2 Year Old STILL Not Sleeping at Night

Hello R.,

You are not alone there are children out there that don't sleep through the night. I am a full time working mother and have 5 children ages from 13 to 20 months and my 3 1/2 year old, has never slept through the night. He wakes up 2 to 4 times a night; I have had many sleepless nights over the past few years. I have tried many things to try to help him, however I have come to realize that he probably will never grow out of this, it is who he is. He does know that he cannot turn on the light or get out of bed and play because he shares a room with his 20 month old brother. He does like his fan on every night and when he wakes up he sings himself back to sleep. I am lucky that his little brother is a sound sleeper and rarely wakes up to him. I would try talking to your child about the importance of sleep and how you grow when you are sleeping ect. This is what I did and how we came about the rules of sleeping. At least now he sleeps more because he tries to go back to sleep instead of waking up completely and playing. This has made it easier on us all.

I wish you the best!!

2 moms found this helpful

My 2 year old has been getting up at least 3 times a night for the pass 6 months! It is sooo annoying! I have 4 kids and none of the others ever did this. My husband and I are so tired. It's worst then a new born. At least with a baby, you fed, burp & change them while you're still half asleep and everyone goes right back to bed. My son, on the other hand, wants a new bottle (yes, his still drinks bottles, because we just can't deal with anything else right now) he needs his diaper changed, his diapers overflow all the dang time so then he needs his sheets changed. He gets all calmed down and we shut the door behind us, and YAHHHHHHHHHH, he starts screaming again. We've tried leaving the door open, but then we don't hear when he gets up on his own and heads to the kitchen to pour himself some more milk (that has never worked out like he planned) so then we are cleaning up a gallon of milk all over the floor at 3 in the morning. The worst part is that now we have started to sleep thought his screaming, only to get woke up by our other kids ("mom, mom, caelan is screaming and I can't sleep, go get him") and have to put them back to bed too.
We just keep telling ourselves that this is only a phase, it's only a phase, one day he will sleep though the night. And when he's the last kid in the house, every Friday and Saturday night, my husband and I will take turns waking him up every hour all night long. With an drum set and a fog horn. ;O)

1 mom found this helpful

I have not had personal experience with this issue, but it sounds to me like night terrors. I have known other moms whose kids have experienced this. I hope that one of the doctors you've seen have suggested this, but you never know... Here are some web sites:
http://www.nightterrors.org/
http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/sleep/a/night_terrors.htm

1 mom found this helpful

I too feel your pain. My daughter went through a stage like that too. I know many of the other responses suggested allergies but I think there are other reasons this could be occuring. I agree that night terros are a possibility as my daughter had a few when she was 2. Also, I know when my daughter was "over-tired", sleeping at night was difficult. Maybe establishing "rest time" during the day would help. Additionally, establishing a nighttime routine (that is ALWAYS the same) may help but should include quiet activites. No t.v. or other stimulating activities. I hope this helps and look forward to a peaceful nights sleep for you and your family.

1 mom found this helpful

I totally feel your tired pain. My son stopped napping and started waking up the same way your baby is when he turned one. He is now almost 4 and I have done everything you have done. I even took him to a sleep specialist but nothing has helped. I wish I could tell you the magic cure but I cant. I just wanted you to know that there is someone else out there going threw what you are. Good Luck!!!!

1 mom found this helpful

Hi R.
I know exactly what you are going through my daughter did the same thing. I read a great book called sleepless in america.If you have chance I say you read it. What helped our daughter was she was VERY OVER tired so her body would not let her sleep well. We started putting her to bed 15 minutes earlier every day until she was going to bed at 7:30 and falling a sleep within 15 minutes and once she was getting 12 hours of sleep on a regular basis she was a completly different kid and I could function again I hope this helps another really good book is The No Cry Sleep Solution. I also recommend you keep the same bed time routine so she knows it is time to sleep. Good luck I completly understand and empathize with you. :)T.

1 mom found this helpful

We have never dealt with that for that long, but we did have kids with insomnia for a week or so. Tough! I never want to go through that again.

I would try taking her to a chiropractor. It will take a couple of months of treatment if she is that out of alignment, but it is so worth it.
Our littlest one had trouble sleeping at night. He would wake up crying over and over and over. We finally took him in and it did take awhile of adjustments, but he got so much better. Now he may fuss once a night, but no more hours of screaming!

1 mom found this helpful

I have/had the same problem. Although I a saprised no one sugested it!! It is call night terror's. And as bad as that sounds it is not..... The symtumes are wakeing up in the middle of the night (usually a few hours after they go to sleep) and sccreaming uncontrolably. The best some one explained it to me is that thay are in between awake and asleep. IT IS NOT A NIGHTMARE!! There is NOTHING wrong and you can not conculle them. I went with out sleep for years!! and even to this day (she is 8) she will sleep walk. The best thing to do is when you hear her ster..... imeditaly befor she wakes herself up..... tell her to go to bed. if she winnes or fusses, ask her what she wants and even if it a paper plate (yes, I have done that too) get it to her so she is satified put her back to bed and see if that help's. Also I found that info on Night Terror/ sleep walking from the doctor and the internet is the best to calm MY fears and worries. And please don't worry, take it from some one who has been there..... this is normal..... frustating yes!!(expecally when your tied)..... but normal. and quite a few kids get night terrors and...... grow out of it!!!
even now my doughter's sleep walking a few and far between.
allitle about me: I am a working mother of 3 (4,8,and 15) I went though teething and acne at the same time.

1 mom found this helpful

The advice part: Have any of the specialists been sleep doctors? If not, that would be my next step. If they were then I'd still go for another opinion. Dr.Ashkay Mahadevia (most folks call him Dr. Maha) of Pulmonary Associates in Davenport, Ia ###-###-#### is wonderful.

Non-medical guessing on my part and what we did to cope: It sounds a lot like the sleep terrors that my kids had when they were younger. Years before we'd ever heard of sleep doctors. The didn't have them every night and they much more pronounced in my older son - but they are terrifying for a parent to watch because, as you've noticed, nothing you do while they are happening seems to really help. I would comfort them as best I could (cuddling, rocking, cooing reassuring words) but mostly it was just waiting them out.I don't know if my boys finally just outgrew them or if the tactic we developed really helped or if it was a combination of the two. We had bedtime rituals, but we gradually added to them a few minutes each night after they were in bed. After the cuddles and bed time story and such each of them would recite "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite (here's the important part) Tonight I'm going to dream about . . . and they'd have a very short happy-dream scenario they planned. Often it was something like "I'm going to dream about flying to the zoo to visit the peacocks" or "I'll remember that in dreams I can be anything I want to be, just like in the cartoons and movies". It may sound silly but going to with a happy, powerful dream planned seemed to diminish the frequency of the night screaming. Its my possibly-flawed understanding that nightmares and night terrors are very different things, but the night time rituals, and getting old, both helped.

Note that both my now-grown sons do still talk in their sleep but seem to have outgrown sleep walking and night terrors.

Dr. Maha helped me with chronic insomnia as well as sleep walking and sleep eating. After 30+ years of frequent waking, insomnia, early waking, etc. Dr. Maha has me now sometimes sleeping all night. The sleep walking episodes are much more infrequent as is the sleep eating.

Hang in there and good luck.

1 mom found this helpful