, Cereal ,brush teeth read a book sing two songs then say goodnight and she cries. but in the last month she keeps getting out of bed and it takes us an hour sometimes an hour and a half. She gets up we put her back ect... over and over HELP how can i make her sleep without crying

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Sophia - posted on 09/08/2012

193

0

I have 3 boys and the last child ... at times I feel may not be yours. He has his own set of ways what he will eat ,sleep the list go's on. I tell him the time he will go to bed, I get in bed with him we read, talk abou school, friends, what he eat at school .... you name it. He is 6 and we still do this every night. I am not sure why he needs help to go to sleep .. but I know the time will come when he will not need me as much... and I just enjoy our time together each night.

Janette - posted on 08/23/2012

10

6

Thx I wonder too about eating before bed. That was very helpful. I will let you know how it goes.

Bobbie - posted on 08/23/2012

500

9

Sounds like you have established a routine for her bedtime, however she has started her own routine as well.

Specialist in this area say that there should be no speaking to the child when she comes out of the room. You turn her around gently, and by tender touch on her back or taking her hand you lead her back to the bed showing how calm you are, even when you aren't. When she makes eye contact with you put your finger to your lips in the gesture of shhhhhh. Then simply cover her up, kiss her and walk out of the room.

Now for this to work you have to establish a different routine prior to bed. For at least one hour before bed dad or siblings shouldn't be permitted to rough house, play actively or run around. Singing shouldn't entale excitement and raising voice or playing roles. So if she goes to bed at 8:00 your child needs to be calm with no excitement after 7:00.

When you put her to bed you say gently, it's time to sleep so if you get up I will just bring you straight back to bed and won;t talk to you about it.

I wonder if eating so late before bed is an issue. If I eat before I go to bed, especially milk, it hits me in about an hour and I don't feel well in my stomach. I'm not sick but I just get a feeling of not being well. Then of course food that close to bed time causes strange dreams because your stomach is working to digest. Maybe an alternative would be to let her have her cereal an hour before she goes to bed and start her bed time routine without using the word "bedtime". Lastly a sippy cup of water next to her bed that she places there as part of HER new routine as well as turning on a gentle night light or tiny lamp herself before getting into bed for story time will help a lot.

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