using a reward chart to help him stay in his own bed?

[roundthehouses]

Ds (3yrs 3 months) always goes to sleep in his bed and comes through to us at any time from midnight to 5.30am. Very occasionally sleeping through til 7.30 in his own bed. Very rare.

We have made up a chart and got stickers and talked about sleeping all night in his own bed, he has one sticker and one no-sticker for the 2 nights we´ve been doing it. But this morning I really wasn´t sure if he should get a sticker or not! He came through at 5.30 which really is quite good all things considered but still isn´t him staying all night in his bed and i know from previous experience if we say 5.30 is okay it´ll soon be 4.30 then 3.30 etc

But he can´t read the time and I don´t have a bunny clock or anywhere near me to buy one at short notice, how can I expect him to know when is an ok time to come through? I have tried saying he has to stay in his room til we come to get him but i really can´t see him buying that anytime soon.

Any advice? this is our first star chart and he is already desperate to get his prize and I feel bad i might have set him up to fail before he even starts!

anyone?

You could tell him to stay in his own bed until it's light. Not sure what time it gets light at the moment! Other than that he isn't going to have any idea of time. He is still only little it might take some time.

If he's 3.3 then he can understand cold turkey, and it might be easier than you realise.

Until recently, DS would take toys (cars etc) to bed with him. When he started messing about at bedtime, we reduced it to only two toys, but this was even worse, so we went cold turkey - no toys other than his stuffed igglepiggle *that he's had since he was 3 months old). And it's been fine. We've had a couple of minor tantrums, but nothing like what we had before.

If you say he has to stay in his room until you get him (and in the mean time try and get him a bunny clock) then he should be able to get his head around it ok. I think firm boundaries are much better than ones they think they can push.

We say DS can't get up until our alarm goes off (we're in adjacent rooms - he can hear it if he's awake, but it doesn't usually wake him IYSWIM). We are lucky though in that our door handles are at adult shoulder height and he can't reach them yet ;)

Alternatively, you can have a nightlight on a timer switch to come on at say 6 or 6:30am, and have it somewhere where he can see it, but it won't wake him - maybe under his bed or something?

hmm okay some great ideas, like the nightlight idea just to give him some little sign that its okay to get up. thanks

Roundthe houses is your DS responding to the chart, thinking of trying it with 2yo DD, is she too young?

I've seen this instead of bunny clock, might try this one here

Hi.. no not really after those couple of stickers its all gone back to normal - might try getting one of those clocks too...