Terrible 2's

[lostmum]

Hey all just wondering if anyone has any ideas on a problem we r having. Our 2 and half year old daughter is waking up in the middle of the nite and destroying the house, she gets into the fridge and mashes food into all the carpets and walls but doesnt eat it, she just makes a huge mess. She does it at 5 in the morning too and if we dont hear her when she gets up god help us the house is trashed. We thought it was cos she was still hungry but she doesnt eat the food. If she can get into anything she will get into it like hair products , paper, wallets and etc. I am lost and dont know what to do we bought gates but she just gets a chair and climbs over. Any one got any ideas ??????

[Daddy*Day*Care]

oh dear.....our son of teh same age started to do something similar recently....

My wife read a book that suggested tieing rope to the door handle, then tieing it off to another door handle, so the door will open enough for your child to see out, but not enough for you child to get out!

We are doing it at the moment. He tries to get out....has a big tantrum....then gives up and goes back to bed. Apparently kids will differ, but after about 2 weeks they won't bother getting up till morning and you can get rid of the rope.

We are hoping anyway!

Good luck with it!

Ant.

[lostmum]

We actually tried that and our daughter taught us for locker her in, she pulled her nappy off and ripped it into shreds all thru her room, she then pushed on her security screen until it came out and promptly fell out the window. We tried vaseline on the door handle so she couldnt get out aswell but that didnt work, it is frustrating cos if she stays at her grandparents house she doesnt do it. :S

[Daddy*Day*Care]

yea we have had the 'take off the nappy trick' too.......frustrating isn't it!!!!

Your situation sounds more difficult than ours...I feel your pain! She must be a very determined little lady......

Ant.

[lostmum]

i actually dont think determined is the word lol how long does ur son cry for b4 he goes back to sleep , and how did u cope with the no nappy trick

[Taylor & Lachlans Mummy]

I have been dealing with the nappy trick for months & my sil is also dealing with it with her daughter. We have both found tape is the only way to keep the nappy on as both of our daughters have also finger & camo painted. You need electrical tape wrapped around the top of the nappy where the tabs are so it covers it.
I hope this works for you

[lostmum]

i never thought of tape, thank you !!! u could b a life saver

[Ivy-Rose]

Hello there,
I was reading your problems. My children haven't gone to that extent but I guess to they never had the option. I child proofed my house and that meant that there was very little they could get into and lots that they were allowed too.
You can get safety locks for fridges, washing machines, toilets, just about anything. Make sure everything is out of reach or locked if it is at there height.
It sounds like a pain to do but it is alot easier than cleaning the mess. Samuel use to get out of bed regularly in the middle of the night and I was fine with it as there was nothing he could hurt himself on or make a mess with he would do what ever and head back to bed and he grew out of it after awhile. Believe me it was much easier to reorganise my shampoo and disinfectant and lock the fridge than it was to clean the mess, I slept better to knowing everything was ok. The other thing we did was put a barrier up at the kitchen door so he couldn't get in.
Well good luck and I hope you find something that works for you.
Emma

[lostmum]

i actually have child locks on all my cupboards, and the one i had on the fridge lasted all of 2 days, she just kept pulling on it and it broke. I went and bought another one and it did the same thing.My dad is actually talking about putting a deadbolt on the door now. :S

[Hokey Pokey]

Oh Dear :rolleyes:

Hmmm how about buying a gate and setting it up in the childs doorway so they can not escape... if they climb it then put say one on top of the other, enough so you can slide the top one up and climb over the bottom?

That way when they wake and can't get out they can either go back to bed with bordeom, play in their room and eventually will realise there is no need to wake up!

Hope that helps.

[Daddy*Day*Care]

i actually dont think determined is the word lol how long does ur son cry for b4 he goes back to sleep , and how did u cope with the no nappy trick

Our son will carry on for 10 minutes (ish) before thinking 'stuff it, bed and sleep is better than this' lol

Sometimes my wife or myself will go in and tell him to settle and its night time and big boys sleep at night etc. He gets back into bed and goes to sleep most of the time with this encouragement.

