3yr old coming downstairs repeatedly after bedtime. Help!?!

[blu3sky]

So I haven't been on here in a veeery long time but I'm desperate. 3.5yr old DS has discovered how to open the stairgate and runs downstairs after being put to bed. Doesn't matter how repeatedly we put him back (which is doing my knees in) into his room, he'll just run past down the stairs. Any attempt at ignoring starts attention seeking behaviour (headbutting, hitting) and screaming tantrums. Today's screaming revolves around his pyjamas not fitting apparently. [bangs head against wall] Where has my happy-to-go-to-bed child gone??? Help?

He knows the world goes on when he goes to bed. Who wouldn't want to check it out. He might be having worries about the dark but doesn't know how to articulate them.

I'd sit outside his room and return him to bed and he should get the han of it. We tell ds that we have dinner while he's asleep which he's fine with. But he doesn't like being left alone and complains of being lonely so we stay for a bit and give him a night light.

My DS used to appear amazingly soon after I got downstairs, the kicker being he was fully dressed.

I used to sit in the room next door with my ipad until he was settle.

We went through a phase of this with dd2. I stood outside her room and before she even got to the door I'd go and put her back in bed. She got the message eventually. Good luck