and after she’s quiet for a few minutes, you go back to bed.- Jim, age four. Jim has been getting up several times a night.
He won’t go back to bed by himself and starts making a fuss if
you tell him to. You can’t tell if he’s frightened or if it’s
something else. If you take him to his room, he cries or starts
yelling when you try to leave. He says he wants to sleep with
you. You know he’s not sick—he just had a physical.
This situation is more difficult, obviously, than the first two
examples. You don’t want Jim to wake everyone in the house, but you
don’t like the idea of giving in to his testing either. What should you
do?
When Jim appears at your bedside, you escort him to the bathroom
first—no lights, no talking. He does need to urinate. Then you take
him back to his room, put him in bed, and tuck him in. You know
he’ll probably cry if you try to leave, so before he has a chance to
even get upset, get a chair, park yourself by the bed, and wait until he
goes back to sleep. If you’ve done the main things right—such as no
lights and no arguing—your son should still be somewhat sleepy.
Though this routine is not fun, you soon find that the strategy is
working. Jim is going right back to sleep.
With some kids this procedure must be repeated several times a
night for several weeks before the child starts sleeping through, so
brace yourself. Of all the families I’ve seen in my practice, the record
for the most times getting up in one night is seventeen! This case
involved a three-year-old girl, and we got her to sleep through the
night in two months.
If you think you’ll have to sit by the bed after tucking your child
back in during the night, get your chair ready beforehand. Then, after
a week or so of using this procedure, gradually start positioning the
chair farther from the bed.
Now let’s take a look at Real-Life Story 3. In The Case of Bedlam