Has anyone ever actually solved a very early waker?

[PeckerPoleover]

I have read lots of threads over time on here about children who wake up at ridiculous hours of the morning (4 or 5am) but cant recall if there is a good way to tackle it or if the only option really is to wait it out.

DS has been doing 7-5ish for about a month now after previously being a very good sleeper WHY does it happen and WHAT can I do!? Im so tired now!

How old is he? When my son started doing this at about 9 months (after sleeping 7-6ish fro 3 months) I realised he was starving for breakfast so upped his food dring the day and that seemed to do the trick.

If he isn't hungry then I have no idea! But lots of sympathy

It depends how old he is and how much day sleep he has etc. My dd's 2 and has always been quite variable in her morning wakings though rarely is up before 6.30am (thank goodness!). I've always found that the more rested she is in the daytime the better she sleeps at night. Other people swear by the opposite and cut naps and find their kids sleep more at night that way. My dd definitely sleeps better at night if she's had a good daytime nap.

your ds is probably doing it because of the clocks going back.
My ds1 did exactly the same thing two years ago when he was 18months old. Just his body clock not getting in to the new timezone. Putting him to bed later made no difference. He just grew out of it.

Sorry

I looked ALL OVER the sleep threads yesterday, trying to find help for my friend, whose 18 mo. old baby wakes at 4 in the morning. I never could find anything that seemed to work well consistently for more than a few people. They all just seemed to say they finally grew out of it. Sorry. Will be watching this one with interest.

Depressing, isn't it? I had only JUST got 14 month old ds to sleep until 7 (took MONTHS) and then the bleedin clocks go back. We are now back to 6 and earlier and I am dying from that lack of one hour's sleep a night. I have tried these things -

1. putting him to bed late (9pm) - no difference
2. putting him to bed early (7.30) - no difference
3. cutting down on naps - no difference
4. increasing naps - no difference
5. finally resorted to cc ie leaving him to cry if he wakes up too early (ie if there is a 5 or a 6 still showing on the alarm clock). This means that he still wakes up early, cries, wakes everyone else up (including dd, who then comes in with us and fidgets and sings and talks loudly -aaah) and then he falls back to sleep after about 5-10 mins, only to wake up bawling 20 minutes later, at which point I give in.

What I keep asking myself is WHY DO THE CLOCKS HAVE TO GO BACK??? Now that Scottish devolution has come, can't we in the rest of the British Isles decide to keep normal European time? The US manages perfectly happily with different time zones. Why can't we? RANT RAVE RANT. Because you know that when the clocks go forward, and you're all DYING for them to sleep that extra hour in the morning, it only lasts 3 days and then they're back to normal (ie waking up at the crack of dawn again). Only now they won't go to bed because it's still light........... SIGH.

Have you tried blackout curtains?My friend recommended it to me and it worked!

But it's still dark at 5 in the morning, so you won't need blackouts!

How old is your ds? Would he respond to something like the bunny rabbit alarm clock? We had a similar problem when dd moved to a big bed from her cot, and the bunny alarm clock helped. It would only work if he's old enough to understand (and compliant enough to co-operate)!