Sleep issues Home & Daycare

I so felt for Dad, who, at drop off this morning looked exhausted. His words "I honestly raised my voice at him for the first time ever, honestly, first time ever!" Poor dad. 2 1/2 year old transitioned to bed last June and only recently (the past 2 weeks) has been not settling at bedtime at home, wandering the house all throughout the night and waking for the day at 4 am. He naps maybe 1/2-1 hour max. here (this has been consistent from his start at a year), but chats happily in his pack and play the rest of naptime (I have tried a cot too, but the pack and play he stays in & does not disturb the rest in a room on his own). As a result of his recent sleep debt at home, child has been a bear at daycare...pushing, throwing, whiny...totally uncharacteristic for him; obviously he is so overtired. I just feel for poor poor parents. He is honestly usually the most awesome child to care for. I've suggested perhaps a baby gate on his door at night, perhaps Melatonin (which worked for ours).

Sounds rough. Poor parents and poor you dealing with the aftermath each day. I'd put a baby gate up so the little guy can't get out of his room and consistently remind him that if he wakes up he has to stay in his room and be quiet because everyone else is trying to sleep. As for melatonin, I would avoid it at all costs for boys as it can effect their fertility rate. I know right now sleep is number one priority but in my opinion not at the expenses of health issues later on in life. Going gluten free would likely have a similar effect on calming them down if the child isn't able to calm down enough to fall asleep but it sounds like he can go to sleep, but just can't stay asleep so melatonin or any other sleep aide is generally to help fall asleep not stay asleep and wouldn't have the desired effect I doubt. Hopefully it will just be a short lived phase.

My own kids go through sleep issues every so often (as I'm sure every child does) and without fail, putting them to bed about 15-30 mins earlier for a few nights ALWAYS works. He is overtired if he is waking up in the middle of the night and if he wakes too soon in the morning. He needs to go to bed earlier, trust me! I consider myself a bit of an expert on the matter as I tend to go through bouts of pretty bad insomnia (been going through a pretty bad one for a few weeks now actually :()

I have to agree with Fun&care. a sleep deprived child sleeps poorly and it just spirals out of control. More sleep. Make sure the parents are not engaging the child. If he wakes at 4am the family (or one parent) should NOT be getting up with him and going about their day or putting the tv on. That just trains his body to wake at that time the next day.

No lights, no talking, walk him back to bed and lie him down. If he's out of a crib then his room should be bare aside from a few quiet toys and books and a gate in the doorway (with the door also closed). A few nights of no interaction or entertainment and earlier bedtime should get the child back on track.

I find when a child has one of these random sleep disruptions (very normal) parents in a sense reward it by getting up with them, putting the tv on to quiet them and it really just trains their bodies to wake up at that time over and over again.

I know one family where they were up every night in the middle of the night (like 1-4am) watching hours of the child's favorite tv show. They claimed it was the only way to keep her calm. BUT they trained her that every night she could watch hours of her favorite tv show with mom or dad cuddling on the couch with her. What child would choose to roll over and go back to sleep when that is an option? The kid wasn't screaming due to anything being wrong...the kid was screaming because for the 13 nights before this night you let her watch tv...'if I scream louder they will put the tv on again'.

Sleep is so incredibly important.

That's so tough on everyone !!! Thank fully only one of mine had an issue with sleep from age 2-4 and then was fine again ! Sleep is soo important ! I would def use the gate and not engage any conversation or attention . I had a little one here disrupting nap time with short naps and one day I put her down earlier and for what ever the reason she napped longer ! So everyone else goes down around 1:00 and she goes down at 12:30 and sleeps until 2:30 and I just grab her and the rest sleep until 3