Sleeping FAQ: 24+ Months – Night Waking

My 2.5-year-old son has begun to wake every night after a recent illness.

I have followed the routine from birth for both of my children and have been a huge fan of Gina Ford’s routine for the last 2 1/2 years. I employ 10 woman; there are 5 mothers between us and I have bought the book for all of them. My baby girl is 6 months old and has slept through the night from 11 weeks and is a dream baby. Her brother has always been more spirited but benefited largely from the routine and, up until now, has been a good sleeper. He suffers from eczema and caught chicken pox three weeks ago. During this time he was waking in the night scratching like crazy and making his skin bleed. We took him into our bed for a few nights as this was the only way to get him back to sleep. He has returned to his own bed for over a week now and he continues to wake up at any time between 11pm and 2 am. He is starting school in September; school time is 12.45pm so we are cutting right back on his lunch time sleep; now he only has half an hour. At night time we have tried several things after he has woken: going to his room calming him down, then switching the light off; this sometimes works and other times we have to repeat the process several times before he has dropped off to sleep. I don’t believe it is night terrors as when he wakes he is not complaining of monsters or anything like that. We have tried not going to him at all he has cried on and off for over an hour and then we have gone to him. When my husband went in to him after this long time last night my son lashed out and was a like a frightened animal. At this age I really did not think we would be having this problem as we had been so strict about not going to him when he was a baby in order that he would learn to put himself back to sleep. Regardless of the kind of night he has had he is normally awake by 6.45/7am.

The business I run is a very busy one and I am really finding the tiredness getting to me. I very much hope you can me us some advice as everything the book has suggested in the past has worked.

Your son has got into the habit of waking at this time and he needs to learn how to settle back to sleep without help from you now. Try dropping his lunchtime nap altogether. Let him have a quiet time after lunch; perhaps reading stories together or putting a jigsaw together.

You could also try letting him spend the half an hour in his room playing quietly with cars or what ever he is interested in. This will give him a chance to recharge for the afternoon but means he is ready for bed at 8pm and should sleep well in the night.

If he continues to wake at night and need you to go in, draw up a star chart to encourage him to settle himself back without fuss. The incentive of a new book or treat, after 3 or 4 consecutive nights when he manages to do this, may help. Remind him when he goes to bed that he will get a star in the morning if he can stay in bed and settle back to sleep without crying. Make sure that the videos and stories he may hear before bedtime are not setting off any bad dreams.

If this chart does not help him you will have to consider putting some controlled crying into place to help him learn how to get back to sleep. Rather than leaving him for a long period and then going in begin to lengthen time gradually, 10-15 minutes the first night then progressively lengthening the time over the next few nights. In this way he wont feel angry or afraid which maybe the cause of his lashing out as he waited do long for someone to reassure him. Controlled crying lets him learn the skill he has lost of being able to settle again without someone near to him. As he was such a good sleeper it should not take many nights before he is more settled again.