3 1/2 yr old sleep help

[Lacv11]

My daughter Danielle has not been a good nt sleeper since she was born, despite many methods, including cio throughout her 3 1/2 yrs. There have been chunks of time where she has slept 9-16 mo. 2 1/2 -3. Since we moved she adapted abt a month later and slept, but since she's been sick off and on when she began preschool that has disrupted her schedule.

I guess my question is, now that they are at an age where they have nightmares, how can I eliminate what appears to be a habit at this pt.? I had a long talk w/her (as long as you can have with a child this age) and explained that we all need our sleep and that she needs to try and go bk to sleep like a big girl and not call mommy and daddy in the middle of the nt. This worked for 2 nts and then she was up last nt wanting to sit in the rocker w/me, b/c she had a bad dream. This is not always the case; that she wants to sit in the rocker, sometimes it is just to have her blkt put bk on. I guess I fear that this problem is going to be eternal and I will never have a consistent full nts sleep, and I don't want to continue reinforcing the habit if I can help it, I'm just not sure what to do abt it. She seems a little old to be doing cio, but maybe not? Btw her sister sleeps like a champ.

Any and all suggestions, been there done that's, are welcome.

Thanks,

[Steph211]

That's a tough situation. My son has had on and off sleep issues throughout his toddler years. He's four now and we definitely seem to be in a good place. I think you're going to have to ride this out a bit, but one suggestion I have is to do a chart or some sort of incentive to staying in her room at night. Maybe in the morning she can watch a show of her choice or choose something special for b'fast or have 3 m&ms or something. If it works you then have to deal with weaning them off the reward, but I started switching it up to say 3 nights in a row would get a treat instead of just 1.

Another option which we had more success with was to lead ds back to bed without looking or talking to him. Just put him back in his bed and leave (usually the first time I'd give him a kiss too, but not after that). That way he's not getting any "reward" for getting up in the night like getting cuddled or rocked or getting parental interaction. It's less harsh (and noisy!) than cio, and we found it pretty effective.

Good luck. I hope this is just a short phase for your daughter! :)