How do you keep your Toddler in bed at night HELP!!

[JPM]

We changed my DS into his "big boys bed" a month ago. The first two weeks were an absoloute success. We put him to bed at night and he just went to sleep, occassionally we would hear him pottering around his room but he never came back downstairs.
Unfortunately, this has all changed in the last 2 weeks for some reason and I now have to return him to bed about 6-7 times a night before he will remain in his room and finally drop off to sleep. Tonight I even found him in his baby sister's room where he had woken her up! I was so angry and really shouted at him (which I think is the worst thing to do) but I was so frustrated. Any advice ?

Stairgate on his door?!

By being completely firm. Can you "threaten" him with having the baby cot again?

I have threatened the cot again SoupDragon but he calls my bluff and says okay!

i have a stair gate and because ds knows its there he doesnt bother getting out of bed as there is nowhere to go

Just keep taking him back a la Little Angels. I'm not sure you can do anything else. No interaction, just boringly back to bed. I let my ds who is three have books to 'read' in bed.

You have to sit outside his room - top of the stairs or whatever - and literally keep taking him back to bed. You must do so wordlessly and without emotion. It may take you 30 - 40 mins (which seems like and eternity) and 3 -4 nights but then it's done. Whatever you do don't talk to him. It'll work. Just stick with it.

This is precisely why DD is staying in a cot till she is 5
From the moment we put DS (he was just 2 and began to climb out of his cot) in a bed his sleep problems started and I seriously regretted it ever since ... I wish that we had got a bigger cot ...
I think if he says 'okay' to going in the cot then put him back into it ... call his bluff back ... I wish I had done that ... we had 3 years of problems after going into a bed
Going into a bed is definitely one thing I won't be hurrying to do when DD gets older

we put a stairgate on dd's door - at worst she falls asleep on the floor and we just lift her into bed when we go to bed, at best she goes straight to sleep and is fine. She knows once the stairgate is up it is bed/nap time.

I even put up the gate when it is her nap time so I can do things like hang the clothes out in the garden etc and not have to worry about her wandering the house or waking her baby sister.

She had been fab at staying in her bed but then one morning woke dh and I up at about 5am by tapping on my leg - we figured it was easier to put the gate up than not sleep worrying about where she was going when we were asleep.

Our stairgate is one that used pressure to hold it here and you just push it out to the width of the door and lock the two leaves in place - easy up and down but strong enough to withstand toddler treatment.

Put him back in his cot.

Keep putting him back and he will soon get the message. Don't give him whatever he is getting up for.

We have a stairgate on our twin boys bedroom door. They go up to their room for half an hour before bedtime and they wreck the place, then they go into their beds. One of us sits there until the first one falls asleep and then we sit at the top of the stairs just to make sure the other does not get out of bed and wake his brother.

Had the same problem with my 20 month old DS. Called his bluff. Made him sleep in his "baby cot". Made a big deal next night about him sleeping in a big boy bed, and not needing the baby cot. He never did it again. In fact, won't get out of bed now unless he asks and I yell out that he can get up, or go in to his room to get him up.

If the cot fails, get a stair gate.

A friend of mine did not deal with this issue when it arose for her, and now at 5.5yrs cannot get her daughter to stay in her own bed at night and gets woken up at 3am every morning with DD crawling into the parents bed and waking them up chatting(won't get a stair gate or take any other action - but if she had done something from the start it would have been much easier to resolve). This friend is a total wreck from exhaustion due to this problem.