Create a peaceful bedtime routine for your child
By sticking to a routine every night you will increase your child's sense of safety.
All children build up emotions, small fears and upsets throughout their day, and as they close their eyes at night, those feelings can make them too anxious to settle into sleep.
If your child expresses their fears, listen to them and acknowledge their emotions, don’t ridicule or tell them to grow up.
Help your child work through their anxieties by roughhousing in a way that gets your child laughing for 10 minutes.
Don’t do this right before bed or it will wind your child up.
Doing this after dinner is a good time, followed by a bath and story to calm down.
Kids will settle better in a bed where they feel safe and secure.
So a toddler in a bed low to the ground or on a single mattress on the floor, with a partial rail, will help them relax.
By contrast, a bed high off the ground, or a double bed, can make kids restless.
Help your child learn to relax into sleep.
For some kids, music helps.
Others like to listen to guided meditation that teaches them to breathe deeply.
You can also teach your child to inhale deeply and then exhale slowly and fully, which calms the body’s alert systems.
It’s natural to get frustrated when you just want your child to sleep, but yelling at them will make them feel less safe and undermine your efforts to help them enjoy settling into their bed.
By sticking to a routine every night you will increase your child’s sense of safety.
- Information obtained from www.ahaparenting.com.
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