My 2 1/2 Year Old Climbs Out of Her Bed Every Night and During the Day.

You can't force her to stay in the bed, but you can gate her into her room. At nap/bedtime, take toys and fun things out of the room,. I know it's a pain, but she'll probably stop getting out of bed if there's nothing for her to do.

If she's coming out of her room I would put a gate across her door so she can't, stack two if she's a climber (been there). Make sure she has a lovey to snuggle with, a good bedtime routine to relax her and prepare her for sleep, if she wants to sleep on the floor in her room let her, she'll get tired of it eventually and learn that bedtime/naps means to go to sleep in her bed. Once she stays in her bed consistently you can be done with the gates.

Stop trying to have her nap. She is more than ready to give it up and you're not hearing her message. Many kids are done with naps by age 2. Institute a "quiet time" each day instead, where she needs to be in her room (but not in bed) and can do what she likes as long as she is safe, quiet and in her room. Don't try to force her to nap. If she needs more sleep, adjust bedtime instead.

At night, say NOTHING when she gets up except the first time: "Night is for bedtime. We stay in bed." Then walk her to bed silently and tuck her in and leave. She gets up again. Walk her back calmly and firmly and say nothing this time. You may have to do this over and over but it is very important to say nothing, do nothing other than walk her back. Be close to her bedroom during these hours so she is not waking herself further by wandering through the house or up and down stairs to find you. You may have to return her repeatedly and yes, it is annoying but it is a phase you must both get through. Here's the key:Make it BORING for her. If you talk to her, fuss at her, plead with her, get teary, get angry, offer her toys if she stays in bed, sing to her again, tell just one more story, whatever -- she thinks it is fun and a game. Take away all fun, all reaction of any kind (angry or pleading or anything). Be silent and non-responsive. It takes time but she will eventually learn there is no entertainment for her in getting up to get you to react to her. Losing your cool will only seem like entertainment to her -- she got a reaction from mommy, hooray! Even a negative reaction like fussing at her is still a reaction and she craves that. Shut yourself down and walk her back over and over. It will take time.

I'm with the gate/bedroom lock idea. Past that, let her get up. As long as she stays in her room, and it's a safe place for her to be, it's fine. I would make sure that she can get out of her bed safely, though. It might be time to move past the crib, which I'm guessing from the "climbs out of bed" statement? - and into a bed that is safer to climb out of. If she's going to do it anyway, she might as well be safe while doing it.

But still wake her at the usual time, even if she plays in her room for an hour. She'll figure it out pretty quickly - kids are pretty smart, and her body will tell her to go to sleep. My bet is, it won't take more than a few nights of staying up late, but still being woken up at her usual time, for her to stop staying up late, and then you can take the gates/locks/whatever off.

And if you find she's sleeping on the floor rather than her bed, well, that's fine, too. It won't take long before she learns - all by herself - to sleep in the most comfortable place, which is more than likely her bed. If the most comfortable sleeping place in her room is NOT her bed, then that is a problem you can solve together.

Hang in there mama!

I think we tried everything under the sun with our daughter. The double gates on the door was a disaster, because she climbed those too and once one popped off, fortunately she was more surprised that hurt. I even tried simply sitting in her room while she went to sleep. She would fight sleep for hours. We tried snuggling. We tried letting her fall asleep elsewhere and then moving her to her bed. And we tried the bring her back and say nothing method for the longest (some people call it the nanny 911 method). That just infuriated her and it would go on for hours. NOTHING worked. A few nights we stood outside her door to "Catch her" before she got too far. That one backfired because she thought that was the silliest, best game ever. Punishments didn't work. Taking away her favorite cartoon made no impact. Yelling did nothing. Ignoring her made it worse. I think the only thing I didn't try was switching her door handle for one I could lock from the outside...because I was worried I would forget to unlock it before bed and it could be unsafe, plus we were potty training

Finally we went to a sticker chart. I bought a toy I knew she would LOVE and put it on our fridge where she could see it. I never said a word about it, but it didn't take her long to notice. So when she did, I pulled it down showing it to her, but not letting her touch it. She was told she would have to earn it. So I made a chart with 21 boxes on it. She was told every night she went to bed like a big girl she would get a sticker. When she got up for anything (excluding emergency and potty), she would lose a sticker. Before the first night we gave her a "freebie" sticker to motivate her. We always did stickers right before bed, so we could talk about it and remind her what was expected, etc. The first three nights we gave her lots of chances and reminders. The next night we gave her three chances. When she lost that sticker she was so upset and devastated. We just reminded her that she could try again for another sticker. The next night we gave her two warnings and then she lost it. By the next night I don't remember her getting up at all. She did have a rouge night here or there, but for the most part, she stayed in bed. It took a little over a month for her to earn that toy. By then, it was a habit. We haven't had much trouble since.

Sounds like her bed is uncomfortable. She is way too big to be sleeping on a baby bed mattress. She may need to go onto a big kids bed if she isn't already on one.

Otherwise it sounds like she is not needing as much sleep as she used to. maybe let her stay up later. I never drop the nap until it's a battle galore. If she is going to go to pre-school they require kids to lay down and sleep, if not sleep then they have to lay there the full 1 1/2 hours or more quietly. So I always try very hard to keep the nap forever....lol.

I'd try looking objectively at her sleeping habits and decide what is needed and try a new approach to it.

Yeah ... What GR said.

I had a lot of problems with my two year old son when we moved him into a big boy bed with this and two things solved the problem. First, for nap time, I had to lay down with him until he fell asleep. This sounds like a pain but for us it really only took 5-10 minutes and I learned to enjoy the quiet time with him. Then once I knew he was asleep I snuck out of his room and he would sleep for an hour or two.

For at night we bought him an "alarm clock" that is in the shape of a stoplight. When I put him to bed we turn the red light on the clock. It is set for 6:30am (he's an early riser....I can't expect more than this) and at 6:30am the light turns green. He knows not to get out of bed or at least that we're not coming to get him until that light is green. He's become very proud of himself when he stays in bed until the light turns green in the morning. We instituted this when we were having a hard time getting him to stop waking up at various times during the night. If you'd like more info on this clock let me know - I can probably find the website.

Like some of your other responders for a period of time I had a child lock on his door so he couldn't get out. He could only knock and yell if he wanted to get out. We didn't have that on his door for long and now he could get out if he wanted to but has been trained not to.

You can't keep her in bed, but you can keep her in her room. Put up a safety gate.

When my kids werre growing out of naps, but I needed the break for my sanity, I instituted "quiet time." They could look at books (which they loved) or play quietly in their rooms, but no TV, music or loud play. They had to stay in their room.

At night, put the gate up as well. If she yells out and wakes others, she should lose a daytime privilege.

Sometimes we worry that our kids aren't safe unless they're with us every second, which is not true. Her room should be safe enough for her to be there for short periods without you.

We also worry that we're bad parents if our kids complain or are otherwise "unhappy." Kids will gripe and disagree - it does more harm to cave every time they gripe than it does to say "no" and mean it.

Good luck! Hang in there!