short question about WI/WO

[ishkin]

Hello all,
short question about the WI/WO method: as far as I understand it , we are only supposed to go in if the child is crying?

What do we do when he is not crying but calling for us - in the last couple of weeks my LO seems to be delaying bedtime by inventing all kinds of excuses - first he needs me to wash his dummy (he says its dirty), then he throws out his toys from the crib and wants me to pick them up, then he got something else on his mind etc....I understand all of these are just supposed to bring me back into the room (he calls me and when I go in he shows/tells me what needs to be done)...

Its a new thing for us, so what do we do in situations like this - do not do anything and do not answer his calls? Go in once and tell him to go to sleep and that mommy is not going to come over for any subsequent calls? Call out to him "go to sleep"? Seems to me option number 2 is the most reasonable one?

I just don't want it to become a habit, so I guess I should cut it in the prime.



Thanks a lot in advance!

[clazzat]

Sounds familiar!  For us it was just one more drink of water...

We started saying that she could have a drink of water just before she went to bed and that there would be no more afterwards.  Maybe if you do the things that he is calling you back for before you say goodnight (to the extent that you can) and then explain that you won't come back.  We actually found that she didn't do it again after we told her we wouldn't come back.  If he does call you back after you have said goodnight, I would go back once and explain that you won't come back again.

We also had to do WI/WO because she would cry to make us come back, and that only took two nights to be sorted - it's definitely worth nipping it in the bud.

HTH.  Cx

[ishkin]

Well, he does things specifically to bring me back - like washing the dummy - he also asked to wash it before he actually went to sleep (he's got this weird thing about it being dirty)...And throwing out stuff is also just about bringing me back , he doesn't actually need all this stuff...

We have been using WI/WO for ages every time something is amiss with his sleep, it helps in the short run but its always something new which u have to handle. Its just that always before he used to cry, and now he just calls me and stalls the time.

I guess I will go with the going back once- I do not come back anymore method. He will either handle it or revert to crying which I can handle with WI/WO.

Thanks for the reply!