How do you keep a 3 year old in his bed?

Question

My son is 3 next week and we've had the devil of a time getting him to go to sleep. He goes to daycare during the day and they have naps from 11:30-1:30. When I put him to bed, usually around 8:30, he's immediately back up and in the living room with us. Sometimes it's 10:30 before he falls asleep, but which time we've been up and putting him back in his room well over a dozen times--the consistency route doesn't work. A swat on the butt doesn't work, snuggling with him for a bit doesn't work. He thinks it's all a game and I'm at my wits end! I'm thinking maybe putting up a baby gate to keep him in his room. Suggestions?

Answer 1

AH!!! I see  the problem...Cut out the nap...He's 3 and maturing. Lots of toddlers don't nap anymore at 3 yrs old. By suppertime, he'll be so tired, he won't whine or fuss when it comes to bedtime. Another suggestion, is to go for a walk after supper. Walk around the blocj with him, get the last spout of energy out of him.

Answer 2

Buy him a Guinea pig and put it in his room and tell him that he can't leave his room or else the guinea pig will get lonely! And also get one of those removable baby gates and put it in the front of the door with one of those doorknob locks, its a plastic cover you put over the doorknob and you can't open it unless you squeeze the tabs on the sides!!!! It works great!!!!! Especially the doorknob locks!!!!!  And deffinetly get on of those baby gates!!!

Answer 3

Just in response to the first answer - don't cut the nap. A lot of people think that cutting naps from preschoolers will help them sleep at night - it won't. Some preschoolers don't need naps, but they still need quiet time with the option of sleep. If the fall asleep during this time, they need it. Cutting this will make them crabby, irritable and even less willing to sleep at night.

Unfortunately,It is really hard to get a 3 year old to start a routine, but that is what you are going to have to try. Whatever method you end up deciding on, doing it one or two nights and then giving up will not work. You will have to stick with the same routine for at least a week before it has any chance of curing your son from his late-night rituals.

My favorite bedtime ritual: Start with a soothing bath, after which you put on pajamas - make sure you have a few for him to pick from, making it about him is really important for his cooperation. Then, go to his room, turn off the big light and have a soothing lamp on. Do puzzles or read books (maybe a combo of the two) for at least 1/2 hour - I sometimes do it as long as 1 hour, depending on how tired he is or how early bath was. Then tell him it's bed time - let him work with you, one more book while he's in bed or one more puzzle before he lies down - if he thinks the power is with him, it's a lot easier for him to accept laying down. Tell him good night (we say a traditional prayer at this point, but, obviously, that is contingent on religion). Turn off the light, ask if he needs anything else before he goes to sleep (water, a stuffed animal, etc.) Make this something that is NOT in the room. Promise to go get whatever he wants, come back with it a few min. later. Say goodnight again, give him a kiss and leave. If he gets up, bring him back to his bed without holding a conversation, without giving him anything else - emphasize the thing he has already asked for, "here's your water" or "is bunny sleeping with you?". Continue to do this until he goes to sleep.

Any routine is a good routine, but he needs to understand that his is what happens - if he can get away with coming back down and watching TV, he's going to do that. You have to be firm and consistent for any routine to work, esp. the first few weeks.

Answer 4

he's not tired enough, it sounds like.  Try cutting out that nap.  My 3 year old is at teh point where he really goes down better w/o his nap because he is so tired.  We have our bedtime routine, 1 book, some snuggle time, our "relaxing breaths"  funny....but he does much better if he either has NOT had his nap, or if we've done something very active the 2nd half of the day.  Also a nighttime bath always adds to relax time.  The gate thing in his room is really not a bad idea.   Your at least telling him hey, you don't have to sleep right now, butyou DO have to stay in your room.... i had to do that when we transitioned our 2 year old from his crib to a big boy bed, it was REALLY hard getting him to stay in it for his naps (we needed the crib for his brother), but we did put up a gate too to at least keep him in his room and he'd just eventually go to sleep and figure it out.  

Answer 5

Start doing some little tricks - put him in bed at 9:30 for a few days, read him a book and do not show him you can't wait for him to get asleep. The next few days put him in bed at 9:00 and etc until you reach the bed time you want. And remember: always have a nice talk and a long enough bedtime story to read, because at this age the kids need more attention and start to have fears.