How long would you leave your toddler crying for? 👇🏻👇🏻 please read.

Question

It’s 2:20am and my 2 1/2 year old has just woke up screaming/crying, like he has done every night for nearly a week. (Completely randomly out of the blue habit for him to start). Also he puts his light on by himself every night aswell!
All he wants is to come into my bed. 
How long would you leave him to cry?
Baring in mind the time of morning, - he should be tired! I know he is fine, just being stubborn that he wants to come in bed with me. Luckily he is top floor so cannot actually just come in bed with me as there is a baby gate on his stairs. 
He was awake crying on and off from 12:10am till gone 5am the other morning. I did cave in that time though and got in bed with him, trying to sneak away when I thought he was asleep. - didn’t work. I ended up bringing him in bed with me at 5am as I was desperate.    
It’s really starting to take its toll on me and I can’t be having this new ‘Mummy’s bed’ habit develop, especially as I’m 25w pregnant nearly. 
Help!

Answer

What helps for our daughter (almost 2) is to let her cry, but also comfort her. We just expand the time stretch each time. 
So the first (serious) cry we go in immediately, get her out of her crib and comfort her with a hug etc. We put her back when she is calm again, and often she cry’s again soon. We first wait 5 minutes and then we go in again, just tuck her in again saying it’s time to sleep now, and that everything is okay. 
The third time we wait 10 minutes and it’s a quick stroke over her head and saying it’s time to sleep, the next time we wait 15, and so on. 
This worked for us (we repeat this every time she “falls back”) because we are still here for her but also make clear it’s time to sleep. Off course we don’t do this when she is sick or something else, because then it’s just cuddles all over in our bed 😉. We just find it important to teach her to fall asleep on her own, at the same time knowing we are always there and she is not alone, and that her bed is the best and safest place to be. 
Good luck and hang in there!

Answer

we went through something similar a few weeks ago. it was a nightmare and it was like it undid all of the sleep training we've ever done. he wake up screaming once or twice a night. what ultimately worked for us was to sit with him till he fell asleep. at first we have to be touching him with her hand on his back or something until he fell asleep. then he would fall asleep if we sat next to the bed. I really wondered if we were ever going to get him to sleep well again. it was terrible. me and my husband were both very sleep-deprived. after about 2 weeks of sitting with him till he fell asleep we were actually able to walk out of the room when he was still awake but only if we left the door open. it's been almost 4 weeks now and it's back to normal. I think you're on the right track but unfortunately it will probably take a while to get him back to where he was. if he's just whining a little bit I think it's okay to leave him for a while see if he calms back down himself but if he's screaming I really wouldn't leave him for any length of time. I don't have an issue with the cry-it-out method if it's done properly I don't think there's anyone out there that would support screaming it out. two and a half is really little he just needs some help to calm down because when he's scared he can't calm down by himself in the middle of the night.. I know it's tough hang in there mama!

Answer

Thanks for your advice! 
I don’t think it helps that my Son is in a toddler bed so just gets out whenever he feels like it. 😂
He wakes up in the morning with the entire contents of his room in his bed with him; literally every toy!
No wonder he’s bashing and banging around up there for hours in the night when he’s NOT crying. 🙄 he’s hoarding all his belongings. 😩

Answer

Sounds like he is becoming afraid of the dark. Does he have a nightlight that he can bring in bed with him? The best thing to do is just to reassure him that he is safe in his bed, tuck him back in and tell him to go back to sleep and you’ll check on him in a little while.

Answer

My sister used to have night terrors quite often when she was 3. She never seemed to be able to tell us about the nightmare then, but now that she is older, she remembers the nightmares and some of them were creepy. I was 6 years older and I remember it scaring me that she would scream and cry so much. Honestly, I wouldn’t leave him cry. I’d comfort him. Maybe talk to your pediatrician to see if he/she has any ideas.

Answer

My 2 year old I go in tuck her back into her bed and leave. She stops crying after a while for those days that she does cry. (Really not that often)

How long would you leave your toddler crying for? 👇🏻👇🏻 please read.

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