TODDLER BEDTIME BATTLES

[LadyH1986]

Help!!!

my once beautiful sleeper has turned into the DEVIL at bedtime 🥴 she’s almost 3… and has self settled and been a fab sleeper since 6m. Until now!!

if it’s not running riot and refusing to even engage in putting on pyjamas and our usual bedtime routine, it’s spending an hour or so shouting and crying for us to go back in the room for 100 ridiculous things !!

we’ve tried to give her the control to a certain degree - which pyjamas, which toys in bed, which books… etc. but she is just not listening and so wired. She’s still napping, we tried to drop as thinking she just wasn’t tired enough but it was torture! She was so overtired and the same thing happens whether she’s napped or not.

anyone any advice???

We had a very similar situation with our nearly 3 year old DD. What's helped a lot is a reward chart where she gets a sticker for putting pyjamas on, brushing teeth, laying in bed etc. We also bought a gro clock which has worked really well to make sure she stays in her bedroom until the morning. If she gets all her stickers and stays in bed until the gro clock goes yellow she gets a small treat in the morning - I bought a huge multipack of tiny toy dinosaurs and we let her pick one of these as her treat.

Thank you!!

any tips on stopping the constant calling back once they’re in the cot?!

I lay with mine until she goes to sleep. Takes 10-15 minutes. Its a bit of an inconvenience but it saves an hour of crying and frayed nerves