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Behaviour/development

Toddler refusing to sleep in her own bed

3 replies

OliveCane · 25/05/2015 23:24

My 2 year old who was very happy to sleep in her own room until now, has decided she will not sleep on her own.

If we lock our room she will cry/scream outside of our room for 15-20 minutes at the very least.

What should we do? We both work and are tired and exhausted, she kicks and moves around a lot at night.

I've tried bribing with her favourite food/toy and explaining etc but it's not working.

Any ideas?

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Quodlibet · 25/05/2015 23:34

Mine is only 17m but she recently went through a 2 week stint of refusing to go to sleep in her own room. We decided that making a big deal of it and trying to force the issue/letting her get upset was just going to create negative associations at bedtime and make her dig her heels in, so we let her fall asleep in our bed and then moved her. We spent a few nights with her in the bed with us (getting kicked) or one of us on the sofa. Not ideal, but it lasted a couple of weeks and then she started being happy to be in her own room again. I did quite a bit of explaining during the day and also role-play with toys ('let's put teddy to bed' etc) and explaining to the toys that they didn't sleep in the big bed(!) which I think helped.

Hopefully it's just a short phase and will pass soon if you don't let it become a big deal?

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OliveCane · 25/05/2015 23:43

Thanks. I'm not sure ignoring it will solve the issue as she is expecting to sleep with us or someone to sleep with her. I thin she is at the age where she can understand that she is meant to sleep in her bed in her own room but just doesn't want to. I'm tempted to put a mattress in our room for her, but I know even then she'll want to be in bed right next to me!

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Piratejones · 03/06/2015 18:45

Could you let her sleep with you?

Has she recently moved to a bed, if so the lack of bars might be making her feel very unprotected in a big room all night.

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