Gro bag clock - any good?

[fifitot]

Am at wits end with DD's sleep. Have posted on here on and off about it over the years. She is 3.5 and wakes from 5am every morning. Have tried loads of things to change this but nothing works including keeping her up to alter the pattern, she just goes into tiredness meltdown at around 5pm so doesn't help.

Have ordered one of those grobag clocks that you set to distinguish between night and day. Looks a bit better than the rabbit clock or some of the other ones that don't seem clear to me.

Any experience of them or any suggestions of how to get her to sleep until at least 6am!

We tried it and it didn't work with our non-sleeping urchins. However we did then go and buy spooka nightlights from Ikea and the little buggers liked them and cuddle them and sleep a little later. DS still wakes at 7am but comparitively, I can live with that.

We did find that playing outside in the afternoon was better than anything in increasing melatonin production and also a long boring bed/story/bath routine.

It is here so will see how it goes over next few days.

7am sounds like bliss! I got 6 this morning which isn't too bad compared to the 5am I sometimes get!

We just got one of the gro clocks a couple of weeks ago.

It works with ds (4) but not with dd (2). She wakes at a reasonable 6am anyway.

I think ds is a child who thrives on structure and boundaries. So now he's waking at 6.30am instead of 5am. It's bliss. Hope it works for you.

Thanks - will let you know!

I am just looking at buying one of these and wondered how you had got on with it? Did it help?

Just noticed your post when I checked for new posts.

It's not bad tbh. DD now knows she must wait for the sunshine to come on before she gets up. I am still working at moving the time forward and at the moment we are on 6.15.

I think it's pretty good actually. Gives them more of an idea of difference between day and night I suppose.

at that age I just used a digital alarm clock for ds and told him he could come through when the time says 7:00. In fact I used it from around 2 1/2 and he was very good about not coming through too early.

Seona - so did your DS recognise the numbers on the digital clock that young? On a weekday we need our 20mo DD to get up at 6.30am so we would have to teach her "6" "3" and "0" - seems like a lot of numbers to recognise for 20mo.

It didn't work for my 3.2yo ds . I'm gutted as its a good idea. On the first night he had managed to unlock it and start buggering about with it re-setting the time and making the sun come up in the middle of the night ?look mummy the sun has come up, I can get up now!!? .

He can recite the sleepy farm story off by heart bit he's still messing around at night and waking early (he was a 12 hour a night child until 2 months ago).

I'm glad we tried it but yesterday I took it out of his room as it wasn't helping.

ds recognised numbers from 2 1/2, he wouldnt have known then under the age of 2 - he just has to know that the time starts with a 7 before he can come through. When dd was younger and woke early I got some fairy lights and strung them up her room attached to a timer. We then gradually set the timer later and later i.e. it started at 6.15am and eventually we got to 7am. If she came through she was put back and told that she couldnt come through until the 'fairies' had woken up