2 and a half year old boy

[MrsSkeffington]

My brilliant two and a half year old son is now waking at 2.30 for the day every day.
He screams in his room waking his sister and the whole street if we leave him in there.
He has a good bed time routine of bath and then milk and to bed. About two weeks ago he started refusing to go to bed but now he's up at 2.30 for the day!
He's currently watching jungle book with my husband downstairs.
What the hells happened and what can I do?

Mine did this. The solution was an enormous amount of exercise during the day.,

Right let's do this then. Because I'm cracking up to be honest

Right let's do this then. Because I'm cracking up to be honest

Is he having a nightmare or night terror? Ds1 started night terrors at that age. Pretty disruptive and scary for us and whilst disruptive for ds1's sleep he did not remember them. Unfortunately we never really found out how to prevent them and he took many years to grow out of them. The only thing was he was more likely to have them if he was overtired.

Do not reward his crazy wakings with tv. He will wake to watch tv and the cycle will ever break!

Have you tried a grow clock? Start earlier and move the time.

Bloody hell, 2.30 is early. If he was mine, I would put the iPad in his bed with him, set my alarm for 2 hours later. When that goes off, take him milk and take the iPad away, and hopefully (having been awake for a couple of hours) he's tired enough to go back to sleep. Might this work? It's not the best parenting in the world!

An alternative would be controlled crying- probably better for teaching him to settle, but the above is a quick fix to get you some sleep

Tv or screens are the worst thing! The type of light they emit will properly wake him up. Plus it's rewarding him for refusing to go back to sleep with something he likes.

Can you just return him to bed and repeat the last bit of his bedtime routine (milk and book or whatever).

We just got a geo clock for our 2.3 yo. He wasn't as early as your wee man but 4.30 onwards was standard wake up time. I didn't have much hope but it's been an absolute game changer! Best 20 quid I've ever spent!

Gro clock! Bloody autocorrect!

My two and half year old thinks the ipad / tv is the best thing ever! I would never give it to him if he woke at 2.30am. He'd be too happy.
I might want to to get him to F off and let me go back to sleep. But this won't help with getting his sleep schedule back on track

Commiserating,

We had night terrors but that's quite distinctive as they scream not knowing you're there.

I've let them in my bed if they wake in the night as it's the only way we all get some sleep. Or when much bigger (5) I've had a little readybed on the floor at one point just for a few days.

They sleep well now...

I think unfortunately screens disrupt their sleep pattern so if you get used to tv at 3am you'll wake up for it.

when it got to 6 one of us would go and curl up downstairs I think.

Can you swap the milk for a bowl of porridge?

Around that age DS started waking and screaming the place down. Took a good hour to get him to calm down enough to go back to sleep. I have no idea what caused it but for a while I thought I would go mad if I didn't get a decent night's sleep soon.

I have no answers for you but it was just a phase so fingers crossed it's the same for you.

You have my sympathies!

And while it's happening go to be about 9 so at least you get 5.5 hours sleep before it starts!!

My second was an awful sleeper and it blurs into one now but those were carting things we did at different times!!

Basin that sounds like a night terror.
wake screaming and kept asking for mummy in my case even though I was there. Random comments but no real awareness and keep descending into proper full on crying lasting about 30mins in our case with repeated "I don't like it" :(

He's not a big talker only just really starting so he can't communicate what's up.
I agree with the tv completely but it seems to be a vicious cycle we can't break - he screams and our walls are so thin. My evenings are precious but I think I'm going to have to start going to bed so early.
Good idea with the porridge will try that

Does he still have a nap?

Tonight I'm going to try exercise and then will give him supper before bed as well. Will also push back the bed time routine by an hour and a half.
If he wakes will offer him milk and weetabix and keep everything very dull

He sometimes naps but we've found if it's past 3 we are doomed - he'll only nap in the car
Do you think encourage or drop the nap?
I'm at my wits end I'll try anything

Change of scene could help here. Sleep in with him, or can you stay with parents or something? Just a change of routine can help snap them out if these phases.

Get out early in the day too, lots of activity, if he has to have a nap, encourage it early.

Another approach could be to rouse him at 1am, change nappy, then back to sleep.

And black out the windows

I would drop the nap for sure. My eldest went through a phase of this night waking (but he is autistic so other developmental issues there too) and we needed to make sure he was exhauste by bed time. So no nap, lots of outdoor exercise (long walks), bought a trampoline and made him have a good bounce in the evening, snack before bed so full tummy. It did improve eventually.

Avoid screens, food, play, anything remotely interesting. You'll make the problem worse if you start with any of this.

Our 2.5yo sleep only finally got into a normal routine once he dropped the nap, so I'd do everything to cut that out, unless it's really early in the day

My husband is away on a course during the week and back at weekends and he's been tearful and very huggy. He's not in childcare - could this be classic separation anxiety ?

Also going to cut all sugar past 3pm.