How do I make this better - 1-2 hours of screaming at bedtime every night...

[yipeeforthesun]

DS is nearly 2 and for the last couple of months bedtime has become so awful - he has had the same routine since he was born and he used to go to bed so well but now it is a major battle EVERY night. As soon as we leave the room he screams, if you go back in and stroke his head he settles and closes his eyes but as soon as you leave the room he just stands up and screams again - we've tried leaving him to scream for a while but that just ends up with his getting so worked up it takes ages to calm him down again, we've tried so many things but every night we seem to end up with one of us in his room stroking his back or head until he drops off which can take up to 2 hours. I thought it was a phase at first so wasn't overly worried but it's been going on way too long now and seems to be getting worse. Any suggestions on how we can fix this please?! Feels like we have tried everything!

[TheBreastmilksOnMe]

Tell me about it- having sleep problems with 9mth old DS- was kind of hoping by the age of 2 things would be getting better! Sorry no advice to give but am feeling your frustration!

[maria1665]

I'm following this thread. We have same thing from DD19 months. BLOOD CURDLING SCREAMS until she falls back exhausted.

Even bringing her in with us does not help.

[EldonAve]

move bedtime later?
put classic fm on?

[TheBreastmilksOnMe]

I would tentatively suggest you do as they do on TV and keep taking him back to bed or just ignoring him and evetually he will fall off to sleep. At 2 he knows what he should be doing. I know its much much harder to do then to suggest though but that is the only thing I can suggest. I'd imagine that after a few nights he woould get the message but the would you be strong eough to resist going in and comforting him when he gets to that really distressed point?

[stickylittlefingers]

do you feel like it's boundary testing or if he might be worried by something? My 2yo get her knickers in a twist about the most odd and un-guessable-at things, and sometime until we work out what's wrong it can seem like plain naughtiness. She does do the testing the boundaries plain naughtiness too, of course, and in that case I think there is nothing else to do but confirm that the boundaries are there. Which is not easy.

[Dragonfly74]

My DS was like this and this worked for me!

For a couple of nights I sat by his cot and stroked his back until he fell asleep, when he was ok with this I sat next to his cot but refused to give eye contact but because he could see me he fell asleep, After a night or so of sitting by the cot I gradually night by night moved closer to the bedroom door.

After about 2 weeks he settled himself.

[largeginandtonic]

Hehe have been having this battle since Easter.

Ds climbed out his cot and that was it! No daytime sleeps and hell on earth to settle at night.

We have now put him in a bed and put a gate on his door. He gets put to bed and SCREAMS, often hitting me as i leave the room. The gate gets shut he yells and then gives up, he trots off to bed and sighs

In the night the same thing till it works.

I had major issues with him waking up the other children but oyu just have to do it.

It is HELL. I am with you.

[ches]

Molars?