Toddler Not Sleeping Through Night

Try some white noise such as a small fan, music, sound machine that plays wind, waterfalls, forest and so on. We use a fan and it seems to help. Just loud enough to drowned out the small noise.

I would play bedtime musice, soft and soothing. That is a very good idea. And when he wakes up just keep putting him back in bed so he knows he has to go to sleep and you will not let him stay up. You have to be the strong ones here.

Hi K.

I've never had that problem with my son, but since day one we keep a pretty loud fan running so it blocks out noise it really works well. Just a thought.

Try putting a fan on if that doesnt work maybe a radio or sound machine as said below and night light. If you really want sleep put the movie back on,lol. My kids went through a scared thing and i put n a discovery whales movie which played all night it had oceans sounds and basically whales swimming all night, that worked great. night light ans soothing sounds all in one! I know that sounds crazy but you are prego with your 4th (so am I) and I know that sleep is very important right now he will eventually grow out of his movie thing. My hubby still falls alssp with a movie it drives me nuts but i just turn it off when he is asleep. It isnt hurting anyone and it is comphorting to him. Remember to pick your battles girl! good luck.

I would definitely play music for him! Since he's always had background noise that's what he's used to and literally may not be able to sleep without it. My 3 yr old always tells me "watch TV for a little while mommy" when I'm putting her to bed b/c she likes the comfort of us being there when she falls asleep, (her room is very close to the living room.) If we go to bed, turn off the TV and lights before she is sleepy she comes to our room and wants a lullaby before she can go to sleep. So, I think this is a pretty normal thing for toddlers to go through. I don't think its unusual for kids to need noise to go to sleep-may depend on the kid but I would totally try a CD with instrumental music or lullabies (Fisher Price makes a really nice lullaby CD) there are oodles of them to choose from.

We had the same problem with ours because we live a couple miles from the train tracks - they kept swearing the train was going to come right thru their window. Try setting up a small fan or air purifier. The white noise helps block out all the random stuff.

A box fan set on high works great!

I went through that recently with my 5 yr old girl. She had been doing great in her own room and sleeping fine then all the sudden it's like she was having some kind of seperation issues. At bed time she would start in crying and then get hysterical. After trying so many things my mother came up with an idea of a "happy box." We took an old small shoe box and covered it with pretty paper. I decorated the top of it with her name and the words "happy box" on it. She and I then went through all the family pictures of vacations, events, etc.. and she picked out several pictures that made her laugh or that she thought was funny, or that reminded her of something fun that we did. She also picked out pictures of just her and myself or her and dad or her and friends and other family memebers. We put these in her box and at night before bed we pick out two and put them on her nightstand and when she wakes up she looks at her pictures and thinks happy things and goes back to sleep. So far it's working and we've been doing this for about 3 weeks now. We are finally all getting sleep. YEAH!!!!!.

we play classical music for our 4 year old, on a clock radio. we hit "sleep" and tune to NPR which plays really sleepy, soothing music at night. it plays for an hour, and turns off. you could also try a sound machine, and let him pick out which sound he wants to listen to. (waterfall, night crickets, white noise, etc) homedics makes a good one.

Does he have a cd player or something like that? Play some music for him if it makes him feel better. I started playing a cassette for my daughter, who just turned 18, when she was a baby. To this day, she still has music playing at night. If it is quiet and doesn't disturb anybody else, it shouldn't be a problem. She turned out pretty good - honor student, valedictorian and is a good kid. I don't think a little music will harm him in anway, it could be that he is missing the noise and maybe the getting up several times will take care of itself. It is soothing and comforting - he will be fine.. Encourage him to stay in his room if he wakes up and play quietly, he will go back to bed. Good luck

K.,

We use a fan in our kids rooms. It seems to help block out the noises and circulates the air. The oldest likes the fan blowing on him while the youngest prefers it to blow away from her. It is also easy to take on trips.

I have one of those sound machines in my daughter's room. She is 4 and has had one since she was a newborn. I've always used the rain sound. That way she doesn't hear all the little noises in the night and of course she has a nightlight too. Good luck!

Try "white noise" things, like a fan of some sort. You could also try music. It will just take some time for him to get used to not having the movie on at night. Also, does he have some sort of light in his room that is a little brighter than a night light? My son had a hard time sleeping throught he night when we started turning off the T.V. so these are things that helped him.

I have played music for all 3 of mine. I started it to drown out any noises of day to day life during naps. I also think it helps them when they wake up during the night to not feel alone in the house. I have used both the radio or cd's (the one with their name in the songs was especially a favorite). I would play the cassette and if they had trouble waking up in the night than I put the radio on really soft before I went to bed. We happened onto "stories" when my 2 1/2 year old's name cd broke. Somebody had given us Discovery Toys fairy tales on Cd and she now asks for "stories" When it goes off, it's off. She doesn't need anything else. Depends on the child. My oldest (8) started having some anxiety at night (going to sleep and waking up in the night and crawling into our bed)so we found a cd called "I can relax" and it seems to really be helping. Good luck!

