Sleep Issues and Toddler

Our three year old does the same thing! We just made a pallet on the floor that she can come to any time she needs to. I just can't sleep if she is in my bed, and it does not do anyone any harm if she is just on the floor beside us. One morning I woke up and my two year old son had joined her and we were all in our bedroom. I never knew that they had come dowstairs and everyone was well rested! I think it is kinda sweet! Pretty soon, they will want us out of their space. I love it that they both feel secure in our room.

I have similar issue here. I have a 16 month old who constantly wakes up at nite crying in her crib and I am also expecting again in Nov . I am really worried about the sleeping issue here. Have you figured out a better way to deal with it?Thanks

When I was very small, younger than your daughter, I had horrible nightmares also. An aunt suggested to my mother to place a New Testament bible under my pillow. I slept with that bible under my pillow until the age of 16, when I simply used my regular bible to sleep with. Needless to say the nightmares ceased. I still sleep with my bible next to my bed. I hope this will be helpful.

This really isn't any advice or anything, but might give you hope. My 3 year old was doing the same thing. Waking up all night every night at any hour. Basically, we just got up & put her back to bed. We recently moved, & she just dead stopped! I guess just the change threw her off. Maybe, hopefully for your sake, she'll just stop too.

It's important to note that developmentally around the age of 4 children have moved from simple pretend play (playing "cooking, cleaning, doctor") to fantasy play (princess, monsters..etc) Consequently, kids scare themselves with their ever expanding imaginations. Also, it's pretty natural to have some regression after a new baby comes into the house.

My son was 3 when my daughter was born. We had the same problem with him. My mom said I did the same thing when my brothers (twins) were born (I was five). What she did with me, and what I did with my son is buy a cot bed. I put it beside our bed and when he woke in the middle of the night and needed comfort he could come sleep in the cot. That way my husband and I weren't sleeping in the "human H" position (parent on either side, child lying transverse between) and waking with neck and back pain from having alittle kid nuzzled hard against us. My mom used to even reach down and hold my hand. Eventually, she moved me into a room with my brothers and that helped. I did the same with my son, he rooms with his sister (he's 5 and she's 17months and just moved to a big girl bed) and we're not having issues with either of them. They're able to comfort each other.

You said nightmares so here is my input. My son has been doing that for as long as I can remember. I always knew there was something more to his waking then just wanting to be cuddled. Please read my message regarding his tonsils and adenoids on this forum. I had no idea his waking in the middle of the night was due to his enlarged tonsils causing his sleep apnea. He went to an ENT today and the Dr said he has extremely large tonsils (the size of golf balls) and they need to come out. We are scheduling a sleep study for next week to see how severe the apnea is. My son doesn't seem to be snoring but gasps for air all through the night causing him to wake up and be upset. Heres a link for symptoms for sleep apnea.

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/childapnea.html

http://www.entforchildren.net/

My son does not eat, does not sleep nor has grown. He often has BAD breath after sleeping and gets in bad moods during the day. He calls for milk all through the night. My sisters friend told me that she had her sons adenoids and tonsils taken out and he is %100 better. He had all the same problems my son has now. I wish I had talked to her alot sooner but only see her now and then. As soon as I learned of this I made an appt for the ENT.

Good luck,
I hope things get better.
T. Lee

Hi H.,
My four old girl is going through the exact same thing, we also have tried those techniques you mentioned in your e-mail. So, in the name of sleep we are moving her into our bedroom on a toddler bed this weekend. Hopefully this phase (which I'm told by the pedi is totally normal and common) will soon pass and she'll be back in her own room.

Your daughter sounds just like me at this age and it took me a really long time to get over it :( My younger brother was born when I was just 3 and until I was well over 6, I was waking up like that on many nites and going to my parent's room. In hindsight, I just needed extra comfort due to lots of jealousy over my baby brother. My parents didn't handle it well and they just made me go back to bed and were really annoyed - they eventually started locking their bedroom door at nite and I would sleep on the floor outside their room.

As a parent myself, I can see the source of my parent's annoyance. However, based on my own experience, I've taken the approach with my own kids that if they need us at nite, we're there for them. One of my sons had alot of difficulty in this area and in the end, we brought a twin bed into our room and placed it next to our bed - he never woke up at nite with that approach because he had the security of knowing we were there. In the end, the quality of my sleep improved because I wasn't having to lay by him at nite to fall asleep and falling asleep myself and then waking up with a sore neck at 2am.

I realize that this isn't the sort of information you were looking for, it's just having had the same experience myself as a child, I can feel your daughter's pain. So, I will try some (untried) suggestions that might work. Will her room be any closer physically to your own after the move? Unfortunately, the move itself (I had many of those as a military brat) will likely also be traumatic and may also increase her need to be with you. So, if you can try to let her know ahead of time that you're making plans to make sure she's as close as possible to you at nite, she might transition better. I would even go so far as to suggest that you put a sleeping bag on the floor in your room and letting her know that if she awakens at nite and feels the need to be close, she should come to your room, get a hug and then lay on her sleeping bag. She may just need to know that it's okay to still need you at nite. If you give her some control in the situation, I think that will really help her deal with it better.

You mention you've dealt with food issues, so I'm assuming you've tried removing dairy and/or gluten. I didn't find out until I was much older that those were issues for me, but they may have impacted my nightmares and the need for comfort at nite. And, I also later learned that my own sons had the same issue, thus that might also have contributed to their needing me at nite.

Good luck!

Well, I know the majority of people probably don't agree with me on this but it works for our family. My 3 1/2 year old would not sleep through the night in her room. So, I put her bed in our room next to ours. We needed the sleep!! And it works just fine. I took all the advice from everyone and did the routine but nothing worked. Now my daughter,my husband, and myself all get a good nights rest. There has been a few occasions where she slept in her room (when her older cousins stayed over) and here lately she's been saying she wants a bed in her room. Honestly, also I sleep better knowing she's right there I'm not worried about if she gets up needs me,etc. I think its a sense of security that some children just need to grow into. Like I said this works for our family.

Hi H.,
I have 3 children, 2 of which had nightmares on a regular basis. Since they have been on Mannatech's children's vitamins (tastes GREAT too), they hardly ever have a nightmare and sleep well through the night :) Also, lots of prayers help. www.Mannatech.com will tell you more about the vitamin ingredients and www.glycoresources.com will tell you testimonies of those the products have worked with.
Please call or email for any further questions. We have moved 6 times in our 15 year marriage, so I know how difficult that is too.
God Bless,
A.
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