How do you get a 2 yr old to sleep through the night?

Question

My 2 year old son has been sleeping through the night since he was 8 months old. From around 8-9 until 5-6. Recently he has started waking up in the middle of the night and wanting mommy(me). I go get him and snuggle with him, but all he ends up doing is tossing and turning, so neither of us is getting any sleep. I've tried no naps during the day hoping to tire him out, not working. Any ideas or helpful hints would be nice.

Answer 1

Not having a child myself I can only go by what I have heard may help. I have heard that laying the baby down to sleep while playing some Mozart or gentle classical music can ease them to sleep. Sorry that I can't give any more help.

Hope it helps, hope you find a solution and good luck.

Answer 2

I have a 2 year old daughter who has started doing the same. I was wondering if she's starting to have dreams/nightmares. She's starting to get a bit better now (from every night to around 1-2 nights disturbed sleep a week).

I found that sticking to her routine religiously prior to bedtime helped and when she wakes up, I tell her that she needs sleep to be strong enough to play and have fun the next day. She responds to it really well and starts to think about what she'd like to do the next day with her newfound energy - within 15 minutes of thinking on her own, she's asleep until 7-8.

There have been a couple of nights that this hasn't worked. On this instances, I've taken her through the bedtime routine again (showing her how dark it is outside first), then go through above and she then goes to sleep (takes about 8-10 mins).

Good luck - I know exactly how you are feeling. XX ;-)

Answer 3

My pediatrician daughter says children who are sleep deprived sleep the worst at night. She insists children 5 and under need 11-12 hours of sleep at night. Her 31/2 year old still takes a nap in the afternoon and then sleeps 11 hours a night. My kids are grown so I don't know.......but her 7 month old takes 2 long naps during the day and still sleep 12 hours a night. Hope this might help.

Answer 4

Children love to cuddle with mommy. All of my children know when daddy is gone, they might have a small chance of getting to sleep with mommy. The excuses are anything from bad dreams to tummy aches.

The worst thing you can do if you don't want your child to keep waking up is to snuggle with him. When I attended nanny school I learned a really great way to get kids to teach themselves how to go back to sleep. It's the minutes system:

1. Let your child be fussy/cry for 20 minutes. (if they are 1 or older)
2. After 20 minutes, go and comfort them but do not pick them up or cuddle them. Also avoid staying for more than a minute or so.
3. Leave the room and let your child fuss or cry for another 10 minutes.
4. Repeat the comfort. (do not pick them up)
5. Leave the room and let your child fuss or cry for another 5 minutes.
6. Repeat the comfort.
7. Let your child cry for 1 additional minute. If your child is still crying, pick them up and hold them. You can repeat the process or try again the next night.

I have seen this work numberous times as a nanny and a monther of four. I know it's hard to let them cry, trust me, it breaks my heart. You have to decide if it's important enough to you. It should only take 2-3 times of doing this and they should learn how to put themselves back to sleep.
Good luck.

Answer 5

It's expected by the time a child is two yrs old, they should be sleeping throughout the night, it doesn't help to keep him/her awake all day, you must allow the child a power nap of at least one hour, preferably early afternoon, diet is also important, no fizz, just juice or milk, treat him as though he/she is still only a baby, never rush them into childhood, they quickly grow up, they also need strict guidelines, if you say "no", you must mean that, please remember, children are not robots, but very much depend on their parents/guardians to get them through the day, (and night) good luck.

Answer 6

You are just feeding him the attention he wants by going in and snuggling with him. Calmly but with no speaking (a la supernanny) put him back to bed and leave the room. Over and over if you have to, giving him as littel attention as possible. We gated our two year old in her room with the door open. If she got up in the night she would either encounter the gate and go back to bed, or lay down on the floor by the gate and go to sleep and we'd find her there in the morning. She is over that phase, it lasted about 4 months, and now we don't have to gate her door anymore.

Answer 7

Make sure he's running playing and getting Lot's of exercise. Also low music ( like contemporary) will help to sooth him .Don't make it a habit of getting him out of his bed when he wakes up instead try soothing him back to sleep if he thinks he can sleep with you every night this will continue. Maybe a later bed time so he's not getting to much sleep and getting restless in the night.

Answer 8

Is it possible he is getting his molars in? If so try giving him a dose of Tylenol and use the teething swabs. Also, is he going through a growth spurt? He may be getting hungry. I have noticed that my 2 year-old son will wake up if he doesn't have a snack before bed. If he does wake up try just reading him another book.

Answer 9

try telling him that if he sleeps throughout the night you will reward him using a star system or something whereby he gets a star or sticker for every time he sleeps all through the night without waking mummy and then when he has 5 or something he gets a small treat. offer loads of encouragement when he does achieve a whole night without waking you up. all the best

Answer 10

Spend time during the day doing various activities. reduce any naps to a single power nap. Diet is important. We did not do this so much with the first but have with our second. Now they both have good sleep patterns. And so do we. zzzzzzzzzzzz

Answer 11

My son did the same thing. It took putting him on a bedtime ritual to get him back on track. I start it about 1 hour and 30 minutes before bedtime and it helps him calm down. I did have to experiment with different bedtime activites to find out which worked the best for him though. It also helped to keep his daytime activities on a normal schedule too.