Help...my daughter turns into a demon at night.

[Elli21]

My daughter is 3 and she goes to bed at 7.

Recently..shes been waking up at about 10pm...once or twice a week..and she'll cry and when we tell her its bed time..she needs to go to sleep and to bed, she screams, kicks, punches, cries and generally throws a temper tantrum...
She gets herself so worked up that she wont listen to us, she'll just scream and she'll start to not breath properly.
Shes very strong when she is in this frame of mind...and nothing is good enough.
We cant give into her coz she'll then think its acceptable, but it wont end unless she gets her way.
It gets to a point when the neighbours must think we're really hurting her or something.

The last time it happened, it went on for 2 hours. I felt like i was going to pull my hair out. I ended up crying my eyes out coz i was just knackered and so close to losing my temper.

Anything i could try that you can think of?

 

[welshcakes79]

oh hun, i dont know what to advise sorry as i dont have a 3yr old but you sound like you could do with some

and i didnt want to read and run xxxx

 

[Elli21]

aww thanks hun..hugs r always apprieciated

 

[embo216]

Again no help, just wanted to say thinking of you, think theres a kinda similar thread on here which might help you too! I thought I had problems with lilys sleep but I guess I have it all to come.

 

[vicky]

why she wake up is it cos she is not tired or has she maybe had a bad dream?

 

[KarenLV]

On supernanny (the program) the nanny puts them to bed,tell them 'its bedtime,go to sleep' and close the door. If she gets up,do this again but no eye contact.Third time say nothing and just place her in her bed.Continue to do this until she sleeps,even if it takes 3hours.After 3 days of doing this she will get the message and stop doing this.Unfortunately you will have to suffer to get longterm results....You are on the right path.Be consistent and dont give in.

My sister has done this with her toddler and it works beautifully.

 

[sabby52]

Does she remember it the next morning??? I ask because Dan used to have night terrors, it started at about 3-31/2 and went on for about 5 months he would wake in the night kicking and screaming that would last for about 1-2 hours but the next morning when I would say Dan was a bold boy last night he would be baffled He would say I had a good sleep last night!!!! I spoke to the HV and she said it night terrors and he would grow out of it. He still has the odd one now and again but he never remembers.
Just a thought

 

[Munchkin]

Hope you manage to sort it soon.

 

[Elli21]

I used to suffer terrors in my sleep and i used to sleep walk etc but i dont think this is what it is. Ive told her that she was a naughty girl last night and she just looks at me and says yeah...
Im not sure why she wakes up

 

[bumpsx4]

is there any thing different happening in her life at the moment ?

i ask because i have been looking after my baby neice for a while now its only once a week but dd seems to act up more on that day/night than any other ..when we put her to bed she runs a muck in her room she continuely comes down stairs so we just take her hand and lead her back up to bed she gets the message after a few attemps we dont talk to her unless she has really got hystrerical(sp)then we give her a cuddle and try to calm her down

if we talk about monsters/spiders that also plays on her mind..!

 

[Mamafy]

have you tried putting her to bed later? an extra hour?

 

[Elli21]

Mamafy...we did but it was cause chaos everytime coz she wouldnt wanna go to bed at all. We used to keep her up until 8 to see if that helped for a week or so, but every single night she would create!! Its a shame coz that hour was lovely...

And we have moved house in the last 6 weeks but i dont think thats worrying her too much, she seems her normal happy self apart from these night times.

 

[bumpsx4]

has she all of her toys and familier things in her room with her ?
this could be upsetting for her we moved last yr and it unsettled my little one for a while.