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Getting DS to stay in bed ...

2 replies

Pinholes · 19/12/2013 21:22

DS is 4yo. He goes to bed no problem around about 7pm, give or take (depending on how tired he is, whether he needs a bath vs a wash, etc), and is asleep within 10-20 minutes of going up.

The problem is that at some point during the night he will get up and get into our bed. This is partly our fault as when he was smaller he went through a phase of waking up at 4am, wide awake, and the only way for any of us to sleep until a decent time was to put him in our bed.

We've been trying to get him out of the habit for months now. As soon as he comes through either I or DH turns him around and takes him back to his own bed but he screams and shouts and bangs the walls/floor. Once he is back in his own bed he waits 10-15 minutes and then tries again. Some nights he's really quiet and we're deeply asleep and he sneaks in without us noticing, other nights are horrible such as last night where he tried to over two hours and even woke 2yo DD up and encouraged her to try get in the bed too!

We've tried a groclock, it works on DD but not him (they share a room). We put a safety gate on the bedroom door, he spent a few nights just climbing over it and then figured out how to open it. We tried a sticker chart with a sticker for every night he stayed in his own bed and small rewards for a certain amount. DD wanted stickers too so we have her a chart too. It didn't work at first but then he noticed that DD was getting more stickers than him (she stays in bed) and that seemed to spur him on. It lasted a week or so and then he was back in our bed. He said he's afraid of the dark so we got him a nightlight and a torch. He said he was cold so we got him new bedding.

Has anyone got an ideas of what else we could try?

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Misty9 · 19/12/2013 21:26

Gaffer tape? Grin no magic solutions I'm afraid, but you've scared me as ds is 2.4yo and doing exactly this...the thought he could still be doing it in two years?! Nooooooo! I'm 6 months pregnant too.

Pinholes · 19/12/2013 21:31

7m pregnant here, there's technically already three in my bed and he somehow manages to take up two thirds of it :o

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