How do you get a wide awake toddler to go to bed?

celiabwatson

Ever since the time change our son has been going to bed later and later. He's not tired or cranky. He'll happily play until 9 or 10 o'clock. If I try to get him to go to sleep he grins at me and squirms away. We turn off all the lights and play lullabies and he still just goes on playing in the dark. Any suggestions?

LoveEeyore

Play harder during the day.  Wake him from nap earlier.  Skip nap a few days.  Stick to proteins and veggies at dinner.  Let him play. 

Could be he's about to have a language burst.  One of mine isn't talking yet, but the other two tend to have sleep pattern changes right before a language burst.  DD#1, if I put her to bed at 7:30, she chatters for 15 minutes.  If life interferes and she doesn't get to bed until closser to 8, she will play and chatter for 60-90 minutes! 

Maybe play with his window for bedtime. 

Good luck!  I personally would change naptime first.  Slowly change it to earlier, but as long as he is getting enough total sleep, I may not do anything aat all!

 

NCMichelle

I've found that her routine in the evening is very important.  If we do something out of order or just a little later, we're screwed.  We do dinner at 6:30, books, milk in her sippy, bath and bed.

celiabwatson

All great ideas and we are definitely working on adjusting naptime. He's in the middle of transitioning from 2 to 1 and we just can't seem to get the timing right.

Follow up question: Anything I can do in the moment to help him go to sleep or do I just have to ride it out and hope it's better the next day?