3 Year Old With Odd Sleep Patterns

[doolok]

We are at our wits end.

My wife and I have a 3 year old who just won't sleep. Ok, I say this, but her sleeping pattern is seriously wrong. Here is a quick synopsis of an average day, and we are not over-exaggerating. This is exactly how it is..

1pm-wakes up
7pm-passes out
11pm-wakes up
8am-passes out

This is daily! She's been like this since she was 1, and we've tried everything her pediatrician has recommended. Her tonsils and adenoids were removed at 2. We even feel we've stooped low as to try melatonin. Nothing is working. We can punish her all night long, but she never passes out. We've had her tested for sleep apnea, but they couldn't test her because she wouldn't go to sleep! We've tried reading book after book on behavior and sleeping in toddlers, and none of that worked. We've tried a gate, but the problem with that is she has a sister in the same room, so of course they're both up!

Our problem is also safety. Being a toddler, we're afraid we're going to wake up one morning and she's going to either be into something she shouldn't be (besides the fridge) or something bad may happen (stove, heater, ect).

Please help. We've asked friends and other doctors and we're not getting anywhere.

We don't know what to do...

[JoeJoe]

Not sure if you have tried it or not but maybing forcing her to stay awake past 7pm. Try and switch her sleep pattern. We had the same problem with my son when he was a newborn and we felt so bad but as soon as we saw him starting to get tired and just want to lay down to go to sleep we started doing what ever we had to do to keep him up. Anything from giving him a bath to going outside to play. It took some time but we eventually fixed the problem for the most part. He now goes to bed any where from 10-11pm and will wake up any where from 3-4 am and get in the bed with us. But he goes back to sleep and doesn't get up till about 8 am. Now we are trying to break the habit of sleeping with us. Hope this helps a little and I hope you and your wife get some sleep in the near future

[C Kouns]

We are begging for help with a 3 year old who simply refuses to go to sleep!!!!

Our routine begins around 8:00 - 8:30 pm when we tell him he can watch one more show and then it is "night night" time. We even make him repeat that he understands after the show he is going down for the night. After his show we go to his room and will read a book or lay with him, again, explaing to him that he is down for the night.

That is when the fun begins! He will come out and ask questions. He will come out and state facts like "before we play with outher toys we put up our toys". He will come out and just flat say I am not going to sleep! We've tried putting him in time out for not staying in his room. We've tried taking away his toys in his room. We've tried explaining that he needs to sleep to have energy in his belly for pre-school! Nothing works. If we are lucky he will fall asleep between midnight and 1:00am. Since he gets up every morning between 8:30-9:00am to go to his big boys school we are becoming worried that his development is going to be slowed from lack of sleep.

If anyone can offer some suggestions we will be glad to take them... we are at the end of the rope!

Thanks,
Chris