My husband and I have 2 kids; a 1 year old and 2 1/2 year old. They share a room (they have to as we only have a 2 bedroom apartment) which only works some of the time coz if one of them is unsettled they will wake the other. Anyway, we have just struck MAJOR sleep issues with the 2 year old. In the last 4 months she has moved into a big bed from her cot. She dealt with this well until 2 weeks ago when she has become very panicky when we try to put her bed. She clings desperately to me, crying and begging for cuddles. This has caused issues with her waking our 1 year old, so we moved her to our bedroom floor. Even sleeping there with us right next to her in bed she cries coz she wants us right next to her. We have tried everything from putting her in timeout in the middle of the night, to letting her sleep in our bed. When we don't let her in our bed, she humps her pillow to self soothe but it's loud and can go on for half an hour causing us no sleep. When she sleeps in our bed we don't sleep too well.
Anyone else had this? Or any advice?
Desperate for sleep!
Desperate for sleep!
Posted in:
Behaviour, Baby & Toddler
1 Replies
I would personally not put her in time out as that will just make her anxiety worse. Plus time out is counter intuitive to sleep.
I would probably consult my GP as a starting point just to check there isn't an underlying issue. Then I would use the gradual withdrawal method. So basically you lie next to her until she is asleep until she is comfortable with that method then you step it up to sitting next to the bed touching her and you do that until she is comfortable and then you sit further away from the bed and so on. She is doing this because she is genuinely scared. You can't sleep if you are scared.
I'm usually pretty hard core put the child to bed and let them self settle with my own child, but she genuinely sounds scared, and it doesn't sound like she is being naughty.