33 month old dd won't go to bed

[westby]

She always had a really good night time routine and no problems getting her to sleep even when we moved her into a bed. Since bonfire night when she said she was frightened because of the fireworks and hubby let her come downstairs, she won't even go in her bed. She wants to fall asleep on the settee and now won't even do that unless we are sat next to her. We've tried story cd in bedroom, leaving light on, controlled crying (although probably not for long enough). Can anyone help? We are going to Oz for 6 weeks next weekend and feel her routine will be completely out anyway but really would like to have at least tackled this before we go.

Probably not what you want to hear but if this was my 29 month old I just wouldn't even bother trying to sort it before I went to Oz given your departure date is so near.

If your DD is anything like my DS she is still pretty susceptible to the slightest change in her environment and even if you do crack bedtime at home now it will all go out the window when you get to. So you'll only have to start over when you get home....

When my DS goes through a period like this, one thing that never seems to fail to work with him is to put him to bed, light on, door open and tell him that I've just got some jobs to do but will come back in 10 minutes. I then do go back in 10 minutes and so on until he falls asleep. I also get him to "look after" a teddy for me and tell the teddy a story until I come back. You may be an old hand at these types of things already but these are fairly consistent at working for us.

However, I'd save myself the bother right now and just go with the flow for now until you're back from your hols.....

Thank you for this - must admit we are thinking the same but wondered if it would make her 10 times worse when she comes back! We will just have to be a lot stricter when we get back from Oz

When dd was like this, against all advice we lay down with her to get her to sleep.

She goes off in 10 mins..........