2 year old won't stay in bed...HELP!

[AdaDoom]

Any ideas/suggestions on getting an agile 2 year old to stay in bed when we put him up in the evening? He used to go to bed no problem but can now climb out of his cot so we took the side off to stop him falling and breaking his leg. He now gets out of bed repeatedly and gets into his big sister's bed, keeping them both awake for hours after they go to bed.

[legalbeagle]

My four year old did this for a few weeks, and here's what we did:

First of all make sure you can hear what is going on in the room - either get a baby monitor or sit outside. As soon as you hear he is out of bed, go into his room, calmly and quietly. If you are satisfied that there is nothing wrong with him, put him straight back into his bed. Don't switch the light on, don't speak to him or tell him off in any way, and don't make eye contact. You will probably find that he gets straight out of bed again. If he does, just keep on putting him back to bed in exactly the same way. If he cries or has a tantrum then comfort him briefly but leave as quickly as you feel able to. Eventually he will stay in bed. It may take a very long time for him to stay in bed the first few times that you do this, but stick at it. At one stage I just sat outside my daughters room because she was getting up so frequently there was no point going downstairs. It may take a week or so, but it did work for us, and I do know a few other people who have tried it and found it works. Of course there's no knowing whether it works on all children! Good luck!

[rachelbrady]

I had the same problem with my 21 month son today. He moved to toddler bed 2 weeks ago (we need the cot for his little sister) and had only got out occasionally so far. Today, however, it took me a whole hour to get him down for his nap. I did the same as legalbeagle which was pretty tiresome but eventually he gave up the very funny "game". I think I'd been expecting this behaviour since we made the big bed move. Tonight we had no problem. Hopefully next time he decides he doesn't want to got to bed, he'll give up the game more quickly.

Good luck.

[Curly]

I agree with everything legalbeagle says to do but it didn't work for my eldest child. He was 5 before he stayed in bed for most of the night. Sometimes you just have to keep trying until they go to school. Sorry!

[JDR]

Hi

Good luck with this. We tried legal beagles approach for approx 6 weeks with our eldest, who just kept coming out. Just before we abandoned the technique she peaked at 108 times out of bed in one night... On advice of a friend we said she could come out if she wanted but shut the doors in the hallway so there was nothing to do. Didn't have a massive effect until autumn, when evening light lessened and sitting in the dark was no fun. Since then, model child. Our second daughter has also spent most of this summer doing something similar though way less extreme. We've justed resigned ourselves to inconvenient evenings for the next year (we also have a 17 month old who no doubt will also do this!). It does got better, just persevere and try to share the load with a partner

[womanofdulwich]

apparently 45 years ago my mother in law used reins to keep my husband in his cot!!!( I did not try this). But as others have advised do not reward them with attention just return them and leave. try and make the first time when they go to bed special and nice and differentiate this with subsequent settlings by not saying anything just putting them back.I think if the house is quiet and you have pretended/ gone to bed it helps as they do not think they are missing anything. it is hard, but you have to do it. Good luck.

[EmmaG]

What Leaglebeagle said - that's exactly how Supernanny does it! And the Baby Whisperer does a baby version in her book. Sounds very effective.

[AdaDoom]

Thank everyone. Having a 5 year old in the same room who loves the drama compounds the problem but we will keep at it and hopefuly it won't last a year!!

[ludoscotts]

hi we are going throught the same thing at the moment, we have put a stairgate on her bedroom door so she cant get into bathroom without us hearing and put water everywhere again! and did the put back to bed without saying anything thing and it worked fingers crossed it will work again tonight!