Toddler wont stay in bed..AAAaaaaaagghhhh!!!!!

[Ugg]

Any advice please!!..Our toddler has always been an amazing sleeper until we moved her into her toddler bed..for first few nights she was amazing not a peep..and then she realizes she can get out..she shouts for us from the babygate after we have put her to bed and she now wakes 3 to 5 times a night and will call us from the babygate..its driving us crazy, we're knackered..she goes back to bed no fuss but then shes up again 30 - 40 mins later throughout night..we have tried a star chart, bribes, Super Nanny - put them back to bed, not talking etc..even scaring her with the bogey man!!..none of it is working..any advice would be really helpful as we're now thinking of going back to a cot..

I'd say try the cot again and see what happens. If she wakes up as you've been experiencing then you know it's not the new bed which is the issue.

Another thought is what bedding are you using? Has that changed? Is she now having a pillow in bed?
Also what mattress is on the toddler bed?

Bedding, mattress etc all the same..she has a pillow which she didn't have before maybe I'll take it out..everyone tells me not to go back to a cot, but sometimes when shes tired she'll say she doesn't want the bed anymore and she wants the cot, but then she'll say the reverse at other times!!!..I'm thinking of getting a clock that shows her when its night/morning, but don't want to splash out more money if its not going to work..shes not scared of the room/dark, there are no tears and will happily go back to bed but she just keeps getting up!..

If you're not keen on going back to a cot the only thing you can do is encourage using the 'big girls' bed. Does it have sides on it? (We have a portable side bar thing which slides under the mattress. Still allows DD to get out, but keeps her from rolling out of bed in the night, or slipping onto the floor in her sleep.
Also, what age is she?

Just get a stairgate and use iton his bedroom door. He may be able to get out of bed but he will be safe

Star chart? (aka bribery) We've used with our 3yo for various things and it's worked a treat. We had 'rows' of ten and once we got to the end she got a present (9 pack of tacky plastic jewellery £3 from Tesco and she could choose which bit she wanted)

We've done the star chart and its looking pathetic!!!!..I've tried bribing with presents etc and its not working..shes nearly 3..we've got a safety gate up at the door so I know shes safe but she will call for us or if we don't come will start crying - I know we could leave her to cry and do the controlled crying thing but I know she will get herself in a real state..

When you say the Supernanny thing, which one please?
Is it the put back to bed, and leave one? Or put back to bed and sit until asleep?

Its the put back to bed one..I haven't tried the sit until sleep..do you think its worth a try?..don't know anyone whose done it..

our DD (now almost 4) did this when she first went into her toddler bed (aged 2.5).
it had small slatted sides on the head end of it.
took her ages to fall asleep (previously a brilliant sleeper in her cot) in toddler bed, as kept getting out from around 7.30pm 'til almost midnight, off and on, just so we could see how clever she was :)
we just gritted our teeth and after a few weeks it stopped.
not easy though!
i wouldn't put her back in cot - that may backfire possibly...but if she is saying she wants her cot, maybe she is feeling a little insecure in there? is it much larger than her cot was?
maybe a compromise, if you toddler bed is long enough, is to put a lindam (or other) portable bed rail on the side, even 2 next to each other (perhaps you could get a cheap one off ebay or borrow from a friend if you don't want to spend too much?)
that way she could theoretically still climb over the top, but will feel more enclosed, at least until she is used to the actual bed.
then you can slowly remove one rail, then the other, and put some pillows around the bed too.
we did that so our DD (who rolled out a few times) would land on pillows and not hard floor!
also we spent lots of time reading her books "on her big girl bed" and putting her soft toys to sleep there with her help and making a really big deal of the fact she had such a cool bed when her friends came to play too - i think it helped.
good luck :)

hey there..my advice is always controlled crying lol i used that for everything with my 2 kids...read up about it on the net for advice on how to carry it out effectively! i know lots of people are against controlled crying but personally i think it works wonders in desperate measures...for example, when i wanted to wean my son off the dummy i literally threw them all in the bin to ensure i wouldnt resort to them when son had crying fits! he cried for about 2/3nights (only used to take dummy for sleeping), but we would always wait for the tantrum to end before reassuring him firmly and putting him back in bed.after few days he forgot about the dummies! same with sleeping...when we were transitioning him from cot to bed he would get out of bed and come running to us in our bedroom. u say u have a safety gate? that might be the problem to be quite honest. ur daughter probably feels imprisoned at night time, claustrophic..feeling like shes trapped and theres no way to get out. i didnt have a safety gate in my sons bedroom, yes he used to keep getting out and running to us but we would pick him straight away and place him back in his bed (about 10 times !) with a firm 'NO, u must stay in ur bed now, do not get out) and after a few days he was fine !!

@Ugg - We're currently doing the sit until asleep routine. I've written a thread on this forum about it. Let me know if you can't find it and I'll supply a link.

Mammanetta makes some good points, I feel. Similar to what I said too. Try a bed rail, which gives them a little more security but doesn't allow them to fall out.

AmnaRazaq makes a good point about the bedroom safety gate. It's dependent on the layout of the house, and ensuring any walking about at night will be safe. At least you'll only find DD stood next to the bed, rather than crying in her room. One point though - Don't be tempted to put DD into bed with you, when she comes in. You'll be stuck with another problem of losing your bed space (I mention this in my thread also, as it's something we're tackling with the same bed routine).

Hope you find a suitable solution and get your DD sleeping well, so you can rest too. Lack of sleep for everyone is not a nice thing. Good luck and hope it goes well.

Thanks Brussells and everyone else that has replied..she already has a guard rail..shes down at the moment so fingers crossed, I told her night, night and that I'd be back in 5 mins to check on her and have another kiss good night to reassure her..just been back to check on her and think I woke her coming in!.but she went straight back down though, at least she knows I'm around and doesn't need to get out of bed to check...fingers crossed!!

Brussells I did find your thread, will see what happens tonight and if it fails I'm going to try doing your sit until asleep method!!.

@Ugg - I'd read about the return to say goodnight routine also. My daughter wouldn't let me leave the room in the first place without crying, so it's great to hear your's settled down, and you woke her (typical, right?). Fingers crossed for you, and keep us updated :)