Escapeee - 2yo getting out of bed

[WrensNest]

HI, just discovered my 2yois houdini. Was met last night at the side of the sofa by a child who was very proad of the fact he had got out of his sleeping bag and climed out of his cot bed!!
We took him back upstairs, tried to settle him again but for 2 hours we had a back and forth where we put him in his cot, he got out.
I remeber a super nanny episode that said don't talk to them, keep your patience and just keep leading them back to bed.
This did not happen last night and the little one was so upset after 2 hours we hugged him to sleep (he has not fallen asleep on us since he was about 9 mo old).
Any other suggestions, I'm on my own for 2 nights as hubby is away and am dreading it .
Thanks for help and experience

When we moved dd to toddler bed we had this problem, how to get here to stay in the room - at the advice of my health visitor we put a stair gate on her bedroom door and it works great. She can get up and play or read her books etc, the room is completely baby proofed so its safe, and she can't suddenly appear downstairs

I had that when DD learnt to climb out of her cot bed. We immediately took the side off, so she wouldn't hurt herself climbing out, but then she thought getting up and playing with her toys was just the best thing to do after bed time.

I was very boring and just repeatedly put her back in bed and the only words I would say were 'its bed time now'. Some nights she wants me to sit down by her bed.

Two months on now, and she does not get out of bed any more. She still sometimes wants me to sit next to her though.

Hi
We've had the exact same problem with our DS (2.4). We tried for weeks with the backwards and forwards Supernanny approach but, like you we were getting nowhere, the penny wasn't dropping after weeks of doing it and he was waking up to 4 times a night like this . We could get him back into bed and calm him down but the minute we walked away he was out again and hysterical. This method just didn't work for us. We toyed with the idea of a stairgate at his bedroom door but I was worried he might fling himself over it in his state of hysteria and hurt himself.

So we looked into things and decided to try the Gradual Retreat method. Once we've put him into bed, hugged, kissed, said night night etc, we simply sit by his bed, not looking at him and not speaking. Sometimes I close my eyes to completely block him out . We have been doing this for the last week and each night we get further and further away. It has been working for us! He has gone from waking up 4 times a night hysterical to either sleeping through again or just waking once and being easy to resettle. I think he just needs to be taught how to sleep without us again.

Good luck!!

we put a stair gate on his door, but he would often open & slam the door closed repeatedly until we discovered that a toilet roll fitted nicely between the door handle & stairgate! So now when he tries to open the door, gives a frustrated cry & goes back to bed.

Before that we had reasonable success with the supernanny method.

We have had drawers emptied, toys & books strewn all around the room, but I made him put them all away in the morning and we have passed that phase.

He also has a groclock and knows that he is not allowed up till the clock says it is "Up Time". He actually gets quite excited now as we let him press the button to start the night-time sequence.

Stairgate at the door worked for us for ds many moons ago. had to be a special high one built by my husand as he (son not husband) could with the aid of toys (eg a lego brick) manage to climb over traditional ones.