Re: The nappy trick..... we put his nappy on backwards, then put underpants over it, then put him in these pyjamas that are like a sleeping bag, except they have legs and are pretty light weight. We put it on and zipped it up backwards, so the zip is at the back.... ;) No one could escape that one! It worked too! Now we dont have to do all that, because the phase has passed (hopefully)

Ant.

[cwsmum]

Maybe u could try replacing the bedroom door with one that has been cut in half, so you can see in to check on the child without opening the door, put the handle on the door with the lock button on the outside so the child cannot open it, but u can still get in quickly if u need to.

[CharlottenJessica'smum]

I feel your pain!!! My 2 1/2 year old has never slept through the night. Since she has been in her "big girl bed" my husband and I have had to be very inventive to keep her in her room at night. The only solution that has worked so far is to install a fly screen, upside down on the outside of her door. When she opens her door she is greeted by the fly screen which she cannot open as the handle is too high. I now have an equally adventures one year old following in her big sisters foot steps!!! Who needs sleep?

[Daddy*Day*Care]

gee it feels good to know that 'we are not alone'. :D

[willsmum]

We took off the solid bedroom door and put a wire security door there so they can hear what is happening and see out but not get out, also good for fresh air - actually it was to keep the cat out, but it would work for your problem too.

[lostmum]

Ok i think i give up. we tried the 2 gates on top of each other and it seemed to b working and we went to bed thinking we gonna have a good nite. BUT at 1.45 we heard a big bang outside and when we went to have a look she had knocked out the security screen on her window and she was trying to climbing out :S omg will it ever end ???

[Jake & Sarah's mum]

what a nightmare... Luckily, I've never suffered from any of this - my kids have been pretty good, I should be more grateful and stop *****ing about them so much!!

Anyway... isn't there something the doctors could give you to help her sleep a bit heavier, I don't know, but perhaps there's something you can give her until she gets back into the habit of sleeping through?

If not...how about brandy????? !!!!!!!

[Daddy*Day*Care]

a few years back, before my wife and I had kids, our neighbours used to give their son a bottle of milk, with HORLICKS mixed into it, at night.

We could not understand why you would want to give a 1-2 year old boy Horlicks?????........now we understand ;) Maybe something like this is an option to you?

[mumof2girls]

Wow!
I have never had this problem with my girls (thankfully!)

It sounds like your daughter is wanting attention and this is her way of getting it! What do you do when you get up to this mess? Do you make her help tidy it up? this may one way of stopping her getting into things and making a mess. She is at an age where she knows what she is doing and by making her tidy up her mess then it may help especially if there are things she likes to do eg: tv shows, going to playgroup/playground etc. Tell her that it won't happen until her mess is cleaned up.

[mirella]

hi

my daughter gets up in the middle of the night as well and she too is is 2½, she just goes back to sleep in the lounge (fold out sofa kids lounge), i have locks on most things the only thing she gets into is my freezer where i used to keep icecream and u would find her at 6.00 in the morning eating one, until i have now moved them to my fridge in the garage. she has taken out the 3 litre milk before but that was my fault for not locking the fridge. good luck. hope to hear how it goes.

[clairbear]

Hi everyone, sorry to hear that you are going through hell wuth sleep! I don't know how you function normally...I would be the crankiest ***** out if my sleep were interrupted night after night! Makes me realize I haven't got it too bad ...my almost two year old has been an angel with sleep up until now, but lately we've had a few "bad" nights and I feel like we may be in for a change! I was emailing a friend overseas and mentioned it....asked if her two and a half year old had any sleep dramas. She said he had done this at around two......become unsettled at night time, waking up, causing a commotion etc., and she ended up going to a naturopath who suggested putting a few drops (prob should check with a naturopath for exact dose, some pharmacies have free advice in the health section) of essential mandarin oil in water (bottle or cup) that toddler usually has before bed each night. My friend tried it and it worked a treat getting him back into the habit of sleeping peacefully through the night. I'm definitely gonna check it out! :)