Five Tips on Getting Your Child to Bed

Is getting your child to bed a struggle? Do you dread when bedtime comes around? Stop the dread. Here are some tips on how to get your child to go to bed...without a struggle.

1. A bedtime routine. Children need routine. Routine makes them feel safe and secure. By creating a bedtime routine, your child will feel safe and secure while heading to bed. Make sure you set a specific time to start getting ready for bed and make sure it is early enough so that they get to bed at the right time every evening. Create a routine that they will enjoy. Maybe a glass of milk with a cookie, getting their pajamas on, brushing their teeth, getting their stuffed animals all set up for bed, and reading them a story. They will even enjoy it more if you take an active part in the bedtime routine. Help set up her animals, and read the story with animation. This way they will look forward to their bedtime routine.

2. Calming activities. About an hour before bedtime rolls around, get the kids involved in calming activities. Puzzles, board games, crafts, any activity that is quiet and calm. Don't allow the kids play pirates right before bedtime or play video games. You don't want their adrenaline to be pumping as they head off to bed. Maybe you could use this time to talk over what the day was like for them. This will calm their minds as well as their little bodies.

3. Here's a little trick if monsters are keeping them up at night. Get a can of compressed air (the kind you use to dust the computer keys) and get a white sticker label. Write the words, "Monster Away" on the label and stick it on the can. Before your child goes to bed, tell him or her that you are spraying the monster spray in their room to get rid of any 'monsters'. You see, no matter how many times you tell a child that there are no monsters, they won't believe you. Using the spray plays on their imagination lets them know the spray keeps monsters away. Just make sure to keep the monster spray in your room. Little kids should not be playing with compressed air.

4. Music or a fan. When our daughter was little, we put a CD player in her room and bought some calming lullabies as well as a music fairy guided sleep for children CD. These CD's worked wonders. She liked having some kind of sound in her room and we would let the music play until we went in to check her before we went to bed. You can also place a small fan in their room for some of the white noise. Just having a soothing sound helps a young child to go to sleep.

5. Make sure their bed is comfortable and they are warm. You want them to look forward to going to bed. By putting extra comfort in their bed, they will want to be in their bed. Make sure their pajamas aren't constricting and make sure they are warm enough. You can put a child in cooler pajamas so that they can snuggle into their covers to get warm. Being warm makes a little body relax. Being relaxed will get a little one to sleep much easier. Let them have stuffed animals in the bed as long as they don't play with them. Tuck in the animals just like you tuck in your little one. Make a remark how comfortable and cozy their bed feels for their stuffed animals. Fluff their pillows and tell them to get cozy. You want them to love their bed.

So try one or all of these tips and you will have an easier time getting your little one to bed.