What are your top tips for getting your child to sleep? Share with Hasbro’s new Moon and Me!

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Getting your DC to sleep can be a challenge worthy of an award. It can be especially difficult when your children change the way they respond to toys, songs, or any other sleep aids you have in your parental arsenal. To celebrate the launch of their new Moon and Me Toy range, Hasbro would like you to share your tips for how you succeed in getting your child to sleep or what has helped you manage your child’s sleeping habits in the past.

Here’s what Hasbro has to say about their Moon and Me toys:
“Our lovable new toy range features favourite characters from the magical world of Moon and Me. From figures and play-sets that are perfect for playtime to soft plush that little ones will love snuggling with at bedtime! “

What are your tips and tricks for getting your children to sleep? Have you worked out a magic routine, or do you have a favourite sleep toy? Do you rely on sleep songs or other comforters to help you? Does TV make up a part of your child’s sleep routine? Who has a bigger say in picking up a sleep toy - you or your children? Does your DC already have a preferred sleep aid?

Please share your tips for getting your child to sleep below and you will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list) and a toy bundle from the new Moon and Me toy range.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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Blackout blinds are a must (or blackout liners), and we dim the lights and draw our blinds around 6pm, and it's bath, (I use one with lavender - it seems to help), I am still using night time nappies, but it's still warm milk, a wee, teeth brushed and bed, I read a story, and put a dream in her head (unicorns and fairies) and she seems to settle most nights.

No TV after tea is a rule we stick to. Bath, teeth, story at bedtime, and if they're restless when it's normal lights out time (like at the moment with the light evenings and hot weather) I promise to pop back to check on them if they're quiet. It usually works!

I love to give him breastmilk.

Routine routine routine !

I think it’s all about routine. It’s doesn't matter what that is as long as you stick to it. That way if your on holiday or they’re staying over with family or friends as long as their routine is the same getting to sleep is usually ok!

Children like routine - mine is bath then bed with one chapter of an Enid Blyton story - Brer Rabbit is an absolute favourite! This helps when they feel unwell, too.

our routine is key we have the same routine all year I highly recommend a blackout blind perfect for these light evenings and great for not disrupting the routine

our routine works well for us and the children like it to as they know its the same every night

tea
tv time usually well baths running
bath
story
bed with a warm mil

My top tips for getting my child to sleep are a nice bath just before bed. Follwed by a massage, then putting on/or singing some lullabies.
Youtube have some great one!!!

After dinner I give my 18 month old a shower and into bed. Read him a book and turn down the lights which puts him to sleep.

I use an organic Lavender bath at night time, it does smell lovely, and I can smell it on my baby whilst he sits on my lap. We turn the tv down, and will occasionally play some relaxing music. Night time blinds are a must to give a dark cool room. Finally I have a bedtime buddy which gives off a 'white noise'. Seems to work a treat, when I hear him stirring, I wait until he settles again, even a small tired cry seems to be short and he will get back off to sleep until the morning. We do still have the odd time I need to go in to settle, but this is getting more and more infrequent.

Routine is the only thing which I think works, and sets a body clock to know when bedtime is, and when they stir in the night hold back for going in. I found a sticker chart for staying in bed after weeks of night time wanderings into our bedroom worked. A gold sticker for a night without calling out for mum and getting our of bed, works wonders.

The blanky with 'that smell' - don't really know what 'that smell' is but it's the comfort he needs to get off to sleep. I use a night light which gives a cool glow, and Henry the Hedgehog - Light and Sound Sleep Aid, which give off a subtle noise and light, and seems to help a longer sleep and being able to settle at night quicker than before we had this.

Routine, and then when you get one that works, dont let any relatives guilt you into fucking with the routine so that you can fit in with their meal/bedtime routine - and therefore go a week without proper sleep!

It took until dc2 for me to realise the sneering about making sure "the baby was flexible" so we weren't "tied to a routine", meant they (extended family) were tied to a routine about when meal times and meet ups happened and as grown adults couldn't be flexible, so expected us to make the baby fit in. I got better at saying "no thanks" or "we'll feed dc here then come over".

It's a short period of your life, dont make it hard for yourself to keep other people happy who wont deal with the fall out.

We are quite traditional here - bath, story, bed. A comfy dark bedroom is a must, and we leave the corridor light on and the door slightly ajar. No toys in bed as our two find that too distracting! but they love tucking up a toy in a blanket on the floor :)

Routine, routine, routine.
Bath, milk, stories and bed.
On the way up we say the best bit of the day and then it always ends with kisses and love you.

Another vote for a routine with my 6mo but also starting at a good time when she's not over or under tired. So dinner, bath, pjs, milk, book then bed and happily she now settles herself 😃

A good routine from 3 months bath milk and. Story . Also we use a little night light so if my wee one wakes up he isn't scared he's now 2.5 and has slept like a dream since 3 months

I am so lucky that my gorgeous fifth baby loves his sleep! And his dummy! He loves a big bottle of milk and a cuddle before bed. Absolute blessing

My advice is to give your children the closeness and security they crave at bedtime by staying with them until they fall asleep, if that's what they want. I know this goes against all the textbooks but I know I will look back on these times as some of the most precious experiences of being a parent, and I hope my kids will have memories of comfort and love when falling asleep, rather than feeling nervous or alone.

When my daughter was little and she had trouble sleeping, it was often because she was anxious and her mind ran away with her. I used to tell her I was taking out all the things she was thinking out of her head and storing them in a jar for the rest of the night. I would pretend to pull the thoughts out of her head and have her help me put them in the invisible jar with her helping to 'screw' the lid on. It always helped her stop thinking about stuff that was stressing her out. I also used to tell her that she was floating on a cloud- she used to really like that.

I always think a relaxing bath, moisturizing and then a book in bed helps to encourage a good nights sleep. Now that my daughter is older it has grown increasingly bright and noisy round the back of our house so she sleeps with an eye mask eye and occasionally a fan on to drown out the noise.

We always say 'night night' to the 'little boy in the mirror' after bathtime, which is something we are able to do consistently, even if we are away.

Wait for them to grow into it. Oldest slept through the night at 2.5, youngest hasn't yet.

For us it was having a routine. Dim lighting in the bedroom. Bath, milk, cuddles and bed with the same CD of classical 'sleepy music' every single night at pretty much the same time.

When DC were older we then had stories every night so bath, milk, teeth, cuddles/stories, bed.

Very boring, even down to saying similar things every night but it worked for us.

Milk, teeth brushed, read a story, cbeebies for 20 mins and she's usually asleep. She loves moon and me so would love these toys :)

We had a routine from very early on, I think even before DS was six months.
When they were little it was bath, milk, book, bed. Seven years later and it’s still bath, milk, book, bed, songs. Sometimes we drop the bath but not often and the rest of the routine stays.

They both have a night light and various cuddly toys which I think help. I’ve spoken to both children (3 and 7) about ways to help you go to sleep - shut your eyes and think of your favourite place in the world, counting etc.

The one saving grace for both children when they are struggling to sleep is white noise and I shall be forever grateful to Ewan the Dream Sheep!

I don’t allow TV after we have started the bedtime routine but I do think that programmes like the Bedtime Hour on CBeebies help to calm it down a bit. Somehow just the songs playing on the TV trigger a message to the children to wind down for bed!