1 yr old won't lie still in cot nor sleep

[BlueSky123]

Our problem is that everytime we put our 1 year old boy down in his cot he instally tries to crawl or climb the sides of his cot and, if left to his own devices, will soon fall over and crack his head on the side of the cot. Queue lots of tears, worried parents and no sleeping.

We have to let him sleepily flop around on a bed for 30-60 mins (and watch him carefully or he'll leap off the side!) and then transfer him to his cot once he's asleep.

Any one else have this problem? Any ideas on a solution? Thanks!

I do this as well, although more often than not I don't transfer dd . She is extremely difficult to wind down, we've tried stories, milk etc, but she favours leaping about to sitting quietly, generally.

She has her milk on my bed with me, and then thrashes about for bloody ages before going to sleep.

It's not ideal, I grant you.

Our little boy is fairly chilled he know's it's time for sleep but just keeps thrashing around the bed!

Pick up/put down got me through this phase. Then side off the cot, side-car with bed, and DH doing bedtime. DS would lie down for him, not for me. Then molars and canines started coming through and it all went to hell. Currently going through hell stopping the nursing to sleep. Ah joy.

Have you got a travel cot

A friend had the "practice my new trick of standing in cot, then falling and banging head on side of cot and screaming at 3am" fiasco with her DD for a while and so she started putting her down in the travel cot instead and it cured it (softer landing and harder to pull up). Not sure if it would work for you but had to pass it on.

Hi BlueSky, I second Ches's recommendation - we are still in this phase with DD (14 monthsish). PU/PD seems to be doing the trick - she's taking progressively less time to go to sleep each night (first night 2 hours, tonight a week and a bit in, 20 minutes).

And because you're there the whole time, you can intervene in any potentially hazardous behaviour. Me, I just lie DD down gently every time she pops up. It's back breaking for the first few nights, but DD is now quite adept at lying herself down without any kamakaze moments...

Might be worth a try?

db
xx

Yup, sounds like PU/PD is what we're going to have to try. It's what we used to try to do didn't know it had a name :-) and will have to start doing again...

Thanks for letting me know it's not just us!