Toddler sleep issues!

[Melkels96]

My son is 2 years 8 months and for the past week he has completely changed at bed time. Just point blank refuses. Won’t even lay down or have the blanket on him. Says he doesn’t like his bed or bedroom and says he is scared and after 2 hours of us trying to get him to lay down and go to sleep and 2 hours of crying, the only way we get him to settle and go to sleep is if he’s laid in between us in our bed. We’ve then tried transferring him to his own bed and he’s fine until you put him down and then he starts again. We’ve tried talking to him saying everything is okay, mummy and daddy are here, this is where you sleep, this is your bed etc and also tried putting him in the same room as his older brother but that didn’t work either. I’m honestly stumped I don’t know what else I can do. Should we just decide to co sleep? HELP

Something scares him. That's quitecommon at this age. You can try to work out what it is, but I never managed until much older.

I think it's like separation anxiety - it's part of growing up to realize that you are alone and that's that's scary. With mine, they seemed comforted by the fact that I took it seriously. They wanted to know I was on their side. Eldest had a nightlight. Younger two had glow in the dark stars, and for one I made a rainbow of them by his head and I stroked them at bed time to "full them up" with nice thoughts so that he could stroke them at night if he was scared. One DS was scared his duvet wouldeat him.... soas part of bed time we cab it a thorough telling off and a couple of stern smacks (he did them) and told it he would kick it off the bed if it didn't behave.

It seems daft, but if you take their years seripsily it's very comforting to them. Then give them atool to use when scared - a teddy to stroke,some monster spray, music They can switch on to make the monsters sleepy.... whatever best suits your child's imagination.

Cosleeping is fine if you are ok with it. My eldest wanted daddy at night. He slept in her bed for about a week, then we set upthe spare in there! He spent most nights in her room for a good 4 months and we left the bed there for another few months afterwards as she knew daddy could come if she needed him.

Thank you for responding!

we tried the “monster spray” last night and it seemed to help, he went to sleep in his own bed anyway so fingers crossed it works again😊

Is he still having a nap? We found we needed to drop all naps by his age or if he had fallen asleep in the car etc we had to push bedtime way back. We also found we needed to make sure he was properly worn out before bed - lots of extra running around the garden or a game of Floor is Lava around the lounge! He likes the door open with the landing light on too and would only settle when snuggled up close to us.

it’s exhausting but it will be a phase. Do what you need to get through. Another few months and they’ll change again.

No he doesn’t he dropped his nap about a month ago when we got rid of his dummy. Once we took the dummy away he refused to nap so we weren’t sure if the issues we were having was because he might have been overtired?