My 2 year old son is not sleeping thru the night and he has to have milk before he goes to bed. He will take it if its watered down but it has to be milk nothing else. He always wakes up thru the night. He normally comes into my room and sleeps when he wakes up but if I tell him no, he persists. I have tried to let him fall asleep again before I go back to my bed but he will just keep waking up until he does get inmy bed. He won't sleep all night and he wont go to sleep without milk... Any suggestions?
He WILL go to sleep without milk and he WILL sleep in his own bed if you set the boundaries. When you change, so will he. It's that easy......
He won't go to sleep without milk because you're letting him win. You have to stand your ground even if it means you get little sleep for a week or two. Sleep training is not an easy task. I got help from "Good Night, Sleep Tight" - an awesome sleep help book with tons of tips based on many different situations. You don't have to read the whole book, just the chapter on the technique and the chapter that applies to your current dilema. See if you can find it in your local library if you don't want to buy it. It seriously changed my life and I now have two awesome sleepers who sleep better than anyone I know. I wrote an article about it if you're interested: http://hubpages.com/hub/sleep-training-good-night-sleep-t...
Hope this helps - best of luck!
Stop giving him the milk before bedtime. You are the parent, it's time your son know this! He is dictating what he gets and he's getting it because you are allowing him to. Don't water it down...put water in his cup. Let him cry if he cries. When he comes to your room, promptly take him back to his room giving him nothing to drink because if you give in, you are enforcing that it is okay to come to your room whenever he wants to get whatever he asks for. Toughen up....don't give in and yes, he may cry and scream. Tune it out the best way you can and hopefully in a few days this will be a thing of the past.
I wouldn't worry about the milk right now, it is something he will give up in due time. Do make sure you brush his teeth and see to proper dental hygiene.
My oldest child had severe separation anxiety from birth, he's 11 now, and still doesn't like being on his own. Some kids are wired that way. My 9 year old was extremely independent from birth and sometimes I think he only needs us for food, lol.
For our oldest, we moved a toddler bed into our room, so he could still come into the room in the middle of the night when he woke up, but our bed was off limits. He was about 3 when we figured this out, and it worked fairly well. We all got a lot more sleep.
Im with the pick a weekend and don't give in. It will suck...but then it will be great!
I think it's OK for him to have milk before he goes to bed but ONLY if he gets his teeth brushed after drinking it!
Can you incorporate a "snack" time into his before bed routine so he can have his milk & a little snack (cereal, crackers, fruit) and then brush his teeth and off to bed?
As for sleeping in your bed (it sounds like he is out of his crib, and that you would prefer him to sleep in HIS bed) you need to be really consistent and keep putting him back to his bed. No talking...no lights on...just do it about 500 times and he'll get the message. Any chance of getting him back into his crib? He's too young for a big bed, really.
Pick a weekend and don't give in.
I was told by my Dr. that adding water to milk is more like formula/breastmilk, because it is not as thick. How long are his naps/nap? Make sure his naptime is not too close to his bedtime? And try going back to the crib. If he is a climber get the net to go over the crib from www.onestepahead.com
Goodluck
