2 Year Old Night Time Waking and Wandering

I would say it is time to knock off the day time naps. It sounds like he is wanting attention, but waking up during the night is not that unusual. I would try leaving him alone and see what happens. If he starts to cry you can say go back to bed and we will talk about it in the morning. But kids learn fast how to control you and the household, so I would say get a hold on it now or you will be doing this for a long time. If you try all that and still not working then I would talk to the doctor about it and see if maybe he has a medical problem causing it. Sometimes ear problems can cause kids to wake and it may not be bad enough for him to be in pain yet. But more than likely I would think it is just an attention thing. Just make sure your house is kid safe!
A mother of 4

We had the exact same problem recently with our 2 1/2 year old. I tried all the suggestions about putting him back in his room every time he got up, telling him it is time to sleep, not speaking to him, closing the door if he was crying, and altogether making a big deal out of it. It didn't work, and none of us were getting any sleep as the charade would contnue for hours, so I changed my approach. If he wanted to come in our room in the middle of the night and sleep on the floor, we let him. We would leave our bedroom door open at night, and the rules were: he had to go to sleep in his own room at bedtime (which was never an issue for him anyway), if he came to our room in the middle of the night he could sleep on our floor, but not in our bed, and he was not allowed to wake us up. He would bring his blankie and pillow and make himself comfortable on the floor - he did this every night at about 2 a.m. for almost three weeks, but in the end this approach really worked. After a few weeks, he was back to sleeping in his own room through the night. Once I stopped fighting with him about it, it was no longer a big deal. It's like, as long as he knows the option is there if he feels like he needs to come in our room, he knows it is his decision, and it is no longer a power struggle. Occasionally I still get up in the morning and find him on the floor next to our bed, but that doesn't bother me. I am okay with it since we still get a good night's sleep. I don't know if this will work for you or not, but I know all the "book stuff" did not work for us.

You need to either put a gate outside the door or the plastic baby proof things on the inside of the door handle so he can not get out of his room. That'll keep him in, but as far as calling for you, that may take some time before he realizes once I'm in my room, I'm here to stay for a while. Good luck.

My son just got through going through this. For me, it lasted about a month - with all the advice I got, it seems to range from a week, to a couple months. Honestly, I did just what your doing, and all of a sudden one night, he just started sleeping again. We though he was getting scarred, so I started leaving his door wide open and reassured him we were right down the hall. I know, it stinks, but it should be over soon, I think its just a phase... :) If you want more info, please feel free to email me!

Everything I've read about keeping kids from getting out of their bed tells you NOT to talk to them or give them any words or positive reinforcement, but to just repeatedly return them to their bed with as little interaction as possible. They interaction is what they want-so if you remove that, then they will eventually stop getting out of bed.
Also once you try this, keep track of how many times you are returning him to his bed so you can see the progress. (one night it may be 25 times, but the next night it may be 20--both seem like a lot and you may not see the technique working of you don't keep track and then get frustrated and give up). I don't know how sever it is for him though--if it's just a few times you may be able to stop it in a matter of a weekend.
Good luck!

Well. 2 things to try. Give him less liquids at supper time. and shorten up his nap or take it out all together for a few days or a day and see what happens. and put him to bed later than 8:30. Don't tell him you're doing all these things. Just try it. Take him outside for walks to tire out his little legs during the day and have him play hard outside. I know he's only 2 but running kicking a ball or riding a little trike or something for an hour or more will tire him out.