If your toddler is sleeping in a room that she shares with a sibling, it may be a good idea to stagger bedtimes by 30 minutes or so, to give your toddler time to settle down and get to sleep. Otherwise there is the risk that she will use your presence to the bedroom as an excuse to get up again.

After a while, there’s a good chance your toddler will start to understand that when you put her to bed, it’s sleep-time, not play-time!

It’s very important that you are consistent, firm and persistent in enforcing the bedtime routine and rules, to stop the entire thing becoming a game that your child uses to push your boundaries and demand attention the whole time.

That said, you should be sensitive to the fact that sometimes when she calls out, she has a genuine need that you should attend to.If she’s scared of imaginary creatures in the cupboard, you can do a quick “check” to reassure her, but only once, and leave the light out. If she is afraid of the dark, then a plug-in glow nightlight can be a great help. She may also have filled her nappy – in which case, change it as quickly as possible, in low light and keeping very quiet. This might take a bit of getting used to for you, but the sooner you have a bedtime routine mastered, the sooner you will start to get some calm into your life again, so stick at it!

Toddlers tend to sleep better through the night than babies. Once you actually get them to bed, they are less prone to waking up. However, persuading them to get their head down and rest can be very difficult.

Toddlers by their very nature like to test boundaries – it’s part (more…)

As soon as you get a new baby home, and have got over the usual “boy or girl?” questions, the next question that people ask is “how are you sleeping now your new baby is in the house?” The answer is normally along the lines of “sleep? What’s that?”. According to recent studies, up to a quarter of young children have sleep problems, and that always translates into parents not getting much shut-eye either. Sleep deprivation can make you very edgy, and really detract from the pleasures of bringing up a youngster.

(more…)

A great alternative to toddler sleeping bags

The Peapod Plus travel bed is suitable for babies, toddlers and small children up to 5 years of ages. It has a great design with a side opening to simplify putting your toddler to bed without hurting your back. You can also get into feed or change diapers easily. Once your child gets old enough to walk, (more…)

Continuining the earlier post, here are three more tips to get your toddler to sleep without tears:

1. Try to keep the bedtime routine consistent. It has a much higher success rate if it doesn’t vary much from night to night. New events and deviations from the norm can excite your child.

(more…)

As if being a parent isn’t hard enough already, you’re supposed to do it with no sleep? The story of restless children subsequently creating sleep-deprived parents is as old as time. In order to help you get your valuable (and well deserved) sleep back, here are three highly effective tips (more…)

Bedtime can be a difficult scenario for many parents with young children. Sleeping bags are an often
over-looked implementation that can work wonders. Read on to learn how switching from conventional bedding to a sleeping bag can have a tremendous positive impact, as well as ease some of the stresses of parenting a young child.

There are several advantages to having your toddler sleep in a sleeping bag. First and foremost, most young children associate sleeping bags with camping, or traveling, which automatically makes it cool. Any deviation from their routine and dreaded bedtime can yield very positive results. With a little bit of creativity and the help of your child’s imagination, you can have him or her thinking of bedtime as a fun activity, or even an adventure.

(more…)