Seeking Sleep

I always encourage people to feed a high protien snack like peanut butter and jelly right before bed when I hear this problem. Both of my boys (now 4 and 7) went through periods when they stopped sleeping through the night, long after they have been sleeping through the night and we finally figured out they were starving! My idea is that during high growth periods, they just can't make it long without food. The snack before bed (around 8pm) would keep them until 4 or do and then I would feed them some more and put them back to bed until 6 or 7. Good luck.

What helped us was this night light that is a blue moon until it is time to get up and then becomes a yellow sun. We told our daughter that she couldn't get up until she saw the sun, and if she did quickly reminded her and put her back in bed. You can get it at http://www.goodnitelite.com

I think it depends on what he is actually doing when he gets up - what his purpose is in getting up? Most would say that you pick him up and put him back in bed without talking to him or saying anything, just put him back in bed and go back to bed. I saw an episode of Super Nanny once where a child had never been in his own bed and the parent sat next to the bed but didn't feed into the cries or attention seeking behavior, just sat there so the child would know that they did care as evidenced by their presence. Then they would slowly move towards the door until they were outside of the room. Each time the child came back out, they picked up the child and put him back in the bed and started it over. After two nights it didn't happen anymore. Good luck!

My son coslept with us until we went to my parents. My mom told me it was time for him to start sleeping in his own bed. She bought one of those kids blow up beds with the characters on it (you can get them at Target or Walmart) and he slept in the same room with us. Each night, try moving him closer and closer to his own room and eventually close enough so the next step is his big boy bed. Being that it is a progression, it is not as traumatic. Good luck!