Locking Bar Eglu Classic

[Janty]

Our doctor suggested avena sativa for helping my son to sleep when he was little.

It didn't work.

 

 

At the time he was three years old and I had not had an uninterrupted nights sleep since he was born. He didn't sleep for more than two hours until he was four.

 

[Janty]

However, I know that my son is a different entity to most children as he has Aspergers and ADHD. One Saturday, he turned up at our bedroom door at five o'clock in the morning with his PS2 all disconnected. When I asked what he was doing, he said that he needed to put it in our room as he had broken the rules on Thursday night and played PS2. He was enforcing the consequence himself.

 

Ah bless him (I hope that doesn't sound patronising as it's not meant to )

 

I know what you mean...don't worry, it didn't sound patronising.

He is hard work but a sweetie really.

[BeckyBoo]

Not such a good evening tonight but still an improvement on before. small boy and middle daughter both down by 8.30, eldest finally in bed lights out toileted etc at twenty to 9, came down once at 9 but taken straight back fo bed and has stayed there.

 

Still working on it and still really grateful for all the advice. Mine have never been good sleeper - they never really slept through until they start school although small boy has started sleeping through about 4 nights out of 7 which is nice.

see, they tell you about sleep depravation in ante natal classes but they don't tell you it can last three or four years, and that if you have succesive children you can go nearly 8 years without regular solid sleep!! No wonder Mums get grumpy sometimes!

[The Dogmother]

You're doing fine Mrs B, consistency is the key. Would the bigger girls like to get involved in small boy's bedtime ritual? Perhaps they'd like to help bath him and give him his bedtime milk, then you can all read him a story and they can get sleepy too.

 

I only have one child of my own, but looked after a lot of friends' children and babies when I was young (I had Rosie late in life), I also nannied and brought up 3 little fellas for wealthy friends - the boys are all now in their twenties and one is newly engaged... I remember potty training him! The lads always loved bedtime and snuggled down in one bed to read stories before they went to their own beds to sleep.. I just love that clean, pyjama-ed time of the day.

[chooklady]

I've got 3 kids the youngest is just over 12 now. She has always been the one who couldn't get to sleep and she doesn't need as much as the others.

 

Some people have very set routines, personally I have never been too rigid, my kids didn't have a bath every night and they didn't have a story read to them every night. The reason for this was purely because I always thought that is something happened ie someone was in hospital, not well at home or you were just lucky enough to have a babysitter that it would make life a little easier for them or if you were extremely tired you could escape thet bedtime routine occasionally it worked well for us. Whe my kids were small my OH worked abroad and some days I didn't have the energy to deal with bedtimes so I didn't stick to things to rigidly.

 

I think one of the most important things is for you and OH to back each other up, and don't ask the child 'what did Dad say' make sure you ask Dad and vise versa because believe me they soon work that one out. Make 'your' rules and stick to them.

 

We allow Abby to read in bed because it does make her go to sleep, sometimes it takes a little longer than others but we are all different, she has never been a child for falling asleep during the day so I think she copes OK. She goes upstairs at 9pm now and I always say 'I don't want to see you until tomorrow' along with a cuddle of course.

 

Something you could try with a younger child is some sort of award system perhaps, we used to do this, you could give her a gold star on each day when she goes to bed and stays there at the right time. Maybe the treat at the end of the week could be to stay up and extra hour and do something she really enjoys or something else that you know she'll enjoy.

 

From all the replies everyone has different ideas so you have to work out what works for you.

 

Good luck, it's not easy being a parent and unfortunately it's something you have to learn as you go along.

 

Nicola