Maybe some white noise would help. Try getting a fan and running it all night in his room. It doesn't have to be blowing on him, but the noise it makes will block out any other night time noises that the tv would also have blocked. We have a fan in our daughter's room and she rarely wakes up at night due to noises she has heard. The only thing I can think of is thunder.

Hope this helps!

You could try Melatonin. This is what my sons Dr. recomended for him. It is a natural supplement since your body produces it. But if you give it to him it will not make him go to sleep, but it will help establish a sleep pattern. I know several children who use Melatonin, and they all have had good results in the child sleeping thru the night. It is available at Walmart Pharmacy, health stores, and your local pharmacy should have it also.

I would try with bedtime music as classic music at night, as Mozart or Chopin.

Sounds like he is used to some kind of noise, so the random noise at night is waking him up.We started playing a white noise CD for my daughter just before my son was born. We were trying to keep her from waking every time the baby did during the night. It has worked well. You could use a fan or a radio set to static. We actually bought a white noise CD called Infant Calm. It has 6 tracks on it of 10 minute segments. Things like washer, dryer, hair dryer, static... We love the dryer and set the CD player to repeat Track 1 all night long. The CD was inexpensive. We got it from Wal-Mart, Amazon, or Ebay. We could not find it in stores.
I'm sure you will get lots of other tips. Our problem was not fear, it was just waking up. Good luck, any change is hard. Just keep up what your doing. He will eventually get used to not having the TV on.

We us a white noise machine for our six month old daughter. It keeps her from waking with every little noise.

I know a couple kids in the family (14 and 10) that have to have a little fan going next to their bed to sleep. They even brought it to our house when spending a night. The mom always used one, so did with the kids, and hey, it works. You do what you have to do when it comes to sleep! The 14 yr old says she can now go to friends without it, but the 10 yr old boy says he can't go to sleep when he hears all those noises in his pillow. Also, maybe a little sound machine would work.

Hey! Try purchasing a ConAir sound machine. You can get them from WalMart and they are very inexpensive. It will play several different things (white noise, ocean waves, thunderstorms, etc). I have one in each of our boys' rooms (4 and 2) and they LOVE it. It really helps tune out the other noise in the house and we can take it when we travel. I suggest it for everyone I know. Then, just stick your guns - don't back down. Good luck!

Play the music! Very soft, very gentle, made for children meditation music or nature sounds. These work extremely well to relax little ones. And eventually they will decide that they no longer need the music. Keep the volume down to a minimum so that only he is hearing it in the privacy of his own room. If he shares a room, the music will also relax the other child. You will see excellent results from this. CHOOSE WISELY THE MUSIC YOU PLAY! Don't play just any old c.d. for him. Make it specifically for children, and a meditation or sleep music, or nature sounds such as rain with crickets and frogs, thunderstorms.

You might try a sound machine. I used one for travel when my children were little to drown out the unfamiliar noises in hotel rooms. They come with several different sounds like ocean, rain, "white noise", etc. You can adjust the volume on them. If you want to "wean" him off of it, you can gradually turn down the volume until you take it away. I have some friends (adults) that sleep every night with one on. It all depends upon your preference weather he sleeps with it always or gradually is weaned off of it. Good luck!

Hi K.-

Try using a sound machine- you can get them at Wal-Mart or Target. They have a variety of sounds you can use, including a white noise. I wouldn't recommend the waterfall/stream one for fear of accidents! LOL!!! But the white noise one worked really well for us. The only problem is that if the power goes out, they have issues. I would recommend starting out with whatever you need to get through this situation, and then VERRRRYYYY slowly starting decreasing the volume over a long time in hopes that eventually you just won't need it. We used one with our daughter until she was 3 (she's 5 1/2 now) and with our son until he was 2 (he's 2 1/2 now). Both kids got to the point where they asked us not to turn the sound machine on anymore because they wanted to sleep like a big kid. But in fact, we still use it only when we travel because you don't realize how loud some hotels can be until you're awake staring at the ceiling.

I'm a firm believer that as parents, do what you have to do to make it easier to get past the hangup the kid is currently having. Trading a tolerable vice is infinitely better than battling something cold turkey. And once you are able to get the kid over the hangup for three days, in my experience, you're home free!

Good luck!
Jenn

Get him a "white noise" player that you can put in his room. This will enable him to have some sound around, but not anything startling, like the movies. There are white noise machines that are able to be turned on and off, or that will run thru the night.

In my daughter's room, we had one that was made for her crib, that also had a light on it. She just reaches up and hits the button and it runs for about 20 minutes and shuts off on its own. If she wants it on again, she just hits the button.

It's worth a try at about $20 per unit.

S.