2 1/2 Year Old Won't Sleep

If he has toys and books in bed with him like ours does, this is what we do. I'd go in and tell her it was time to lay quiet and still in bed (words she understands more then "go to sleep") and if she couldn't do that, I'd have to take away a book or toy from her bed. She does have a lovey and I would NEVER take that away because I know how much it means to her, but she also has at least 2 or 3 books in bed, plus other toys sometimes, and those are all fair game. I've only had to follow through the first time.

I just read that he cries when you leave him at the gate, so this may not work for you, but I though I'd share it anyhow in case you wanted to try it. Maybe trying it for the first time at nap time would work better - he'd understand the consequences without missing out on lots of sleep.

I would cut out naps completely as long as he is staying awake at night. Maybe do quiet time instead where he can stay in a room with you but has to "read books", listen to quiet music, watch a cartoon or play quietly and independently for 30 minutes. This is more for Mom than kid in my house!
My daughter did wake up at night and resist bedtime around this age, too. I really had to increase her physical activity during the day to wear her out. When I cut out the naps, I put her to bed earlier and really stuck to a very quiet and calming bedtime ritual to get her in the mindset of bed. I then limited the amount of toys/books in her room that she could play with because for a while she was getting out every animal and book before she would go to sleep. Finally, we put the childproof doorknob covers on the inside of her door so that she could not get out of her room. She screamed and pounded on the door but after several days of us ignoring this behavior, she stopped. We kept a nightlight on in her room so that she was not scared if she woke up at night but unless I could through the monitor that something was really wrong, we just left her. Eventually, she started sleeping through the night again and we would open her door a crack once she was asleep. Then eventually took the doorknob cover off once she stopped asking to get out. It did not last long but was tough on all of us at the time.

B.
Mom of Twins
www.babybearsden.com

One of my granddaughters used to wake up at night and wander around the house because she thought it looked interesting in the middle of the night. Her mama and daddy made doubly sure all the doors were locked so she wouldn't wander around outside, too (she would have - she's an adventurous person).

I think that I would check with the doctor to see whether there might possibly be any physical cause. If everything were OK, I would consider this a power struggle. I might try a reward system with the boy for a while - some little (!) special thing IF he stays in his bed at night and/or at rest time.

Don't try to bribe him ("If you do this, I'll give you that"); just decide when to consider him close enough to doing what you want him to do, and reward him for it. He'll catch on. If he's playing a game with you, he has to find out that you have a game he likes even better.

I'm sorry. I don't have any advice. But if you figure it out please let me know. We are on day 3 of our 2 year old daughter not wanting to sleep at night. She gave up napping months ago. She used to be a great sleeper too...she took an afternoon nap daily, put herself to sleep at night, almost always slept straight through...now she won't go to sleep no matter how tired she is. She can climb out of her crib, so we converted it to a toddler bed. She is up ALL night. Nothing we have tried has worked. No matter how exhausted she is, she fights sleep until she passes out. If we try to hold her or rock her or anything like that she screams. I am at a total loss. She just wants to wander around the house all night.