Are you struggling with a toddler who won’t sleep through the night? Sleeping can be hard for parents, and live-in nannies too, if you have a toddler who keeps waking up in the middle of the night.
If it occurs regularly, this pattern can leave everyone feeling drained and unhappy. That’s why we’ve put together some advice to help you, help your toddler sleep through the night, every night.
- Understand the situation – Do you know why your child is waking in the middle of the night? Is it illness related – do they have a fever or a cough that’s causing them to wake up? Are they suffering from nightmares? Have they developed a habit of waking at certain times for attention? You can’t help your toddler sleep through the night, if you don’t understand why they’re waking in the first place. This is the first step to resolving any sleep issues.
- Are there any obvious signs? – When your child wakes in the middle of the night, take a moment to listen to what’s happening. Are there any noises that might have woken your child? A dog barking, a loud vehicle or something similar? There are often regular noises that can be heard throughout the night, especially if you live in highly populated areas or cities. If these noises are the cause of your child’s sleepless nights there are a few things you can do. Simply moving the crib to an interior wall can help a child to sleep more soundly, you could also invest in a white noise machine or find a way to continuously play soft music that will mask any outdoor noises.
- Address potential medical concerns – If your child is consistently waking due to pains, fever, snoring or excess bed wetting, it’s important to take the right course of action. Talking to the nurse or doctor can help you decide what steps to make to help your child be more comfortable and to sleep more easily.
- Overcoming fears – It’s perfectly normal for children to wake in the night because of fear at some point or another. The key is not to brush off your child’s fears, but instead to try and discover what it is that your child is afraid of and where this fear comes from. If they’re afraid of the dark or monsters, this can be quite a long process to overcome. However, you can help by reassuring them that there’s nothing scary in the darkness and that there are no monsters. You could make a game of checking the room for monsters and finding none or you could take this a step further by providing a night-light. It’s important to continue to reassure your child and to not become frustrated with them for waking you up because they’re afraid. Simply continue to reassure them, you could even sit with them in their room for a short while until they fall back asleep to help them feel safe.
- Bad Habits should be broken – If your child is only getting up each night out of habit, maybe because they want to see you or they want to sleep in your bed at night, it’s important to tackle this straight away. Allowing them to continually sleep in your room can make things worse long-term. It’s important to encourage them to spend time in their room and to make a big deal of how great it is that they sleep in their own bed each night. Praise them highly when they sleep through the night and if they do wake up, you could always give them a teddy to cuddle to help them drift back to sleep.
- Self-soothing could be the key – When you put your child to bed, try allowing them to fall asleep on their own, without staying until they’re fast asleep. This will help them to learn how to fall asleep without your help and will teach them to self-soothe if they wake during the night.
Try these tips and let us know if they help you and your toddler sleep through the night. Don’t forget to tell us your tips for ensuring everyone has a good night’s sleep!