sleeping problems

[Guest guest]

To Paige,

My four year old is real bedtime resistive. I just read a book

" The Difficult Child " and it suggested structure. I'm amazingly

disorganized but I made up a picture board of his daily routine and as

long as I stick to the routine tantrums and arguing are way down. (I

let it slide on the weekend and we were back to forcing him to get

dressed at noontime and fits at bedtime). Anyhow for bedtime I have

him bathe or shower right after dinner, get in pajamas and brush

teeth. Sometimes we need to re brush if hubby brings out the snacks

but it helps not to have so many steps right at bedtime.

Once he does these things and cleans his room he is free to play

or watch a movie (I always remind him he can not complete the movie

and will need to finish it the next day) or watch TV. Right at 8 he

needs to go bathroom, get drink of water and get into bed. Then I

read him 1 (no more) book and tuck him in and leave. With this

routine he falls asleep in 5 minutes. Without this routine he often

takes an hour unless it is 9 or 10 at night. I also don't let him nap

which was difficult to stop especially if he falls asleep in the car

but it is getting easier. Also although it worked well with my older

son, when he woke during the night,to lay down with him it does not

work well with this child. Thus I take him to bathroom, get him a

drink, tuck him in and then leave telling him not to get up until

morning. The first few times he did call again several times (and I

got little sleep those nights) but I would just go in, cover him up,

tell him he had to be quiet until morning and leave. For the past few

months he has been staying in bed and not wakening me. With the

shorter days he even argues that it is not morning yet when I waken

his older brother for school at 6:15. Hope this is helpful.

Dawn