Two Year Old Won't Stay in Toddler Bed. Help!

Dear S.,
This sounds tough! I have a 19 month old who is a terrific sleeper but it was hard hard work achieving this goal. The thought of another period of disruptions sounds dreadful.
Good job not responding and having patience to take him back to bed each time! It sounds like he may be overtired with an extra-late sleeping time and early rising. You probably know that over-tired can look a lot like totally wound up in a toddler.
If I were in your shoes, I'd go for the crib tent. Sounds like he's not quite ready for the toddler bed. And with a new baby to care for, you don't need these disruptions to your sleep. Is there anything wrong with keeping a toddler in a crib as long as possible? Why rush?
Good luck.
A.

I had the same problem with my two-year-old and opted for a crib tent. It cost me about $75 and was worth every penny. It was hard at first because he cried himself to sleep which he had never done before but after about 3 days he returned to normal. If you don't like that option my girlfriend tried another. She put a door knob cover on the inside of his door so he could not get out. He also took about three nights of crying himself to sleep before he got over it. Two of those nights he slept on the floor against the door becuase she went to check on him and could not open the door because he was lying against it. This seems tough but when you have yourself and another infant to care for sometimes you have to be tough. Just some suggestions......good luck.

We just went through this. This is what we did and it seemed to work. First we put a gate on the outside of my daughter's door so that if she opened her door she could still see out but couldn't get out of her room and wouldn't be walking around the house at 5am while we were asleep. 2nd we made sure that there was nothing in her room that she could get into that could hurt her. 3rd we converted her crib and we do the same thing everynight bedtime routine, but what seemed to make a difference with her is as we are putting her to bed we ask her if she had a fun day, and let her babble a little bit about her day (she just turned 2 in May)and then we tell her and this is what made a big difference, "now mommy go night-night, daddy go night-night, brother go night-night, and she would repeat it, but we never just said that she was going night-night, for some reason that worked. Hope this helps. Been there. Good luck!

First of all, you are doing just fine by putting your toddler back in bed. If I were you, I wouldn't sit in his room on the rocking chair or stand by his room b/c he knows that you're looking for attention too also. Can you try to put him back to bed w/o saying anything after you did all the ritual routine bedtime and just leave the room and go to the nearest room to his so that you can listen for him to make sure that he stays in bed. If he keeps getting out of bed, keep putting him back to bed w/o saying anything to him and leave. Just keep on doing it and it may take a while for him to figure out what is going on. I got this from super nanny show. Do you ever watch supernanny show? It is good and lot to learn from her. It will take few days for your toddler to realize that you're not giving in or giving him the attention that he wants. Try it out and hopefully it will work. And you can also try rewards if he stays in bed all night and give him the reward and let him know that you are very proud of him.

Good luck!

Hi S.,

The only advice I have for you is to possibly bring a book and a flash light and sit in the rocking chair longer. We did this with all three of our boys, and for the first few nights it is hard because he won't completely understand the new routine, but I would try it and see how it goes. Our youngest was quite the Jack-in-the-box, and even he grew to understand how things were going to go. Good Luck, it will get better I promise.

This might sound cruel, but it was recommended by my pediatrician for my daughter when we were in the exact same position: lock her in the room. There will be plenty of tears to start, but it's effective. Good luck! :)

My two year old does the same thing. I've decided that it is a phase that she will eventually grow out of. We put her in her toddler bed at around 19 months and it tooks us weeks to get her to stay in her bed and go to sleep (she's two and a half and still comes up with excuses to get out of bed, currently it's "I have to go potty"). Just keep returning him to his bed and don't interact with him, and don't wait for him either. You need to go about your business once you put him to bed, that way he doesn't come running to you right outside his door. As for the climbing into the crib, I can't say that I have that particular problem because I made sure the two beds were far enough apart and my daughter doesn't climb up the side. You may want to try and keep the baby in your room until your son is totally "toddler bed" trained. That might help.

Oh, I feel your pain! I went through similar experiences with my younger daughter. She would show up at our bedside in the middle of the night, want to climb in, and invariably I was the one who had to drag herself out of bed and take the kid back to bed! If memory serves me correctly, there was one desperate time when we contemplated installing a bolt on the outside of her door to keep her in her room at night! Crib tents did not exist when my kids were young, but they sound like they might be worth a try. You are doing the right thing with the "silent return"...don't reward his behavior with conversation or cuddling. My older daughter was so adept at unzipping herself out of her footed sleeper and ripping off her diapers that I had to use one of those special diaper pins on the sleeper's zipper to try to stop her from unzipping! So I don't know if a sleep sack will do anything to stop an agile 2-year old. Sorry if I can't offer any suggestions...you are doing all you can and hopefully this phase will end soon. Keep up the "silent treatment"! Oh, here's something that worked for my kids. Have you tried playing lullaby music each night? My daughters LOVED Joanie Bartels' "Lullaby Magic", and also the Rafi songs. I tried to keep to the same routine by turning on the lullaby tape after we had read, cuddled, etc. I would then say "Night night", dim the lights, and leave. The music was very comforting to them.
Good luck...hope this helps!
Sincerely,
S. A.