Hi! I’m Dana Obleman, creator of The Sleep Sense Program.

This week’s question comes from Leanne who writes:

”Kayla is almost 15 months old and started walking two weeks ago. All of a sudden I can’t get her to go to sleep at bedtime. She was falling asleep on her own, but now that’s not working and I have to rock her. Should I move her to a toddler bed?”

Well Leanne, I would not move her to a toddler bed. Many parents think that if their child is having sleep difficulties in a crib that maybe a solution would be to move them to a toddler bed. I can guarantee you that nine times out of ten it just makes the situation worse. So keep her in her crib for sure.

Another thing to be aware of is often developmental milestones, like learning to walk, do disrupt sleep for a couple of weeks. It’s almost like the instinct to practice the new skill is so overwhelming that a toddler, just can’t settle themselves down enough to sleep well. What she’s doing is not uncommon. What you want to keep an eye on when these things happen is that you don’t make too many changes as far as your expectations go around bedtime. Meaning that if she starts putting up a bit of a fight and is having a difficult time settling down, you shouldn’t come in and start rocking her, because you haven’t been in the past.

I would stop rocking because you’re just going to back yourself into a corner with that one and it’ll be really tough to get her to go back to falling asleep on her own. Put her in her crib after her bedtime routine. If you want to stay with her until she falls asleep that’s perfectly fine, being supportive. Over the course of nine nights or so, move yourself gradually away from her so she’s comfortable and used to sleeping on her own again.

Often when a baby kind of falls off the track a little bit, it really only takes a nudge in the right direction and they’re back on track! It happens relatively quickly. Within a few nights my guess would be that she’ll be more accepting of going to sleep on her own again because she did know how; she has that skill already. She just probably needs a good reminder about what exactly she’s supposed to be doing.

So really, when these little aggressions come along it’s better to just really remain consistent and they often blow over within a few nights and keep an eye on what you’re doing and your response so that you don’t give her mixed messages.

Thank you very much Leanne, for your question and I hope that helps a bit.

Sleep well!