sleep paterns for a 2 year old

[Kird]

Hi my 2 year old wont sleep threw the night, he wake frequently demanding milk. Its becoming a real drain as my husband works long hours and we have never had a full nights sleep.
he goes down well at 7-7.30 but will wake 2-4 times during the night then is up between 4-5.30 which is a real strain.
He has a napp during the day from any where between 1-2 hrs
any advice would be great he drinks a lot of milk could this be a problem?

Have you thought about cutting out the naps? My 2 year old is a nightmare if I let her sleep in the day.

If it's any consolation, both of mine didn't sleep through till 4 years old!

Most people I know, that have kids sleeping through from a very young age, enforce a strict routine - bedtimes, self-settling, cry-it-out, etc. If that would work for you, it's worth a shot.

Top tip: it'll all go to pot when you do toilet training. Small bladders don't really hold that much overnight, so even the uber routine folk have to (temporarily) shorten bedtime until their kids can hold the wees till the morning.

Waking up at night is absolutely normal for 2 years old. Some how I think it's like in the anecdote about a cold and aspirin. I.e. if you do cry-out technique and all the other training, it will take you half a year to train them to sleep. If you don't - it will be 6 month.

Anyway they say (in the books I've read) if you didn't make the child sleep on his own before 6 mnth, then trying to do it would not give you as good a result and probably (how could you verify it?!?) the child will do it on his own at the same speed...

As for having a lot of active time outside - did help me. Even now they sleep longer if we have good playtime in the park.

Rearranging naps. Doesn't work for everyone. I mean children. My older one had clock like demand for sleep and activity times. Still does (and it's the one who was waking up 10-13 times between 1-2 yeas old). If i delayed his nap, he would sleep the same time and then was active the same time -> night sleep would come later and be shorter. With younger one it was totally different.