How can I help 2-1/2 years old sleep better?

Question

Hi,
We changed our son's crib to a toddler bed. My son does not like it; so he normally sleeps in a sleeping bag. That's OK...but since then, he wakes up @ night & visit our bedroom. (We expected that, too...)
Our bed has some sharp edges; so we are very afraid that he might fall from the bed & bump his head/body. So, we try to move him back to his room. Then he returns our room after an hour...we hardly can sleep; and my son does not sleep well, either!
When one of us sleep in his room for a night, he stayed in his sleeping bag.

We are pretty sure that many parents have a same situation. We would like to have some words from those parents about how they did to increase sleeping time for both parents & kid(s).

Hi, thank you for your all answers!
For additional information, my son goes to DayCare everyday. So, he does some execise over ther. He has a nap time too, for a few hours! (his teacher says that he is the first one to sleep, the last one to wake up...)
He goes to sleep before 9PM and wakes up @ 6:30~7AM.

No, he does not have night lights. Maybe we should try those. If it does not work well, should we return his crib, instead of a toddler bed?

Answer 1

Is your little guy taking naps in the daytime? If so, cut those out of his routine. If at all possible, put him to bed around 8pm and have him get up at 7am. Keeping him awake for 13 hours might help him sleep better at night. If he has a bottle at night, take that away too. Just a sippy cup with water. No milk! He needs to learn that hes becoming a big boy now and that big boys sleep in their own rooms in their own bed. What I had to so with my little guy was put a latch on the outside of his door. Before I did that he was coming out of his room 3-5 times a night. He realized afterwards he couldnt come out, so he went to bed.

Answer 2

the only way I could make my son stay in his room was buy those child safety locks that you put over the doorknob on the inside knob. You have to be able to squeeze the knob and turn the handle in order to open it up from the inside. I think I bought it at walmart. He finally gave up trying to open the door. He still has nights when he falls asleep on the floor and I will go into his room in the middle of the night and put him back in bed but it beats him waking us up all hours of the night

I kept my first son in his crib till he was 2 but my second son I put in a toddler bed at 1 cuz he was crawling out of the crib and I was so afraid he would hang himself somehow

Answer 3

Does he have a night light?? Can you change his bed back to the crib?

I would make sure he had lots and lots of physical exercise in the day. Wear his little butt out, so he will sleep at night. Stay in his room for a couple nights if you have to. Don't let him go in your room. That room is off limits.

Answer 4

Keep bringing him back to bed. It sucks for a couple weeks but if you persist it WILL work. Friends of ours still have a 3 and a half year old coming into their bed.

You will be exhausted in the short term but it pays off in the long term. Our kids won't sleep any where but their beds.

Also make sure you have a solid, consistent bed time routine to get him into bedtime mode.