Sleeping - Perryville,MD

I saw this kind of thing on Super Nanny. This is what she did to help the parents break their child of this.

First thing to do is to get your son's bed back into his own room.

Since your son is dependent on you being right next to the bed for him to fall asleep, you need to work on getting yourself out of the room. First, place him in bed and sit on the floor with your back to him. If he cries, let him. When he calms down, slowly move closer to the door keeping your back to him. Do not turn around to look at him. If he sees your face, he will start crying again. If he does start crying when you move further away from him, do not move back. Just let him cry it out. If he gets out of bed, pick him up and put him back in bed without saying anything to him. Once you are out of his room and sleeping in your own bed, I am sure that he will still get out of bed. Every time he does this, take him back to his own bed without saying anything to him.

I have seen this work on the show and know some parents who have used this method. It does work. It won't happen overnight. But you will lose much less sleep by breaking him of this dependency than you will by continuing the way you are now.

Good Luck!

If you think he would stay in his bed all night if he didn't fall out, you could try putting his mattress on the floor. We did this because those rails just seemed so flimsy and useless. When our son got older we put the bed together.

Just a note about staying with him until he falls asleep. Totally normal! Many toddlers and preschoolers need that. Dr. Sears calles it "Parenting to Sleep." Kids just like that comfort of having Mom or Dad close by while they fall asleep. If you're looking to wean him off that, you could try finding excuses to leave with the promise of coming right back. "I need to put laundry in the dryer." "I'm going to put some dishes away." We always promised to come back. And we did. The first few nights we were back in 5 minutes, then 10, then 15. Eventually he was asleep when we got back. Even though he doesn't need us to fall asleep, as we did this transition a couple of years ago, he still knows we check on him before we go to bed and if we get up in the middle of the night. Kids like that peace of mind.

Honestly I would just get him a regular twin size bed. For a lot of kids those toddler beds are just not big enough. Kids move around a lot more than some people realize. My almost 5yr sometimes will bang on the sides of her bed in the middle of the night because she is dreaming. I personally don't care for toddler beds I think they are a waste of money. You could even start off with the mattress on the floor if you don't have any bedrails for it.

Personally I don't believe in CIO, as I think it does more damage then good. No matter what age, I think it can't make the child feel unloved and abandoned. I know many people have used it successfully, but I don't believe it's a good thing to do to a small child.
My my own personal experience, I've had 4 kids, my last was very attached, she co-slept with us until she was three and then she finally felt secure enough to sleep in her own twin size bed. I will tell that she never wanted to sleep in her own bed from the day we brought her home from the hospital. She new the difference between nap time and bed time from the start. She would only sleep in her crib if it was for a nap, but when it was bedtime she wouldn't sleep in her own bed except on rare occasions and only for an hour or two at the most. So I gave up on switching her out until she was emotionally ready to do so. Now she's a very happy, well adjusted 5yo!

My son did this, was out of his crib by 18 months. Kept coming into my room. I initially put a crib mattress on my floor, but then got a twin bed with the extra long, extra high bed rails at BRU. It is almost like a crib but way bigger. So the only way out was the bottom of the bed, with a step stool on the end. He rolls around so much I think the toddler mattress was just not big enough. He did much better in a twin bed. I would o get a twin bed put it in his room, making a big deal out of a big boy bed. I have heard of putting up gates to keep the kids in the room, but I never liked the idea. I would not lay with him, while falling asleep. I made the mistake of doing that with my daughter and at almost 6 she still has trouble falling asleep without someone there. With my son, I just put him in, after our nighttime routine and if he came out, just quietly put him back. All night long if need be. He started falling asleep on his own really quickly after only a few nights, but would come to my room when he woke up. I just put him back in his bed and said goodnight. It was rough for about a week and then he was only coming over once around 5 am, and within maybe two weeks that stopped too. Now at 3, he is a great sleeper and always falls asleep easily and on his own. Unlike my daughter who is older and still has trouble. So I would say plan on a week of little sleep, but in the long run it will pay off big time. I wish I had done it with my daughter. Good luck!!!!! Sleep issues are the worst!

I'm not sure how old your son is. Just before 2 yrs old my son climbed out of his crib, so I put him in a toddler bed. We SUFFERED with that for a couple of months - not going to sleep, waking up every night. In the end I got him a full bed. What a world of difference. He now sleeps through the night almost every night, and has since day 1 with this bed. I would try it. The toddler bed just might be too small for a kid who moves a lot at night.
good luck