4 Year Old Getting Out of Bed at Bedtime

It really sounds like you're doing what you should be. Just try to be more consistent during the overnight. Certainly, at bed time, you are. During the night she really should be put back into her own bed.

Our 4 year old sometimes wakes up before we are all ready to, goes to the bathroom and comes to our room. If it is any time before 5, she is automatically put back in bed. For some reason, it sticks better if my husband does it versus me. If it is after 5, then she really could be up for the day and we let her join us in bed--which means that she will move around enough to thoroughly wake us.

Any way you look at it, she is bound to outgrow this sooner rather than later. Good luck.

A.,

We had this EXACT same situation when my daughter was 4. I NEVER expected this to work, but it really did... we got a little pad of paper that has squares on it - it's a rewards chart. They sell them at toy stores. You get little stickers to put on it. My daughter had the potential for earning 2 stickers per night - one for going to bed nicely and one for staying in bed all night. When she filled up a row on the chart, she got something special like a toy, a treat, a movie, whatever.

If she got up during the night to pee, we still gave her the sticker. Didn't want her to think she could NEVER get up. If she came into our room due to a nightmare, we dealt with it kindly, but did not give her a sticker.

I seriously didn't think she would care about stickers and rewards, but it worked. It took about 2 weeks for her to really get on board, and there were relapses, but we stuck with it and eventually it wasn't an issue. Months later, if she starts it again, we go back to the chart and that takes care of it in a few days usually.

If this doesn't work, try a sleeping bag on the floor of you room. That way she doesn't have to wake you up! We did that for a while before the sticker thing. Good luck!

Hi -
we went through the same thing when our son was about 3 1/2. what we did was take pictures of our routine or cut out things from a magazine (teeth brushing, reading a book, going to bed etc) and paste them on a poster board, so he saw what would happen and he could tell us what was next. Then he got 4 index cards that we drew pictures on of bedtime things - him sleeping in bed, his animal, etc. Each time got out of bed, he needed to hand over one of his cards. We encouraged him to hold on to one card just in case he needed it during the night (he never did). Each week, we took away one card until he only had the one. Worked like a charm, and he is a champ at going to bed now! I think we are going to start doing this with our daughter soon too.

Good luck!

I'm going through the exact same thing. Mine is a 3 yr old boy!!! Ugghh every night I wait and wonder what time that little guy will be walking in. It's been a least 1 month since the last time we slept through ther entire night. My 1 year old sleeps better than he does, lol. We just went throught the potty traning thing so this is the next hurtle I guess. But I'd love to hear any helpful tip as well.

we actually made up a small bed on our floor so if the kids did find themselves in need of coming in to our room they had their own little campout on the floor. they finally realized that their bed were much more comfortable and so everyone eventually went back to their own beds. mother of 13 10 8 and 1yr old K.