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photo credit: EraPhernalia Vintage (somewhat busy)

When your child can’t sleep, it wreaks havoc on the entire household. Babies are notorious for keeping mom and dad awake for hours on end, but that’s to be expected. It’s when a child grows into toddler stage and beyond that it can be frustrating to expect a good night’s sleep, only to be interrupted by the pitter patter of little feet and your child coming to tell you they’re wide awake!

Children’s sleeping issues are the result of any number of things. If your child is sick, the simple stuffiness of his nose may be all it takes to rouse him from a deep slumber, making it difficult to get back to the land of nod. But while it may be tempting to dole out medicine that makes your child sleep, professionals warn against this practice – make sure you get a doctor’s okay before giving your child medications like this.

Monsters and nightmares can also interrupt children’s sleeping habits. When they accidentally walk into the room during a fright fest on TV, a simple glimpse of a frightening scene can make a lasting imprint on the imagination of your little one – especially right before it’s lights out time.

Other issues that affect children’s sleep are restless leg syndrome, sleepwalking, sleep talking, and even sleep terrors. You sometimes have to watch your child to see if he or she is suffering from a lack of sleep. They may just be overly tired and not know what the reason, if that is the case, sometimes it can be something like sleep apnea that hasn’t been diagnosed yet.

If you are having trouble getting your child to sleep you might want to check out my post on How to get your child to sleep.

Although this blog is mostly dedicated to crafts for children I want to  share once a week some parenting tips and tricks I have found helpful.  This week I want to talk about Sleep or maybe lack of it!!  I don’t know about you but my children did NOT sleep for the longest time!!  I tried all sorts of things to get them to sleep by themselves.  I tried letting them cry, laying with them until they fell asleep, giving them a lovey etc! My children just did not want to sleep with out me next to them.  As much as I loved (and still do) cuddling up with them at night and knowing they were right next to me I got to a point that I really wanted it to be just my husband and I in our bed!!

It took some work, but eventually after trying many ways and reading many books I came upon a book that really helped me.  It was called The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley & William Sears.  It really helped me realize what I was doing wrong and what I could try to help them sleep happily on their own.  This is not to say that they still don’t prefer me there, but they are ok with it now.  The book didn’t give a one size fits all answer, but gave many different ideas.  I compiled a few of them and came up with the solution that finally worked for me.

I explained to my kids that it was time for them to go to sleep on their own.  They were big enough.  With each of them, I waited until they really wanted something (I know bribery! but sometimes it helps them get motivated to start!).  I told them they were big enough to sleep on their own and what they wanted was for a big kid.  If they wanted that then they would need to learn to go to sleep on their own and if they did it for a week or two, they could get their toy they wanted (actually my daugher wanted a special Booster seat! ).

I told them that I would sit in a chair by their bed, but that they needed to shut their eyes and go to sleep.  Everynight I moved the chair a little farther from their bed until eventually I was in the hall.  Admitably-I am STILL in the hall (daughter is not there yet), but they lay down and go to sleep on their own, so I am happy with that!!

Let me know how you solved your sleep problems with your kids, or what you did to prevent those problems.  If you are having difficulty still let me know maybe we can brainstorm ideas!!

Here’s to 8 hours sleep one day!!