Tips for getting toddlers to bed

Great article thanks for sharing this tips

 Lexi xxx

My 20 month old son defies all attempts to get him to sleep. We have tried absolutely everything. We have made bedtime fun, we have a strict routine, he gets a 10 minute and 5 minute warning.

No matter what we do, every night we are faced with a 3 hour marathon of getting him to sleep. We start at 8pm and finally fall into bed at 11pm ourselves, exhausted from another night's battle.

I am planning to take him to a sleep centre to sort it out as it has reached a point of desperation but they have 4-6 week waiting lists. In the meantime we battle on.

Great ideas. Our preferred method was to read the children a short story from a book that they enjoyed. That way they looked forward to going to bed. They sometimes took advantage of us and got us to read two or three books. I know that time is short in many cases however the books might only take two to three minutes to read and what is more enjoyable than reading a good story to a fascinated child. More importantly this will also be a very good learning experience for the child when they are older and need to read for school. They will have a love of reading which will be very valuable for them at school and will save you a lot of time and money when they are at school and high school.

Always after my daughters night time feeding, which would be between 6-9pm, it all depends when her last feeding was. But on that feeding, i turn down the tv so that it's really low, and i turn off the big light and turn on the lamp which is over beside the tv. and i make sure that everything is quiet. and she usually falls asleep while drinking, if she don't then she usually falls asleep after drinking her formula. she loves to be cuddled and i have no problem with that!

Everyone looks at you like you have ten heads when you tell them that good bedtime means good routine.  My friends were like well it can't be that simple.  Well it is and it isn't first you have to take control and break the bad routines but after about a week it is that simple.  I love that you included that when the child does get out of bed after being tucked in there is no talk just a hug and back into bed.  I use that same technique and it is a very important step to making the new routine work.  When the new baby was born i started from day one and included the lights off...She would wake for a feeding and I kept the lights dim and no talking I would hum a tune to her while she ate and we have never had an issue at all with her for bed time.  Most nights she will tell you at exactly 7pm "Nite nite Momma" and walk to her crib with her pillow and bunny. 

Great advise!!!!!  True to the last word!!!!

1. Dinner
   
2. Bath (every other day)
3. Get Dressed
4. Brush Teeth
5. Clean (tidy) room (actually.. make paths from the door to the bed)
6. Stories (unless they are really off-the-wall, they get at least 1)

I have a 2 year old and 6 month old, and I have found that the biggest thing to getting them both to bed is routine. We have a set time for dinner, bath and bed, although there is flexibility. We aim to have the baby fed by 5pm, my oldest by 6pm and bath by 6.15pm. I can then juggle getting them both bathed and dressed ready for being in bed by 7.15 at the latest. These timings leave some room in case we are late back in the afternoon for some reason. We used to be far more lax when we just had the one, and ended up not getting her to sleep until 8.30pm. What happened was that she would play up more if she felt that there was time to do it in. Where we are now more regimented, she knows exactly what is happening next and will even lie down in her cot and say "sleep" as soon as her story is finished!