How to Get My 3 Year Old to Stop Coming into My Room at Night

Updated on August 20, 2007
D.Q. asks from Miami, FL
6 answers

I have a 3 year old girl that has been sleeping in a toddler bed for over 8 months now. For the past 3 months, she has begun waking in the night and walking into our room. We keep walkin gher back to her room, but almost every night she still walks into our room. How can I get her to stop coming into our room? Will she simply outgrow this some time soon or is there something I need to do to get her to stop coming into our room?

I just read somewhere that I should maybe start a reward chart for each day she stays in her own bed. Has anyone tried this? Did it work?

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J.B.

answers from Chicago on

i am still dealing with that one. my daughter is 5 and still does it from time to time. i never used the gate method, it scares me. so if yu figure out a way to fix this little problem we all have please pass on the knowledge. right now i just let her lay with me for a few minutes then its back to bed. if i don't let her lay down i will find her on the couch in the morning. good luck

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S.A.

answers from Raleigh on

Unless she's a climber, put a gate in her doorway. Dont use the wooden ones with the white plastic stuff - kids can cram their toes in the white plastic to haul themselves over the gate. Try a metal one with vertical bars, maybe one that is a walk-through gate (I love whomever invented those!).

My rule with my son when he was in a toddler bed was if he woke up, he had to stay in his room, and if he stayed in his room all night, he got a reward the next day (ice cream cone, stickers, etc) Once we mastered that, we worked on staying in his bed.

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Y.D.

answers from Chicago on

I have a 4 year old boy and an 11-month old girl. My son slept with us until he was 3-1/2. Never slept in his own bed until then. He got a new toddler bed last Christmas from Santa and he loved it. I was afraid he wouldn't sleep in it after all this time sleeping with us, plus the baby's crib being in our bedroom...
Well, he did great, slept by himself. He tried talking about sleeping with us 2 or 3 times, but I told him that I saw a big spider in our bed (he's afraid of spiders). Never had any problems since then!
I know this is not a scientific way or anything< but it worked!
The only time he comes into our bed now is when he has a bad dream or is afraid of the thunder. It happened a total of 3 times since January of this year!. I hope this helps...
Good luck.

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A.

answers from Chicago on

A sticker chart is a great and simple way to get him to participate in the problem. We did that with my son and it worked. He still occasionally comes in our room, we show him it is dark out, walk him back and remind him of our rules. That is usually good for a couple of weeks!

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B.M.

answers from Chicago on

We have done a few things. I do like the gate idea, but we never used it.

The one thing we did was probably a very unpopular one. We put a doorknob lock on the inside of his door so he couldn't open the door. That worked for a while. We also used a sticker chart, but he almost needed an immediate gratification in the morning.

Now if he gets up, we just threaten the door lock and that normally works.

Good Luck. I know how awful it is to be woken up in the middle of the night.
B.

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Y.

answers from Chicago on

What about putting a gate up in the doorway to her room? This way she can see out but cannot get out. Unless she is like my son who loved to climb at that age.:) Does she have a special blanket? If she doesn't maybe you can make something of her's special. Tell her that "fill in the blank" will help her get back to sleep.

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