I know this is very much frowned upon...

[BattyKoda]

...and I have never considered it before now, however I'm at the end of my tether.

DS1 (4yo) has been waking at 5.30/6am at the moment. He's unbearable as he is so tied throughout the day. He also won't have a nap to make up. The odd days he will sleep until 7.30. This is a bad enough problem as it is. We've tried everything, clocks, reward charts, etc etc. I'm just hoping it's a phase. My biggest problem with it is that once awake he goes into DS2's (15mo) room and wakes him. DS is horrible when tired. He usually will slepp until 7.30/8am if not disturbed. It's causing havoc with his naps - I think he's trying to drop one but can't when woken this early.

So he it is - my final solution - Do I 'lock' DS1 in his room? He's right next door to us so can hear everything, and I would explain to him so he wouldn't freak out (I don't think he would). I think if he realises there is now one to play with he might just get back into to bed, or at worst playu in his room, not disturbing DS2

Is this A Really Bad Idea?

Chandon - our door is always open, he makes sure he's ulta quiet, until he wakes his brother He has a clock that was bought for this reason. He knows his numbers and was told not to come out before 7am. Didn't work. We set the radio to come on at 7am and told him not to come out before the music played. Didn't work. When I said we've tried everything, we really have tried everything!! He goes to nursery in the mornings, and afternoons are spent at toddler groups/play dates/in the garden, he's always shattered!

Julezboo - he's still in nappies at night.

Batty It might just be his own natural body clock is set for 5:30-6am, this was the time I woke up naturally from a toddler to my late teens nothing worked to keep me in bed you might just have to accept this is the time he gets up and deal with the individual issues.

Tiredness could you introduce quite time in the afternoon tell him he must lie up on the sofa for a quite half hour he can look at story books or watch TV but he must be quite.

Waking others up, tell him he can stay in his room and play quietly in the morning but he must not wake up others.

Tell him these are the rules and if he can keep to them he is allowed to get up if he can't keep to them then he must stay in bed.
He's old enough to play by himself and understand that others have the right to sleep later. If he doesn't keep to the rules then discipline how you usually would for misbehavior.

Could it be the nappies that are waking him, if they are really wet it might be making him uncomfortable?

Batty, if he's obsessed by aliens, you could be really evil and tell him they come and get little boys who wake their brothers up... (you'd have to start saving for therapy, though, I imagine).