How can I get my 15 month old back to his routine of sleeping in his own bed?

Question

My son has ALWAYS been very good about sleeping in his own room from the time he goes to sleep till morning. The past month he hasn't slept more than three hours in his own bed! We have tried to let him "cry it out" and that did not work one bit. He will cry until I finally lay him on my bed and then he is out instantly. I've tried waiting a while after he is asleep in my bed then moving him back to his own but he wakes up and screams the second he is layed down. I don't know what else to do, Please Help!

Answer 1

Lack of sleep in children can cause serious
health problems.If parents follow some simple
techniques for making their children sleep,
it can be avoided. I found useful information
at http://nosleep.in/sleepchildren.html

Answer 2

same as everyone (keep him in his bed, let him cry it out, bath, lavender lotion...)
Additional tip: he is now probably into this "routine" and forgot why he started it in the first place. Try to find out WHY he wakes up: bad dreams? what about a night light or a special soft toy that takes the bad dreams / monster away?
My son has nightmare and the only way to make him stay in his bed at night was to find a toy that was good at eating the witches, another was good with the monster, and another was good at keeping the bad dreams away. The routine and the toys might change but the idea is the same.
Another one that worked was to give him a sticker for every night he spends in his bed without waking you up. Works well when he relapses!
Good luck

Answer 3

He is still going through the seperation anxiety process. He will be like this as long as you let him. My 15 month old will sleep in the same bed as my mother and my sister when he is with them but when he is at home He refuses to sleep in my bed with me, and that is because he tried and when I would put him down at night he would scream like someone was pinching him really hard. However to break him of that I started by leaving his door open for him to be able to hear mine and my husbands voices that way he knew we were still there. He would still scream but sometimes you just have to let them. Eventually he will get used to being in his own bed. Make sure door is cracked and a nightlight helps too.

Answer 4

It may take a few days even a few weeks but don't put him in your bed anymore even if it means he cry's all night.I know it sounds awful but unless you want him sleeping with you until he is 3 I'm thinking this is your only option! However you might try putting something near him that smells like you and playing some soft music to relax him.Another thing you can try is giving him a warm bath right before he goes to bed and a small tippy of milk... Good Luck!

Answer 5

The bath option is a good idea wash him with lavander soap and after put lavander lotion on him it will help calm and relax him so that he can sleep. Have you asked his pediatrician? When my daughter was a baby for a really long time we could only get her to sleep in her swing when she was 13 months old we put her in a playpin to sleep the only way we got her to sleep in it was to give her her pacifier and a night light and walked out of the room til she fell asleep if she screamed we had to ignore her and eventually she did fall asleep it took us about a month and she finally stopped screaming and went right to sleep and from then on she never slept in a swing or my bed again. she is 5yrs old now and the only time she sleeps with me is when she wakes up from a nightmare. Good luck

Answer 6

Several others have it right that yo have to teach him he must stay in his own bed or you'll be fighting this for years. If you keep going the way you are now what probably wakes him is the cold sheets. Before putting him back in bed use a heating pad to warm the bed a little. Worked for mine.

Answer 7

This is hard to hear, but, you just have to put him in HIS bed and, yep, let him cry. Each time he is placed into your bed he has learned that you will come and get him if he cries long enough. He has trained YOU. How you have to train HIM.
Hearing him cry is one of the hardest thing on a parent, but you caused the problem the FIRST time you placed him in your bed and them again the first time he cried. Don't worry he will not remember the ordeal later if you do it NOW!

Answer 8

What has the pediatrician said?

If the baby is dry, fed and not hurt he will cry it out. You should reassure him every hour or so, but he will give in. My youngest would go for hours just to prove she could, but when I started tough love she stopped soon after. The first few days may be rough, but if you are consistent this will work. I promise you are not hurting him, that is why you go in and lay him back down and tell him goodnight and reassure him.

Answer 9

This is going to sound awful but here it goes...

My youngest had what I can only describe as night terrors. He would wake up screaming at the top of his lungs but not awaken fully. He would scream and cry and continue on and on until I went in to him ( or my wife ) and woke him up walked him around and put him back to bed. An hor ro so later it would start again.

It was awful, no one in the house got a decent nights sleep for months and months. When asked the next morning, if he had a nightmare or anything he would sit silently looking at us as if we were nuts. He had no memory of the past nights events.

Finally one night I just couldn't take it anymore and desperate for just a few hours of sleep, I went in to him and told him in a very firm voice that enough was enough and this behavior was no longer acceptable. If he continued I would spank him, I said.

He stopped but a few hours later it started up again. So I went in woke him up enough that he would feel it and swatted him just enough that he knew what had happened.

The next month was interesting as when he woke up screaming he would continue until he heard myself or my wife coming from our bedroom to his. Then he would roll over and pretend to sleep.

Every morning after I would reinforce the if you have a nightmare, wake up, roll over and go back to sleep rule.

This finally worked.

then he would wake up and come into our room in the middl eof the night. I let this o on for a bit until the night he wet our bed. then our bed was off limits to him as far as I was concerned.

I told him he was 5 and bedweeting was soemthing 5 year olds didnt do ( he doesnt know ) and that it was time for him to wake himself up and go to the bathroom on his own AND I told him that if he had a nightmare the rule was to stay in his own bed and go back to sleep as Mommy and I had to get our sleep so he could have new toys at Christmas time.

Little by little it worked. Even last week he came into our room at 3 am. I got up walked him around the house for a few minutes and sent him back to bed.

It happens rarely now. The screaming has ceased, the bedwetting is over, heck I even told him all kids his age have their training wheels off and he rode away on two wheels ten minutes later.

You have to make a decision, be firm, be scary if you have to. If you cannot get control of the situation, then sleep will elude you and your happiness and health will pay the price for it. And that child needs you to be happy and healthy. Fear is a great motivator, as awful as it sounds, and kids sometimes need to be more afraid of you than they are of the non-existent scray monster under their bed.

Answer 10

Well, be consistant keep taking him back to his bed and at the same time explain to him/her that he has to sleep in his own bed but be consistant dont do this one day and the next have him sleep in your bed no