AT WHAT AGE Did You Use a Visual Cue to Teach Your Child When to Wake Up

Updated on December 02, 2010
A.S. asks from Portland, OR
6 answers

I write this because my children have been waking for the day at 4:30 and today at 3:40 every day since daylight savings time. (Before that wasn't much better starting at 5:00.)

My boys are 3.5 years old and 18 months old and share a room. I have tried all other strategies - with consistency - over the last four months as that's when the 5:00 waking began. These include but are not limited to: Co-sleeping (their bed - preschooler or mine (both, one)), darkening shades, playing quietly next to me or in their room, nursing back to sleep (the 18 month old is now weaned and this stopped working around 14 months), increasing physical activity during the day, altering nap time, no nap time, cry-it-out, altering bed time both forward and backward, white noise, etc. Nothing works. Luckily I have a great partner and we switch off who wakes up each morning and drinks the very black coffee.

The question: For those of you who did so, AT WHAT AGE were you successful at helping your child learn to wake at a reasonable time via the use of a light on a timer, clock, etc.?

For my older son it was a successful strategy at 22 months (see one of my older posts) but I am just hoping to hear some folks have had success with this approach at an earlier age. Of course I will probably try it within the next week but it would help to hear it worked for some younger children as I'm certain there will be some crying involved. :( Please note too that I will bring one boy into our bed for a week or so while the other one adjusts to the new routine as they tend to feed off one another. I think when this all started the 18 month old was the culprit so it will probably make sense to make him "go first".

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So What Happened?

Updates to address questions: Currently the 18 month old naps once from 11:30-12:40 each day. The 3.5 year old does not nap but he does lay down (most often with me cuddling him so he won't wake his brother) for an hour. Those two statements could be separate posts by themselves. BUT, on the weeks I have kept them up until 7:30 or 8:00 each night they're still up at 4:30 - just in worse spirits and still nap (or don't) in the same manner. Tonight they went to bed at 6:30. If I tried to keep them up later it would have resulted in even bigger meltdowns because, go figure, they're tired!

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L.L.

answers from Orlando on

I put my daughter in a toddler bed at 18 months. Starting at that age, her cue to get up was "If the sun is shining" - her bed was next to her window, she could stand on it and peek out the window. If the house was dark or if the sun wasn't out she wasn't allowed to get out of bed. Also, I think she might have been scared to get out of bed alone too. She ALWAYS would call out and say "mommy? can i get up?" and I would tell her yes or no depending on the time / if the sun was out. It worked for her.

1 mom found this helpful

M.P.

answers from Lafayette on

i have this same problem. we just started letting her cio though and now going down isn't a fight, so we're hoping staying asleep all night will help her sleep later. i have no suggestions, but i'm hoping someone does, because waking up that early every day is killing me...

L.G.

answers from Eugene on

When I put them to bed I said " You hear the birdies are singing their night, night song". My aunt told me the same thing when it was summertime. In the morning I told them " You can wake up when you hear the birds singing their wake up song. " The sounds are different and we never had much of a problem.

M.L.

answers from Houston on

Wow, that's so early! What time do they go to bed? All I can think is maybe they are getting really long and late naps and/or going to bed too early to be waking so early.

My children are still pretty young for the visual cues, but I do go in and turn the light on, but they still don't wake to alarm clocks.

One book I read talked about early early risers. It said to give let them know it's okay to wake that early, but they need to stay in their room and play quietly until mommy comes and gets them. That may work for your older child, but probably not the youngest one.

This site has some wonderful ideas, it even discusses that adding an early nap into their day routine can help and it explains why:

http://life.familyeducation.com/sleep/baby/61683.html

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S.H.

answers from Portland on

I did use an alarm clock with a light that turned from red to green when it was OK to wake mommy and daddy when my daughter was about 3-3.5. It worked really well. Actually even before that I bribed her (I was desperate) and told her she could have jello for breakfast if she stayed in bed all night and until I came to get her in the AM... a week of jello she was not waking me at night and not asking for the jello....
Eventually we had trouble with naps too and the clock was great. I would set the nap timer for 20 mins and she had to rest until the clock turned green and then she could get up - she almost always fell asleep. I'm not sure about the younger but it could be worth a try.

E.K.

answers from Minneapolis on

What time are you putting them to bed? There was a recent post here from a mama wanting to know how to get her children (same age as yours) to fall asleep right away and to sleep later -- They were waking up at 4:00am. But then she disclosed that she was putting them to bed for the night at 5:30pm.

At 3-5 yrs, a child needs about 10 hours sleep. And 1 1/2...More plus a nap.

My boys have been putting in long restful nights sleep since the oldest was 3 months and the youngest was about 9 months. Of course, they got a solid sleeping gene from me. I could sleep for 15 hours a night EASY! = )

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