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2 year old- night waking

3 replies

tomverlaine · 28/05/2012 09:09

My 2 year old (who has never been a good sleeper) has taken things to a new level. He now wakes up about 1am and basically screams and sobs to come into bed with us/have b/f. This has been going on for 2-3 weeks i think. if bf he will lie down in his cot but basically needs someone to be near him and checks constantly (he will go to sleep and then appears to stand up and shout for mummy/daddy) - even then it won't be enough and he will cry to come out.
If DP gets him out he will just cry for mummy, If i get him out he just cries for b/f. DP spent last night co-sleeping with him - but ds did keep waking up and asking for me. If i co-sleep with him he just b/f constantly - and he is such a wriggly sleeper that I get no sleep.TBH if that wasn't the case we would just have him in with us. we have tried giving him milk/water and he either has some but still cries out for bf or refuses it. tried calpol tried leaving him ... am at end of my tether. He is such a happy little boy the rest of the time and we talk to him and he understands that he needs to sleep in his cot but....

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CogitoErgoSometimes · 28/05/2012 13:26

He may understand but he's now got it so that he doesn't have to. It's hard to be firm in the middle of the night when you just want to take any path of least resistance that gets you back to sleep but you have to find a way to make him stay in his cot. He doesn't really need drinks etc. There are several techniques that involve comforting without feeding, saying 'goodnight' and walking away until they get the message

tomverlaine · 28/05/2012 16:22

we tried being firm- but he just keeps on crying (for a long time ...to the degree that it is actually time to get up.) - we will try again but ease off as I think it will be brutal otherwise - he can have a couple of days where daddy responds and lets him get out (eg no mummy) then stop letting him get out or maybe going directly cold turkey is best?
my problem is that we have done forms of control crying before and they only ever work for a short time - if he ever manages to get out in the night (eg becasue he is sick) we always seem back to day 1

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CogitoErgoSometimes · 28/05/2012 16:36

Persevere. You're in charge on this one and it's not 'brutal' to say 'go to sleep'. He's not distressed, hungry, sick, wet, frightened or anything that justifies making a commotion to the extent you describe. He just knows that if he keeps it up long enough he gets the desired effect. It might take some time but you have to show him that you can play that game better than he can.

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