Establishing a comfortable and calm bedtime routine as well as cutting off child protests to sleep can assist in developing good sleeping habits for any child. At this stage when your child is a toddler, she has to get used to nodding off on her own, sleeping on her bed throughout the entire night. But there will be a lot of effort needed to make the child adapt to a habit of going to sleep on her own without resisting or being forced. This will take some step by step process to make the child get used to it. But before the child can become accustomed to such situation, there will be obvious resistance behaviors of children at such age. Such behaviors, if continues for some time become a nightmare for the caretaker and a real health problem for the toddler.

Don't give up against excuses
Toddlers are generally sleep resisters, with all types of excuses for not willing to retire to bed. They can make bedtime a real battlefield for several reasons. They can cite such reasons as darkness or night time fears, while at other times they claim they have other problems like teething, sleep apnea, ear diseases. The toddler can still develop a fondness of saying “no”, hence become resistant to almost everything they are told. A toddler would resist retiring to bed when they have the notion of not wanting to miss out on the fun and the warm company the other members are enjoying when they are all alone in their boring beds. Fighting off sleep is part and parcel of the toddler’s effort to hang on and have some control over their lives as they continue to spring up. Despite the child’s behavior and resistance to your appeals, you as the caretaker should not just give in like that.

Have patience
Assisting the young ones to establish a healthy sleep behavior demands patience coupled with some little ingenuity.  But understanding the road map of the rough and tough terrain waiting ahead with some necessary hints regarding getting the young ones to bed in time and stick to that would assist the entire family to enjoy their sleep ever after. Such approach would also mean a healthy sleeping patterns for the toddler.

Make sure the child has a good sleep
Stopping the battles brought about by bedtime issues as well as seeing to it that the young ones achieves sufficient sleep at night requires more sanity that the one the caretaker have. A part from making the toddler feel more comfortable to be around, the comfortable sleep for the child would assist her to become more focused especially when she is learning or playing. This would also assist in preventing fatigue which is usually caused by falls and trips and increase the child’s immune system.

Accompany your child before bed time
On average, such a child would need about 11-13 hours of sleep every day, including the afternoon nap. But if leading the toddler to go to bed can be a bad idea, it would be convenient to make it appear as if it is her own idea. This can be achieved by letting the toddler gain some control over her bedtime routine. As the care giver, you should let the toddler have chance to select stuff to play around with and accompany her in the play. In addition to this, you should aid her to move around, thus make her feel accompanied all the time. Such would help her to corporate when time for going to sleep comes. It is good to be sure on the decisions you will make regarding such points before its time for sleeping. The toddler would feel sidelined if you as the caregiver spend your time eating ice cream, watching movies or even playing with her toys while she is all alone in her boring bed. Your favorite stuff will have to venture in, in the middle of everything. It is tough to create a smooth transition from action-packed daily routine to her dreamland, so you will have to assist the toddler to unwind with a soothing and a calm routine for bedtime.

Do few activities to relax the child
It would be a good practice to set a tone with a nice conversation regarding the day’s activities as well as a warm sweet shower. While keeping the lights dim, give a soothing massage with some lotion a trial. Sing to her some sweet lullaby songs while giving her a warm kiss on the pecks. This should happen as you hold her warmly. Such an approach would help her feel that she is not all left alone or forced to something she doesn’t want. In case you hear some pitter-patter of her little feet, then you ought to return to her bed, this time quietly and calm, although this might take longer than expected but would make her lose the battles. In times the child would be asking or indicating to you that stay with her on her bed, you will have to take extra time as you tuck her in.

Create an affirmative environment
As you read stories for the toddler, make sure you include kisses and snuggles. Always include a calm and sweet talk before you turn off the lights. Remember not to ever pull an argument concerning your not staying up with her. You ought to say goodnight to her and make sure that you can hear her from your room so that you can always attend to her when she needs you. This would help in avoiding a separation anxiety. Before leaving her room, there is always a need to ensure that you have set the night-light. Set a limit time on how many times you will return to her bed and set the room conditions as per her demands in order to make her much more comfortable. As time goes on, these visits will become short and boring, with no singing, cuddling or chatting, this would make the toddler realize that you are no longer budging, hence her calling for encore will come to an end. The more she gets used to the situation, the more she will be willing to go to bed on her own.