5 Ways to Help Your Child Sleep in His or Her Own Bed
At some point your toddler will switch to a big-kid bed. While this is an important milestone for any person, the freedom is provides can be problematic for parents. Some kids will routinely leave their room and slip into their parents’ bed at night. This makes it difficult for everyone to get the proper rest they need.
Here are some ways you can help your children sleep in their own bed.
1. Eliminate the Fear
Often kids are afraid of sleeping in their own room because they have a specific fear, but aren’t able to express it. They might turn their fear into an abstract character (the Boogeyman, for instance) or refer to general “monsters.”
In this case, use your child’s innocence to defeat the fear. Come up with a trick or game that’s sure to banish the monsters. You could perform a special ritual that frightens the ghouls, or fill a spray bottle with water and cleanse the area with “monster spray.” Since monsters don’t show up during the day, they’re obviously afraid of light; a soft nightlight might help.
2. Close the Door
Well-intentioned parents like to leave their child’s bedroom door open so they can respond if necessary. However, this often distracts the child. They hear the TV running down the hall, people moving around, and voices. Even if they manage to resist the temptation and stay in bed, they still won’t get the best rest. Don’t be afraid to close the door.
3. Create a Reward Chart
Reward charts are great solutions to a lot of parenting issues because they let kids visualize their own success. Any time they like, they can check their progress. Set up some simple (but meaningful) prizes or rewards for a full week in their own bed.
4. Evaluate Your Bonding Time
If your family keeps a busy schedule, your child may be craving some time to be close to you. They may feel that the only time they can have you to themselves is at night. Take inventory of the amount of time you spend with your child. If it’s not enough, adjust your schedule so he or she doesn’t feel tempted to crawl into bed.
5. Teach Falling Asleep Separately
Some parents let their children lounge in bed with them before bedtime. This is perfectly fine, but if the child falls asleep in mom and dad’s bed, he will feel most comfortable there. When he wakes up in an unfamiliar place, he’ll be inclined to return to his parents’ room. Make sure to put everyone to bed in their respective sleeping places before falling asleep.
Also read: Getting Kids to Sleep In Their Own Room
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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.
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