Toddler sleep...
I’ve been getting a great deal of inquiries recently for help with Toddlers. I work with newborns through age 5-6. Working with toddlers is certainly an entirely new ballgame! I work with almost as many toddler families as I do infants. I thought I would give the toddler world some love!
Recognizing how your toddler’s sleep is different than infant sleep can help parents understand why the struggles are arising. Toddler sleep training is as much (if not more) about establishing and enforcing strong boundaries regarding sleep and sticking through with your promised consequences. Toddler’s love to push boundaries and seek control, sleep is not an exception to this. Discipline and limit setting for your child is a major key to helping your toddler understand what is expected of them in terms of sleep. Toddlers are adventurous, push boundaries in daily life and unfortunately sleep is not high on their “to-do list.” This is why setting clear boundaries and expectations are very important for your toddler regarding sleep. If they had their way, they would likely never nap and stay up way past their bedtime.
My top 3 kids for improving toddler sleep:
Early bedtime
All children under age 6 should be asleep no later than 8:00 pm therefore their routine should start earlier to make sure they are sleeping by then. Most people fear that an early bedtime will create a situation where their child will wake up much too early. They assume that if their child is currently going to bed at 9 p.m. and waking up at 7 a.m., then moving bedtime to 7 p.m. will mean that the child will wake up at 5. Fortunately, this is not the case. In fact, keeping the child up too late in the evening is probably the biggest contributing factor to the sleep problems children experience and a big contributor to middle of night and early wakings.
Consistency
Enforcing sleep and sleep boundaries may be painful at first, but it’s important to remember why this is happening and to remain very consistent. Consistency is one of the most important things a parent can bring to the situation while sleep training. If you ultimately give into your toddler’s demands every few nights, he will know that he is the one who is calling the shots at night. It’s important that he understand that YOU are the one who is in charge of bedtime and that you aren’t willing to negotiate!
Designated middle of the night helper
When it’s safe to do so, the idea is to give your child tools to comfort himself when he wakes up in the night so that he doesn’t have to cry out for you to come in and help him. If he finds that hugging a teddy bear or stuffie will help him fall back to sleep, that lets you off the hook!
Above all remember that what you are doing is in no way mean or insensitive. Letting your child live in a perpetual state of tiredness is far worse than letting him cry or fuss over a few days. By teaching him how to sleep through the night, you are giving your child a valuable gift, which he will carry with him throughout his entire life.