Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

22 month old not wanting to go to bed

3 replies

Chica06 · 05/09/2012 11:35

Apologies if this is the 8 millionth time someone has posted about this issue!!

My 22 month old DD has slept through the night from 7 months and goes to bed by herself (no rocking, patting etc) (7.30 - 6.30am). I work 2 days a week and on those days, her nanny puts her to bed no problem for 1.5 hours during the day.

About a month ago she started waking up at night screaming (I think nightmares?) and was very difficult to calm down to get back to sleep. I would give her a cuddle and talk calmly to her and she would generally go back to sleep. However, she has become increasingly hysterical during these night wakings and has become harder and harder to put down, screaming for me when I put her in the cot and if I leave the room, flinging herself from the cot onto the floor!! she has also kicked off a bit when I have put her down for naps, and a couple of times, I have abandoned the day time nap altogether although this has left her really tired in the afternoon.

Because she was throwing herself out of her cot we bought her a toddler bed with a frame around it because I didn't feel the cot was safe any more as she would literally flip feet first out of it (she is very active and determined!!!). Her first 3 nights in it were absolutely fine and she settled no problem.

However, last night, she refused to go to bed. I followed her normal bed time routine (bath, teeth clean, books, then cuddle before bed) but she bellowed and bellowed. I followed some self settling advice and every time she came out of the room I just said calmly, 'go back to bed' and put her back in bed. After about 45 minutes I heard her get out of bed but then quieten and fall asleep on the floor!!!

There is a little bit of change and tension in the house at the moment. Two days ago I found out that I am miscarrying at ten weeks Sad, my husband had to return to Australia for his father's death and funeral (after many years of suffering from alzheimers) and is recovering from a broken leg. It has been a bit of a rough summer although we are trying to be normal on the surface for our DD.

Any advice on getting her to bed? I feel terrible leaving her to cry and fall asleep on the floor but don't want to fall into the habit of staying with her until she falls asleep (in any case, she is still hysterical when I try doing this).

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
MoonlightandRoses · 06/09/2012 00:05

So sorry for your loss.

Do you think maybe having her stay up a bit later might help? Small child here went through a short phase of yelling and screaming around the 21 month stage too - seemed to be linked to a general slightly clingy phase and a developmental spurt.

What we did was move bed time to 20-30 mins later (depending on tiredness levels) and also leave a story and some milk/water in the room (out of reach). That way, if settling was v.difficult, or there was any night waking, one of us would go straight in, pick small child up say - right, last drink and last story for today, then time for bed, provide drink and story (usually the shortest one we could get away with...) and replace in bed. It did take a good five days of doing this before everything started to settle back to 'normal' again and probably two weeks overall to go fully back.

Hopefully there'll be a few more along with more experiences shortly too.

Chica06 · 07/09/2012 15:00

Thank you MoonlightandRoses. I actually gave her a drink of water last night and that calmed her down. She seems to be clingy too. I will try the later bed time - thanks for the tip.

OP posts:
MoonlightandRoses · 07/09/2012 21:03

Fingers' crossed for tonight. Smile

New posts on this thread. Refresh page