sleep probs in four year old

[Loobie]

my ds was 4 in april this year and has always been a great sleeper until recently,he has started screaming at bedtime yelling i dont want to go to bed or im not tired.he has never done anything like this before and i haven't a clue what to do with him.He is usually absolutely exhausted and hardly able to keep his eyes open when i tell him its bedtime, i have tried telling him ten and five minutes before that he is going to bed but it doesn't make any difference.Any advice would be wonderful as they are going back to school next week so him fighting over bedtime is not what i need right now.

Hi Loobie, Does he have a special animal or something he might like to sleep with. If not this could help him. Maybe you can let him look at a book for 10 min in his bed alone. Make it a regular routine. This might ease his way into going to sleep since hell already be in his bed. Does he have a night light so it wont be as dark in his room? Maybe listening to a childrens casette tape story while in bed will help ease the transition. Hope these ideas can help.

thanks i might try the book thing, he does have a blanket called his googy which he has had since a baby,he doesnt bother with it during the day but must have it in bed.he has a blackout blind in his room to make it as dark as poss as he wont sleep if it is light.

Hi! Dont know if this will be of any help but i have a 5 year old who has had severe sleeping problems since she was 5 months.glad to say that at last we seem to be over it.only problem lurking around now is trying to get her to go off to sleep in her own room by herself and to stay in her own bed all night.(i let her in my own bed as i was too tired to cope any longer and because i had run out of things to try....)BUT,to conquer this stage i done this.I bought a timer used for cooking and she had a fascination for it.i told her that this was a special thing that was to be used to time things.then one night when she was upset about going off to sleep alone i decided that we should time her.(more exciting than a clock!) so we set it for 20 mins and she was to try and go to sleep before the buzzer on it rang.she would watch it slowly winding down and of course boredom overtook and she would fall asleep and in the morning i would tell her how long it had taken! simple,but works everytime with her.it took her mind off thinking about being alone in the room.trouble is you HAVE to remember to remove it before it goes off and wakes her again! another thing we done was each morning when she had managed to stay in her bed she found a little envelope from the "fairies" sometimes it had a penny, a note, or a little picture of a fairy i had downloaded.(a bit of work but worth it if you are desperate)again,you must remember to leave it there or major dissappointment occurs int he morning!(if i forget, i say the fairy was sick or i quickly make an envelope up and pop it in her sock drawer then say the fairy was just playing a trick! We spend most nights getting a good sleep now with plenty of room to move around in bed!Hope this helps someone!

My DD went through this stage and had me frantic - until I eventually realised that she was trying to test the boundaries and wanted to see how Mummy would react.
I dont want to say that she was attention seeking - but just trying to see how far she could push me.

When I finally got wise to this I just let her understand that Mummy was not going to stand for this any longer and that we all needed to get the right amount of sleep - otherwise we could not enjoy our treats planned for tomorrow.

Admittedly I DID have to leave her in her room in tears a couple of times - but when she realised that I was not rising to the bait - she soon settled down.
HTH

Sparkles, what brilliant ideas! I shall rememeber them (and hope I never need them..)

Echo what Aloha says - brilliant Sparkles (but hope I don't need it)

Hi Loobie, we went through a similar phase with my 4yo and when I finally did get him to bed he would want about ten stories and still cry and carry on when we left disturbing 2yo ds into the bargain, then it was a constant round ofcoming out of his room, I'm hungry, thirsty etc etc.
around the same time we were having difficulties with toilet training, he had regressed and so we started a star chart. sucessful day and he could colour in a star I had drawn on the chart, the spin off from this was I would give him a count of four and he would have to be in bed before I got to four. he loves it. It is a real game. Once I get there I tell him quite clearly that he will get two stories and read the two, kiss goodnight and go. Before he goes to bed we now have a frimly established routine. bath, jammies, snack, drink, toilet, star and bed. He is well and truly over the toilet training problem and has had his reward for a full star chart, so I think I will cut out the star now and just do the counting to four from the bathroom, but he certainly seems a lot happier now and life is so much easier. I think once they are old enought to understand the concept of star charts they can work really well
good luck