15 month old who has started 'playing silly beggars' in the middle of the night....advice please

[ceebeegeebies]

My DS has always been a fantastic sleeper who sleeps through most nights. On the odd occasion where he hasn't slept through the night, we have (rightly or wrongly, bought him into our bed and he has settled back to sleep within minutes and I put him straight back in his cot - this has never happened more than once a night either.

These last few nights, he has taken to waking up, standing in his cot and deliberately throwing his dummy and 'blankie' on to the floor and then crying for attention. I have gone in, picked up his dummy and blankie, bought him into our bed where he has settled straight away and back in his cot.

I know this is wrong but not really sure what else to do as there is no way he will settle back by himself if his dummy and blankie are on the floor and I don't want to get into endless trips backwards and forwards picking them up for him.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I know what I am doing is 'rewarding' his behaviour as he gets to come into bed with mummy and daddy but really don't know what else to do.

I would go down the leave him to cry option. That's what I do with my dd and she is 15 months, but it is so hard to listen to them cry and not go but I feel it's the best thing for her in the long run as she's not reliant on me to settle to sleep. It's hard but within a few days (3/4ish)they cotton on to the fact no-one is coming so crying is pointless.

Good Luck in whatever you decide to do, it's not easy

My ds went through this sort of phase at 15 months - only a few weeks ago. He would repeatedly throw his teddy out of the cot, especially when being settled for the night but also in the middle of the night as well. (and he would shout "uh oh" to make sure we knew what he'd done!)

At first we put teddy back in, did lots of patting and shushing and "sleep tight" etc but realised that he would just do it all the more. So we just walked in, picked up the teddy and put him back and the cot and walked straight out again, no eye contact or talking or anything. Took only a few nights and he realised there was no point anymore.

Weasel - did he not keep throwing it out over and over again? How many times did he do it in one night before giving up? I really don't want to get into a battle of getting back into bed and then having to get out again and so on - or maybe that is what I will have to do to solve it.

Carol - I am so soft that I really don't think I could do the 'leave to cry' option.

If you're still there ceebee - it was a bit strange as on the first night we tried just putting the teddy back and walking straight out again, he settled down quite quickly and we thought we'd cracked it in one night! - but the next night he kept doing it - I think it was probably about five or six times before he gave up and laid down (still fussing and making noise for a bit though not crying).

Then it was probably three or four times each for the next three nights, then he just stopped completely and hasn't done it since. I too can't face leaving him to cry, though I do let him fuss and whine a bit as I think I would know if he really needed me iykwim.

I really understand what you're saying about the getting in bed and up again all night - what about trying it for one night and seeing what happens?

Weasel - thanks for that information. It sounds like it wasn't too bad so I might bite the bullet and give it a try this weekend (can't face tackling it on the days that I have to get up for work).

good luck for the weekend, let us know how it goes