Kids Sleeping Tips: Keeping Child Out of Your Bed

When you are too tired to know that your child has left the room, try putting a bell on his door or your door so that it signals for mom or dad, whomever has the night duty shift, to get out of bed, intercept your child, and gently, silently place him or her back in bed.

All of this will fail or not work well if:

1. The bedtime is way too late and your child has a second wind.

2. Naps are occurring out of synch with circadian rhythms causing your child to be too tired near the end of the day.

3. You are usually silent or mostly silent but not always silent. You sometimes talk to your child during a planned Silent Return to sleep. Intermittent reinforcement guarantees failure because you are training your child to try harder to get your attention because sometimes, unpredictably, he succeeds. This is the same principle that keeps some people glued to slot machines because sometimes they hit the jackpot!

Help your kid be the winner and get sleeping by being consistent!

More from Dr. Weissbluth:

• Twin sleep issues
• Sleep for colicky babies
• Getting babies to fall asleep earlier
• Sleeping through the night
• When toddlers climb out of their cribs
• Getting kids to stay in bed
• Crying at bedtime
• Keeping kids in their own rooms
• Teaching kids to fall asleep on their own
• Naps for fussy babies
• Crying it out