Getting My 18 Month Old to Sleep Alone, All Night

That crying himself to sleep theory is ridiculous to me. It may work for some babies, but it certainly didn't work for my son! I tried it for a while. My son is so strong willed. He would not cry himself to sleep. He would cry four hours straight! (That's the longest I let it go and after that, I decided it wasn't for us! It made me too sad.) I tried a lullaby CD. (Linda Rondstat's worked wonders for us.) I also tried the method where you put a chair next to the crib and every day you move the chair a bit further and further until you are eventually out of the door and then gone completely. The method (and I can't remember what it's called) says you shouldn't touch your son. Only reassure him with your voice. In my son's case, I couldn't even look at him or he'd cry worse for me to get him. So I had a little flashlight and would read a book...largly ignorning his whimpers. Every so often I would look at him and quietly tell him to lay down and close his eyes. I did this for nap time and for night time. After a day or two, he showed so much improvement so I stuck with it and eventually, he got used to the routine. Good luck to you! I hope you find the thing that works best for you!

I would put something in the crib that he can use to soothe himself. We had the Fisher Price aquarium in my son's crib, and now in his toddler bed. There is a button that he can push to turn it on himself, and when he wakes up at night he turns it on and goes back to sleep.

Grin and bare it is the best advice. Anything at this age is tough! But I've heard that sleeping in something to get your scent on it and them letting them sleep with it in their own bed works pretty well. It can be a shirt, or a blanket or something along those lines... Smell has so much to do with comfort at that age.

Good luck though! Really its a matter of simply doing it and sticking to your guns! We've been in several places we'd call home since my daughter was born and every time its like we have to start all over. We're about to do it again to her and this time when we move in we'll convert her bed to a big girl bed. That should be lots of fun! But we'll do both at the same time. I'd love to know what worked so when we go through this ourselves, we'll have some new tricks...

Good luck! ~T.~

He's old enough now to let him cry it out. He'll probably hate it for a couple days and then get used to it.

Babycenter has expert advice:

http://www.babycenter.com/search/?BodyQuery=toddler+sleep...