2 year old not sleeping

[victoria0409]

i have a 2 year old boy who wont sleep through, my fault i hugged him to sleep and when he wakes i put him in bed with me, its got to nearly every night and tonight i have decided to stop this as i am tiered, how do i do it with the best affect as i dont want to leave him to cry it out. he also uses a pacifier/dummy and he throws it out of his cot, will this make him worse? and do i go up and give him it when he does this? help

[Lore]

The only way to do this is going to be difficult. You need to make some changes that will (at first) be difficult for both you and your son.  firstly the dummy has to go! he will use the dummy to get your attention, he knows that if he throws the dummy out of the cot you will come in. Once you throw the dummy away you can never go back, this will only confuse him. Your son will then fall into a new pattern of -cry hard enough / get a dummy and this will go on for a long, long time.

Bedtime! - You need a new routine. decide on an appropriate bedtime then start the routine... e.g bath, storytime ( have a time limit for this or you could be in there all night!), then sleep. stick to the same pattern every night.  If he wakes up, go to him, put him back in his bed and leave the room again ( don't talk to him!! ) This is going to be hard for you emotionally because he will cry but just remember that he's only complaining because things are changing and he's not impressed. He's not hurt and he's not in any danger.

Good luck! :o)  

[lissyl78]

Completely agree with Lore. I had to do it when my little boy was about 18 months and it was really hard. I had a few horendous nights as he adjusted to the new routine but after that it was heaven!

Supernanny said that when you introduce a new routine, prepare them for what's going to happen. For example, in the bath, say 'after this we'll read a story and then its bed time' etc.

Good luck - let us know how you get on. Lissy x

[Paul_Leonard]

My son did exactly the same and our health visitor said that we should try the 'kissing game' if we didn't want to leave to cry. What you do is put them to bed as normal and give them a kiss, then walk away to the door and go back and give him another kiss, then leave him for a minute or so and go back again to give him a kiss and keep doing this with a longer time span inbetween each kiss.It is very time consuming but i found it really worked and didn't make me feel guilty for leaving him. It took about a week to do and my son has never been difficult at bedtime since. Please let me know how you get on if you choose to use this method.

[victoria0409]

thank you all, i like the kissing game and i did it tonight and it worked really well he was asleep before i got to the 5th kiss bless him he was tiered and i also put in to practice the other answers. he threw his own dummy out without crying so that has gone he dont use it during the day so that didnt seem to worry him as he has a snuggly blanket for nan-nights. and i gave him a bath and read him a story and put him to bed and i told him what he was going to do, i start the routine and 7.15 for bed at 8.00 whilst i was putting him in the bath my partner moved all the toys in the front room out of the way so he couldnt see them. and he was so peaceful to put to sleep. i also read elsewere that i should stop his late afternoon naps and i think that helped also. thanks alot for answering my question.

heres hoping it will last!! or have i just jinxed it????

 

vicky

[Lore]

Well done to you both! :o)