2.5 year old Bedtime nightmare. No idea what to do??

[Elguapo]

Oh boy. Well the last time I posted here was because our 2.5 year old DS was waking us up painfully early in the morning screaming in his cot for us to get up. It was quickly obvious that it was time to move on from the cot and get DS a big boy bed. So we did and for the first two weeks is was like a miracle. From the first day with the bed DS slept 12 hours straight and we began to get back on track for the first time in ages.

Starting at the beginning of last week DS has begun to forcefully refuse to go to bed. This involves lots of stalling, huge emotions, thrashing about, hitting kicking etc etc. My wife and I are doing everything we can to stay as calm and cool as possible with a pretty decent level of success. We have dealt with all sorts of sleep stuff with this kid from the beginning and we have figured it out on most occasions with the help of places like Mumsnet and Janet Lansbury amongst others. Nevertheless it's been incredibly distressing for all of us.

We have had a very consistent bedtime routien for ages and we both share all duties. But somehow none of this is working at all at the moment. We try and limit DS to one room during all of this (his bedroom) but DS demands to be let out and if you don't let him out he gets so stressed out that I have no option but to let him out and start over again.

My wife and I both have ADHD and we we're concerned that he may be on this spectrum as well. We took him to a pediatric psychologist who stated that he could understand our concerns but the behavioural difference between sleep deprivation and ADHD in a 2.5 year old can be very similar and hard to differentiate. I have also done some reading around anxiety in toddlers and how this can also manifest as ADHD type symptoms. DS doesn't seem to have an off switch. In the few moments when you think DS is about to sleep he either starts kicking, thrashing around or getting out of bed or starts talking and telling you all about his day. As much as I love hearing my 2.5 year old try and tell me about his day, DS will go on talking for an hour if I let him. He needs to be sleeping.

Just when we thought we had gained some parenting skills and had climbed a few parenting mountains, we are now completely at a loss as to how to handle this particular chapter. It's having a huge effect on our relationship as a couple. We are so tired and frustrated that we find it really hard to be nice to each other sometimes.

If anyone has similar experiences or solutions I would love to hear them.

[SleepForTheWeak]

Hi, we are having similar problems with our DD (2.3). Also a shit sleeper from the beginning, but now bedtimes are a huge drama and my once gentle girl is kicking/punching/screaming blue murder at bedtime.

So sorry, no advice, but a hand hold!

I'm learning to keep my cool, and it definitely works better than reacting, but when I have her kicking me in the stomach (I'm 20 weeks pregnant) it's hard not to snap.

Like everything, I'm sure it will just be a phase, unfortunately the next phase might be even worse though!

Hope you get some more helpful advice soon

[munchkinmable]

I've had this issue recently too with my 20 month old. I've found playing children's audiobooks has worked well to calm her down. I'm trying to track down an MP3 player that she can control now so I can walk out and leave her to it