AIBU to wonder if the Gro Clock will work with 2.5 year old ds

[milkyman]

He wakes at 5am and is horrible by 2pm. He no longer naps and is still in his cot - (could this be the problem). He's very smart and would probably be facsinated by the clock and want to have it in his cot... Is it a myth that they work...?

I started using one when ds2 had just turned two. He got the idea pretty fast, so when we moved him from his cot to a bed soon after, he wasn't getting up too early. I think they're brilliant, but not everyone agrees.

We also started using one when DD was 2. It really worked for her, with the odd lapse that is corrected by using gro clock and a chocolate button as little bribe! Then she forgets about the buttons and starts staying in her room again.

We had great success with our dd3. Initially she was fascinated by it and stayed in bed but after a few weeks and kept getting out of bed so I told her the sun hadn't come up yet and took her back to bed. I had to be consistent for a while but she's brilliant now. Good luck!

I worked for mine :-)

I've given up on it this week. Ds would just unplug it to reset it and then would announce at 6.30 that the sunshine was on.

He seems to be the only one though so good luck! I might as well sell it.

Our DS has one and it does work, mostly anyway! At eight on the dot he comes to his door (we still have a gate on it!) and calls out 'sun's out mummy!'. He's 3. Sometimes we hear him earlier and we have to get up because he's too loud but usually it works really well.

It worked with our DD for a while anyway. We did discover that the nighttime light attracts mosquitos [london] so she was getting badly bitten so we binned it.

Its not a myth that they work but he'll still be awake at 5am and grumpy by 2pm. That won't change, he can just be trained not to get out of bed/leave his room earlier. Since he is still in a cot, I'd go back to making him a daytime nap. Most sleep specialists seem to agree that there's a correlation between early waking and not enough sleep.

Have you tried a "sofa snooze" instead of a lunchtime nap in the cot? Pillow and blanket on the sofa with the curtains drawn seems to meet less resistance with my 2.5 yr old than a full blown "nap time".

Depends on your child. If they are a determined non-sleeper (mine) then nothing is going to work. We found at about age 4 we could train him to stay in bed until "acceptable hour".

At 2 mine just used to reset it so the sun came up. Weirdly they adhere to it more at 4 and 5!

Do you mean he's too old for it or too young?
Mine worked for the dc around 2 years of age, before they worked out how to reset the clock.

It worked perfectly within a couple of days for DD at 2.11, for a few months. Then she started to blame the clock for not being allowed to get up.

She hates it now.

DD is 2.8 and has had one since before Christmas. Like orangina, we bribed with chocolate to stay in bed til the sun comes up. She's gone from waking at 5.45 to waking just before 6

Was never troubled by an early riser (DD is an owl) but always wondered what the point of was because of this:

ts not a myth that they work but he'll still be awake at 5am and grumpy by 2pm. That won't change, he can just be trained not to get out of bed/leave his room earlier

We used a clock at 2, worked a treat. If he got up before we took him back to bed. Happy days

I agree that if he is grumpy by 2, he probably needs more sleep and that could help his morning waking too - we used to have a cuddle on the sofa, sometimes watching something dull on the box and sometimes reading a story and mine would drift off.
Unfortunately for me, mine wakes up because he seems to need to poo at the crack of dawn, so although I think he would adhere to the gro clock, I can't very well leave him to it just to get an extra hour's sleep!

I tried it when ds was 3, we stuck with it for a few months and it never worked. The little pest sussed out how to unlock it and make the sun rise on day 2.

It's worked brilliantly for DD1.

I also forget to change the time when the clocks went forward and now she gets up at 8 instead of 7 .

DC1 was about that age and it worked, DC2 just comes in to our room whenever to announce that 'the clock is broken' because 'it's still blue'.