Toddler turning off tips...?

[Ab31]

My 22 month DD takes about an hour from lights off to finally going to sleep. Is this normal? Is the answer to put her to bed earlier to compensate or does anyone have any toddler switching off techniques???

By 'normal' I mean 'common'...

What does she do? Just chatter and sing to herself? I'd say that's pretty normal, and if she then goes to sleep and sleeps well... if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Good point. Trouble is she wants me to sit with her and if I leave the room there's trouble! It's all pretty new for her as until 2 weeks ago I'd fed her to sleep and have only just stopped doing so. Getting annoyed now though about the amount of my evening spent sitting in the dark and wondering how I'm ever going to go out again!!

Hi Ab31.

Does she have a good, long wind-down at bed-time? My DS has a long bath, pyjamas, milk in front of CBeebies (and playing if hes got some left-over energy), then brush teeth, choose a dummy, story in his room, lullabies then bed.

If you only stopped feeding her to sleep two weeks ago, it's pretty early days.

You need to break the habbit of sitting with her, try telling her your leaving the room for a minute but will be back, if she cries, let her, come back after 5 min so she knows you mean it when you say you will be back, controlled crying is the best way to break the habbit, just potter about upstairs for a bit so she knows your still about.

I read ds a story, then i say mummy just going to the toliet, will be back, within 5 mins he is asleep.

Alternatively, you could try gradually withdrawing - just sit a wee bit further away from her every couple of nights, until you're sitting outside the door. Take a radio with earphones, or book and booklight, so that your attention is elsewhere, and don't talk much - if she wants to talk, try just saying "Time to sleep". This worked well for us with dd - you'll need to find what suits you and your dd best.

She is used to a long, slow wind down at the boob with you there and it's going to take her a bit to adjust. I would (a) deal with it; you used to spend that long but you were doing something so it didn't seem so bad and (b) gradually wean her off it. You can incorporate a soothing lullabye CD into bedtime (most are 45 min long so she would have that to zone out on most of her wind down) and maybe some glow-in-the-dark stars for her ceiling to stare at. Then as PP said, leave the room initially for very short periods ("just going to the loo") and stretch the duration out over time.

Will try all that - thanks! (Tonight I didn't talk at all and just asnswered all her questions and babble ((and there're a lot!)) with "shhh time to sleep". Took 30mins so better. Will try leaving tomorrow!)

We had this (kind of) trouble with 20 month ds until we dropped his daytime nap. Now he is asleep in about 6 minutes, where before it took around an hour.

We had this with dd at about 22 mo, and it got worse and worse. Finally at 26mo we ditched the nap

Out like a light every night now....but oh how i miss that peaceful hour or so..........