Toddlers getting up in the night

[cush]

I have a 2 and half year old boy who gets up every night without fail. More recently he is getting up 10-20 times a night. Sometimes it's because he's frightened and we gently re-assure him, but he continues to get up. He still isn't dry so sometimes it's to go to the toilet, but this is quite rare. We are absolutely shattered and would be happy for any advice from people.

I am a mean mummy... we have a stairgate on DD's door, and she can get up as much as she likes, but she can't get out, and mummy only goes to her if she sounds genuinely distressed. It seems to have done the trick, if she wakes, she generally just mutters to herself in bed for a few mins now, and then falls asleep again.

We're not at nighttime training yet though, so not much help there!!! Could he be trusted with a potty in his room, or will there be a wee mess in the morning?

have you tried a night light? does he have a comfort object to ward off whatever is scaring him?

i was about to suggest a nght light and a potty. the tommee tippee portable ones are great. they have absorbable(sp?) pads in so soak up all the wee...no spillage

we also have a stairgate on the door (also mean mummy!) but now we don't use it. we will use it to keep ds1 out at nap times when we finally get round to moving ds2 in thre with him(furniture and space giving us a nightmare at mo)

when dd was that age we had

night light - John Lewis does a child one that fades.

potty in bedroom for night time wees

shut door so she couldn't get out - 1930s door so handle too high for her to reach

oh and if she made too much noise we used to tell her she was waking the cat up!

HELP!

Going through the same problem, dd is same age and wakes 5-8 times a night screaming saying she is frightened. She is still in a cot and will scream until we go in. Its not the kind of shouting you can ignore - we have tried!

it has been going on for a few weeks now and before that she was a great sleeper.

she basically does not want to be alone anymore and will not fall off unless we are in the room now, before it was kisses, goodnight, light off and i was gone - now is a total different tiring story...

will watch this thread and sympathise with you BIG time

I don't know what's up with cush's kid, sounds like night terrors or similar? Tough one.

Lovecloud, sounds like your DD has fallen out of the habit of going to sleep on her own. So, you stay in the room until she sleeps, and then, when she resurfaces after a sleep cycle, she looks for you, you're not there, she gets startled and annoyed and upset. Perfectly understandable, how would you feel if someone stole your pillow while you slept?

You need to get her back into falling asleep on her own, then she'll resettle herslf in the night again. You can do controlled crying (if you can face it), or gentler means.

Could you just put him back in nappies if he isn't dry? If he's getting up so many times in the night, I would suggest he's really overtired and so can't settle into a proper sleep. Would you consider putting a stairgate on his door so he can't get out?

ah Symphathies ladies, we're going thru the same, dd is now scared of the dark and using any excuse to get out of bed.....we're having good days and bad, re her getting back out of bed again, when she's decided she doesn't want to go just yet, although a star chart currently seems to be helping matters there (for chocolate rewards!!) (she's just 2 by the way) We'd love to try the stair gate on door, but currently the gate is bigger than the door frame, so its on the stairs instead! we are having a varying amount of sleepless nights, when she wakes up and screams until one of us gives up and goes in, then she'll settle again, only to wake a few hours later, not sure if sometimes this is night terrors or not? will watch this thread for further experiences!

we have the babydan adjustable gate coz our doors are quite narrow

i kept takign mine back to bed and lying ont he end of the bed till he fell asleep

seem to remember using stickers for staying in bed all night at some point.

Yes to most of your suggestions, he has a night light, 2 cuddly toys that he relates to being bed time, he still wears a nappy at bed - so as you can see we have tried and considered almost everything. He does just seem to be scared of the dark and does have nights where he is obviously woken by a bad dream. However, saying all this, we had an unbroken nights sleep last night and all I'd done differently was not let him have juice from about 6pm and gave him chocolate milk instead (he won't drink milk normally). So who knows what tonight will bring, thanks so much for your comments, it's quite nice to know that you're not alone.

Have just been reading this thread in desperation after another night where 22 month old ds got us up 4 times. Please help......

He is not hungry, he doesn't seem scared. He is just awake, and screaming "Mummy cuddle". We go to him, say nothing, only shhhhhhhhhhh (with varying degrees of annoyance!!!) and pat his back. Then he sometimes goes back to sleep, or screams for a while longer, then sleep. He seems almost to be having a tantrum - he throws his toy rabbit out the cot in a fit of rage, or knocks my hand away when I try to pat him, and does the whole kicking leg thing. A couple of hours later, he does it again. It's not every night, and I can see no link between what happens in the day and when he wakes.

He has always been really good at going to bed, and rarely cries at night. What is happening?????

Thanks.