18 month old in our bed every night recently

[sophiad]

Hi, my 18 month old DD had been ill past couple of weeks with a cough and cold and has been coming into bed with us to settle her. She's gettig over it now but I think has started getting cheeky and waking and not going back to sleep until I put her in with us. Any advice on how I can encourage her to stay in her cot now, am becoming sleep deprived I feel! Thanks

I wish I could offer more advice but my DD did exactly the same at that age and has done on and off since. Although rapid return and controlled crying worked for a few weeks ultimatly they both failed (I refuse to spend 4 hours returning a child night after night and / or dealing with sick (mine throws up when she's upset). So now im gritting my teeth and looking for a solution but from previous experience it will just fix itself when she is ready. She has just turned 2.

It's been a while now but DD has sometes slept with me when poorly. She's 19months now and it's been about 6 months since the last time. I think we made sure to nip it in the bud just as soon as she was better. She didn't complain too hard because sleeping in her cot was familiar. However I totally accept we had it easy.

Mine had phases of being in with us. I just went with it, they are still babies at that age, makes sense they need company at night.

Our son does it when poorly. We transfer him back to cot when he is asleep. It goes against most general advice always to put baby into the cot awake, but we always did it and it does not cause problems (he is 21 month now), he sleeps through the night in his cot in his room. We also keep a double mattress in his room on the floor, and if he really cannot settle in the cot (usually when he has a bad cold) I sleep with him there - much more room than trying to fit in in between me and DH! Doesn't happen often though, and the mattress doubles as soft play during the daytime!

Thanks for replies. Now the weekend is here and we're both off of work we're going to try the cuddle, lie down, and allow to cry for certain amount of time until we get somewhere.......Hopefully she'll go back to normal as she is usually really good sleeping in her own room. I'm actually starting to like having her in with us but partner is struggling to sleep! Thank you !