Keeping toddler in their bed?

DH and I are at our witts end with trying to keep our 2.5 yo in her bed. We transferred to a toddler bed in December and put a gate up at her doorway. Every day since then she will cry like crazy and try to climb the gate, this can go on for 10-30 min before she finally goes to bed and its only getting worse. This entire time she has also been getting up several times per night and sometimes will not go back to bed. I cant remember the last time we got a full nights sleep. I'm also pregnant and exhausted. I need to get her to sleep normally again before the baby comes this summer!!

I finally took my docs advice and put a safety lock on her side of the door last night. Well my stubborn, strong child ripped it right off within seconds. I held the door knob from the other side as she tried to open the door and screamed and cried and paraded around her room. At one point she tried climbing her dresser and also rearranged all her stuffed animals and blankets all over. Totally going nuts.

What advice do you have? How do you get your toddler to stay in bed? Do you think putting a lock on my side of the door will help? I know some may not agree with that, and I really don't want to do it, but I feel this is my last resort. She is extremely stubborn and will not give up!!! Please help!!

Re: Keeping toddler in their bed?

I'm following this too... We will soon be moving dd to a toddler bed and am concerned about the exact same thing. My dd is so headstrong...

Keeping toddler in their bed?

It is a battle of wits and you probably won't want to hear this but it will take time. My son was good about it (one of the only battles we didn't have ) but my nephew was tough. It took months. A lock will only keep her in there it won't stop the behavior in the room

Keeping toddler in their bed?

DD has always been fine with bedtime but sometimes wakes up during the night. We did the child lock bc she was getting up at naptime. The first time I didn't put it on perfectly and she got it off but once it was on right she couldn't take it off. During the night if she wakes up, I've found just being straight forward with her works pretty well. For one, I tell her she needs to sleep until the sun comes up so she knows that if it's still dark she's not supposed to be awake. If she does cry for us I go in and tell her she needs to go back to sleep, that she's waking up DH, myself, and the baby and we all want to be sleeping. I give her a quick cuddle and tell her to go back to sleep. If she cries again I go back and tell her again, no more crying, and that I won't come back in again so she needs to go to sleep and I'll see her when the sun comes up. Thankfully that has really worked and she rarely wakes anymore and if she does it's just a minute and I'm back to bed.

Keeping toddler in their bed?

Maybe a reward chart would work? If she stays in her bed she gets a sticker. After X amount of stickers she gets a treat or a toy?

Re: Keeping toddler in their bed?

I had this problem recently too. The only thing that worked was that one of us would have to go into the bed with him and lay until he fell asleep. Sometimes he is tired enough that we put him down by himself and he stays there. Once every few weeks he will wake up in the middle of the night, realize no one is next to him and cry and climb out and climb into our bed. But he stays there for the most part thank goodness!

Keeping toddler in their bed?

Leave her door open. She doesn't want it closed. It's the only thing that worked for us. He stayed in bed and started sleeping through the night again. We never gated his room, but if you have a gate up on her door already, just leave her door open. My DS wanted to know we were there and keeping the door open helped him realize we really were in the next room. It's a "Feel Safe" thing for them.

Keeping toddler in their bed?

We were at our wits end at that age. DS would run out of bed after putting him in bed. We tried laying with him in our bed, sitting next to him in his bed, etc. It would last until 10:30 at night. The only thing that worked was closing his door. He freaked out and we told him if he stayed in his bed, the door would stay open. That was the end of it.