What to Do When Your Child Won’t Sleep In Their Own Room
“Mom, can I sleep in your bed again?” All parents have gone through this phase with their child, and it’s always difficult to find peace for them at night.
While we want to take care of our kids and make sure they aren’t scared or distraught at all, there comes a point where a line has to be drawn. If not, your children will never feel comfortable sleeping in their own bed at night. For this, we have some tips and ideas for when your child won’t sleep in their own room:
Start a Bedtime Routine
Getting your child into a specific bedtime routine or habit is good practice for getting them ready for bed. The steps to this process alone should tire them out enough to get them ready to fall asleep. At first, go through the motions with them of brushing their teeth, putting on pajamas, reading a book, etc. As your child becomes comfortable with this new routine, it’ll become a habit for them to make their way to bed and eventually fall asleep on their own.
Stay Until They Fall Asleep
Rather than letting your child come crawl into your bed when they can’t sleep, try hanging out with them near their own bed until they can fall asleep.
One of the biggest issues for kids sleeping in their own room at night is the fear of being alone. If they have a parent right by their side when they’re attempting to fall asleep, it’ll be a lot easier to manage. Your child just wants to feel safe and at ease when bedtime comes.
No Bed-Sharing
Sleep consultants and even experienced parents would advise against the idea of bed-sharing to get your child to sleep in their own bed. Once a child gets used to having you right next to them, it’ll form a bad habit in their head that they’ll always have you there. This is exactly what you don’t want! This means being strict when your child is kicking and screaming about you leaving the room at night, or throwing a fit when they aren’t allowed in your bed. Stick to the rules you’ve set as a parent and eventually they will understand this is how it’s going to be at bedtime!
“Sleep Treats”
Rewards always go a long way with children. If and when your child is able to sleep through the entire night in their own bed, you can decide to reward them with a small prize from a grab bag in the morning. Another great idea is leaving something similar to this under their pillow in the morning while they’re still sleeping. Your child will awake to find the Sleep Fairy has rewarded them for sleeping in their bed for the whole night!
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Written by Stephanie Parker from Sleepingbaby.com, inventor of the Zipadee-Zip
The motto for Sleeping Baby, makers of the Zipadee-Zip, is: "Inspiring Dreams One Night at A time," and that, in a nutshell, is how it all started…with one little dream that has since become the Parker family's reality. When Brett and Stephanie Parker's daughter, Charlotte, was born, the feeling that welled up inside of them was indescribable; they never realized until first looking into those baby blues of hers that they were even capable of that kind of love.
When it was time to transition baby from swaddling, the Parkers tried every sleep sack on the market and every swaddle weaning trick they could find for nearly two weeks and nothing worked to get baby Charlotte to fall and stay asleep.
Stephanie became determined to restore sleep and sanity to their household and set out to find a solution that would soothe Charlotte's startle reflex and provide her the cozy womb-like environment she loved so much but still give her the freedom to roll over and wiggle around in her crib safely. Out of sheer desperation and exhaustion, the Zipadee-Zip was born. The first Zipadee-Zip(R) Stephanie put together on her little sewing machine worked like magic!
To date tens of thousands of Zipadee-Zips have been sold and all from word-of-mouth marketing. It is so rewarding for the Parkers to see other parents and babies getting the sleep they both need and deserve!
For more information, visit sleepingbaby.com.
Interested in writing a guest blog for Sleeping Baby? Send your topic idea to pr@sleepingbaby.com.
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