When your toddler keeps getting out of bed

Getting your toddler to stay in bed long enough to fall asleep? Try our tips...

Getting your toddler to bed is one thing, but keeping her there can feel like a whole new hurdle! If actually getting your toddler to bed in the first place is your sleep problem, we have more advice and tips.

If you can get your toddler into her bed, but she continues to get up and come in to you, try these steps:

• Take your toddler straight back to her bed, tell her it’s time to go to sleep and you’ll come and check on her later.
• Leave the bedroom door ajar if she finds it reassuring.
• Be persistent and calmly return your toddler to her bed each time.
• Use a reward chart with stickers each night she stays in her own bed.
• If you toddler gets out of bed and comes in to you, don’t speak to her other than to tell her it’s time to go to bed or to tell her off.

Don’t give in and let her stay with you in the lounge room or your bedroom - it will only be harder to enforce next time. If coming into your bed is the main problem, we have more expert advice on how to get your toddler to sleep in her own room.

How to encourage your toddler to stay in her bed

• Leave a tape recorder near her bed playing tunes or stories on low volume.
• Record some of your story telling, so she can listen to your voice if she needs to.
• Swap the monitor ends around, so your child can hear you’re still around.
• String up fairy lights. She’ll sleep well if the fairies are watching over her.
• Install a fish tank with a backlight in the bedroom so she can watch the fish swim round and round until she drifts off.
• If the cot has bad connotations because you’ve had problems at bedtime, try putting your child into a bed at 18 months.