How to leave the room?

[Koogers]

My 16 month old dd has never been the easiest baby to put to sleep. At night, we bath her, read her a story, give her her bottle and then it's bedtime. The problem is once she's in the cot, when she's lying there if I try to leave the room she gets up and starts crying and then I have to resettle her and start the process again. Sometimes if I don't leave the room I can be sat there in the dark for over an hour. I really want to figure out a way of dealing with her separation anxiety-any suggestions would be gratefully received!

No advice but bumping as I have the same problem!

We have this problem too, hopefully someone somewhere has some advice...!

My 13 month DTD recently went from being perfectly happy being put in her cot to standing up and screaming for each naptime or bedtime. This was due to jet lag, illness, then starting nursery all happening in a short space of time.

I just carried on doing my usual routine, bath, feed, into sleeping bag and having her snuggly. Then as I put her in the cot I sing to her and tell her it's sleepy time. For a couple of nights I stayed with her touching her back and sang until she was asleep. Then over a week I reduced the amount of time I touched her and just stood by the cot singing. If she got upset I would lie her down again and touch her back until she calmed down.

Then towards the end of the week I put her in her cot and slowly left the room singing loudly and I found if I carried on singing outside her room tidying bits up so she could still hear me, she would at first cry for 30 seconds or so then went to sleep. The next night she did not cry at all.

I have now got back to the stage where I can lie her down wide awake, leave the room and she is fine.

I guess it may go back to screaming when the next illness arrives or if we go away again but I will just go back a few stages until she feels ok to fall asleep by herself.

Hope that helps.