Getting toddlers to sleep

[Thegoldgrind]

Hi all, if you have a toddler how are you getting them to sleep at bedtime? So far we have tried lying in bed with him and taking him for a two hour walk in the pram to no avail... at home he goes into his cot and we leave him but that's impossible here due to him screaming down the campsite! Last trip we had to take him for a drive every evening for him to nod off but that's not really possible this time 😨

This isn't going to sound very helpful, but we don't have a problem when we're camping because the children get so worn out during the day with all of the fresh air and exercise. We also have a blacked out sleeping area and try to replicate their usual routine as much as possible. We even take some of our usual story books from home.

Oh lol perhaps it's just us! He does have boundless energy though, when he's tired he'll just keep running about but will end up tripping over every couple of minutes and crying constantly. We follow his normal bedtime routine but come actual sleep time the screaming starts...

We keep our DC (3 and 5) up. At home bedtime is between 7 and 8pm, but when we’re camping we keep them going until about 10 o’clock. We eat later than usual. Then, when they’re falling asleep standing up, it’s into sleeping bags and we read a story (bring favourites from home). If they’re still awake after two or three stories the we resort to CBeebies Bedtime Stories downloaded on a tablet.

I've tried and tried but we can't get our daughter to go to bed at a normal time when camping (now 3, been camping since she was born). We've just come to accept that she mostly won't go to bed until we do. We tend to all go to bed around 10pm but she will normally then sleep in until 8.30/9am so it's not too bad as at least we then get a lie-in.

You may need to redefine your idea of ‘bedtime’.

Once he reaches tripping over stage, and at about 9.30, would he sit in his sleeping bag on a chair with bedtime drunk and snack listening to a story?

Hercules, they sleep a bit later than usual, but only an hour or so (you’ve got the sunlight streaming into the tent to contend with!). Sometimes the little one will have a snooze mid-afternoon, but not always.