Obsession with duvet position!!

[Surroundedbydiggers]

Hi All,

Am hoping for some advice as I'm reaching the end of my tether with this. DS will be 5 next week. He has always been a good sleeper and is capable of 12 hours straight through. Recently however he has developed an obsession with his duvet being in exactly the "right" position. It can take 5 minutes to get it perfect when tucking him in at night. Then if he wakes in the night or gets up for a wee and its moved at all, he will either call out for me to come and re-position it, or will cry until I come in. If it is literally a centimeter out then it all has to be done again.

Other than this he is a happy, confident boy, no problems at school. There aren't any other areas of his life where he shows this obsession with things being "just so".

He says that the bed isn't as snuggly if the duvet is out of position. I have tried reasoning with him and saying that as long as he is covered by the duvet he will be warm, even if the corner doesn't precisely match up with the edge of the bed. I have tried saying that he's a big boy now and doesn't need Mummy to come and make his bed in the night. I've tried taking marbles out of his "good boy" jar if he wakes me in the night for this. Nothing is working.

I suppose I am posting partly because I am getting fed up of disturbed sleep every night but also I think I am concerned about whether this points to a deeper issue.

Any thoughts or ideas will be gratefully received!

[TheWordOfBagheera]

Gro-to-bed covers? They zip in place so can't move much during the night. Or a single sheet wrapped sideways around the duvet and mattress so that it can't get shifted around? Sounds frustrating though!

[Surroundedbydiggers]

Ooh I love the sheet tucked in over the duvet idea...will be trying that one tonight. Thanks TheWord.

[babypup]

I can relate to this! My son is 6.5 and has a similar obsession, if not fear that the duvet will untuck from the bottom of his bed. We have to 'check' it every night, along with wardrobe doors being tight shut, his bedroom door being sitting exactly against the wall, and all other upstairs doors being shut. Once all the tasks are to his liking he will start to settle, only to shout out 5 minutes later can you check my bed is tucked in, is my playroom door shut etc etc. He keeps having to check. It keeps him awake and quite upset for a good hour and is very hard to see. During the day he has no such fears or obsessions, it seems to be linked to bedtime so I assume is some kind of OCD / anxiety related to bedtime. He also keeps getting up to go to the loo, which i understand to also be linked to anxiety/OCD patterns. Not sure this offers any practical advice to you, but just wanted to say I can relate, and it can be hard to watch the development of irrationale fears in what we want to be our carefree and happy wee kids xx

[Surroundedbydiggers]

Thanks and sympathy babypup, at least I know I'm not the only one! Funnily enough we stayed at a hotel at the weekend and shared a bed and he didn't get stressed out about duvet movement at all, possibly because I was there all night? So yes it might be anxiety linked to night time. I will think of you tonight when I'm adjusting the duvet for the gazillionth time!