My 2 year old is bringing me to tears

[sammy3115]

Hi Ladies; I would really appreciate some advice. I’ve sworn by the baby whisper book with all my children and it’s worked a treat, but my little boy seems to go against the grain in every possible way.

We finally hit a sweet spot where he was sleeping through 8-8am it was complete heaven and took a very long time to get to this point, but it only lasted a few weeks.

Problem is now he refuses to go down at bedtime, we do the whole wind down routine, read to him then settle him down, but he stands and screams blue murder and makes himself vomit ( huge vomits I might add like a big jug full) so we’re back and forth for an hour every night trying to get him to settle, this has been going on for over a month, I settle him then leave, as soon as I leave he stands up and we start all over again. I’ve tried putting him to bed late so he’s exhausted but that doesn’t work, I’m sure it’s behavioural, I have no idea anymore : (

Currently he sleeps 1.5hrs at lunchtime and is awake at 3pm for the school run whilst I collect my girls from school. He’s completely fine going into his cot for his nap it’s just bed time.

I would appreciate  any advice and I’m willing to try anything

Sam x

[deb]

Around 2.5 we had to cut the nap entirely as DD1 would NOT settle before maybe 10-10:30PM if she napped at all. now & again she'd still nap despite our best efforts, and we instituted a "quiet time" after lunch where I'd put her into her room w/a CD playing for maybe an hour, and sometimes she'd play & sometimes she'd nap. Yes, later afternoons were cranky, but once she got to bed she SLEPT (unless she HAD fallen asleep midday, and then we just resigned ourselves to a later bedtime).

You might also try moving the nap earlier and/or cutting it shorter if you can find a timing that doesn't result in his waking up disoriented and cranky.

Might be worth a try; this could jut be the start of him dropping the nap.

[sammy3115]

Thanks Deb

I did try to cut the nap and even reduce for a couple of days, it worked one day and the others he was still crying at bedtime.

I could try putting him down earlier and see if that helps, I’m just at my wits end and looking for solutions, maybe there isn’t one : /

[deb]

Any time they drop a nap it rarely happens in just one go, but is rather a process over time. Some days she napped, others not, but we had to go with the flow as best we could.

Also, is it possible he's got teeth or a latent ear infection nagging? If you try pain meds half an hour before bed and see a change, you're on to something.

One more thing I'd suggest is a look at Elizabeth Pantley's book The No-Cry Sleep Solution. She has solutions for a VERY gradual withdrawal from sleep props that you might find helpful. We were using her method to drop the pacifier with some success (until we ended up with a kid who kept growing new teeth and catching colds and needed to go back to it "til she felt better" and in the end we went cold turkey but had already gone partway so it wasn't as awful as it would have been otherwise). You can probably find a copy to borrow at your library.

[sammy3115]

Your probably right dropping the nap is a gradual thing, but last couple of days he’s not napped weirdly just planing in his cot and he still crying blue murder at bed time, his back molars have been coming in on and off so we’re using teething powders and calpol religiously.

This no cry sleep solution book sounds really good! Onto amazon I go! X