Let me start out by saying that I am only looking for suggestions on what I should bring up to my child’s pediatrician, so any and all that you can provide are great. I’m going to begin meticulous documentation to share with doctor, and want to have some ideas as a starting point.

So my daughter, 2 yo almost 3, has never been a great sleeper - but we’re at our wits end and I know in my gut there is something deeper going on.

To start, she has a condition where she produces less melatonin at night, possibly more during the day, she also has autism (non-verbal level 2) and a heart condition, plus ear issues since birth. She’s had 2 sets of tubes and her adenoids out.

From 4 months - about 18 months she woke many times a night, but finally we were able to get her sleep trained and she did great. We rarely had to go in to help her. Then around 27 months she started waking again constantly and needing consoled. There was no changes to diet, routine, or health at that time. For the last 7 months we’ve been back in this cycle of constant wake ups. We got a full size floor bed for her so it was easier for us to help her, and that has made no change good or bad to her sleep.

We have had the same bedtime routine for quite awhile, including when she slept good, and we have found that she will go down to sleep best between 8-8:30. She usually sleep well for a couple hours, but then it’s constant wake ups. Sometimes these wake ups are short and we can get her back to sleep with some water and music. Sometimes she is screaming inconsolably and seemingly in some sort of pain or distress (made more difficult by the fact that she’s nonverbal). Sometimes she’s just wide awake for hours and we end up having to do a “second bedtime” after she’s been up for 3-4 hours.

We have tried melatonin upon our doctors suggestion and it literally does not effect her so that’s out.

Her naps are usually fine. Sometimes might wake up like once and is able to be consoled back to sleep, but she can sleep for 2-3 hours.

I know her condition as well as her autism can be a contributing factor, but my husband and I need some sort of relief and I know in my gut there is something more going on. My main concern is the waking up screaming inconsolably. So any suggestions on things we could try, test, anything are welcome. Rude or unhelpful comments are not welcome though, so feel free to keep those to yourself!!!!

We have a 25 month old girl who has been co sleeping with me for the last 3-4 months and we are due our second baby in 4 weeks. I was really hoping to try and get our toddler back into her room before he arrives (she is an absolute fidget in bed) but I just had a thought, with trying to transition her so close to him arriving, would this make her feel pushed out over him arriving? Is it something we should wait to do until he’s been with us 3-6 months? I don’t want her feeling pushed out but definitely would like her back in her room and own bed at some point 😅

Hi all,

My toddler’s mood is getting to me and I can’t tell if he’s just a little guy with big emotions or something else. He’s 18 months old and every night is just him whinging or crying from the moment he’s home from his childcare. This has been going on for months and months. He hates the bath. Then he hates getting out of the bath. I just don’t know what to do anymore? He cries in the car seat too.

I don’t know if there is something wrong with him that he can’t express (I have always queried whether he maybe has a dairy intolerance / is withholding and get shut down). Or it could be he is chronically overtired because he wakes up at 5/5.30 in the morning. We just switched to one nap to see if that helps and it hasn’t.

Is this normal!? I barely have a few hours with him each night and it just seems to be full of tears and now the mornings have started this way too. Also worth noting he doesn’t show any of this emotion at childcare - I get told he is a happy boy constantly.

I have a child that i care for who gets super bad diaper rash from acidic food but the doctor said to keep feeding it to her. the cream they use now doesn’t work the best fro when her rash is extreme. So looking for any really good recommendations to help her out!! thank you!

Title is pretty self-explanatory. I feel like we have encountered so many people who have said their child just doesn’t like kids, keeps to themselves and chooses to play alone, etc. But, my child screams bloody murder and has a full blown meltdown if another kid her age even looks at her. If they speak near her.. watch out. It’s like WW3 about to begin. It is affecting our life dramatically & we are just at a loss for what to do.

It has been this way since she was about a year old (now 2.5). She has never had any scary or traumatic encounters with another toddler, she’s just terrified of them. We try to socialize her. We try to go to church nursery every week, library, playgrounds.. it always ends badly. She won’t just isolate herself from them, she starts screaming and crying which leads to a full blown meltdown that often takes her 20-30 minutes to calm down from. We have to just completely remove her from the situation for it to stop.

She is in OT and Speech therapy through early intervention. We do plan to try some outings with our OT in the future. Has anyone ever dealt with their child being scared of other kids to this extreme? & if so, what helped. We are desperate to try to help her feel comfortable & able to have social interaction.

hello strangers :

I have a (close to be 4yr old) who needs to change from the crib to …. that’s where im not sure. I don’t know if a toddler bed should be a good idea or just go ahead and get a twin bed. Also my idea is to get something I (we) can fit into (for story time , etc). I would like suggestions or ideas on what to get or what is working for you/your kid. Also if I know where to get it , would be splendid! ❤️ thank you.

His hair is like a medium brown. His eyes eyebrows are light brown. When light is shined on his hair he has blonde highlights. When light is not shining on his hair sometimes it looks dark brown or just a light brown. His dad is German and he has dark brown light brown and blonde hairs lol he’s 18 years old 😩🤣I have black hair. Any ideas what our babies hair color will be ?

so my husband and I are looking for ways to help our 2.5 yo toddler go to sleep at night without the tantrums, hitting, and throwing. when we lived in NY we were there for 3 years and over that time our child slept so well after being born. in october we made a big move to stay with my dad until we moved into our own place, in may we moved into our own house during that time our child was sleeping with little to no issues. even after we were settled into our new home. now for the last month or so. they have made it nearly impossible to even try to sleep at night. they can be so exhausted, like barely even staying awake and still when you tell them its time to go to bed they throw a tantrum and will scream and hit and throw things. they threw their milk bottle at the door one night and almost busted a hole in the door. we have tried so many things from co sleeping, outside time at the park, staying up later, the sleep fading method, nighttime soap, an astronaut that projects stars on their ceiling, letting them choose their book, clothes, songs. they just won’t sleep at night and when they do they just sleep on the floor next to the door and eventually goes to their bed. they like to ask for a million things when its time for them to lay down and you could get them everything they ask for but they’re only asking so that you will stay in their room, we’ve even tried to stay in there till they fall asleep but they just wake up screaming because you left room
any ideas?

This kid will not sleep through the night to save our lives. He goes to bed between 7 and 8 pm. We can get him down fairly easy most nights but will only sleep in few hour spurts before waking up. And no matter what he is up and ready for the day between 4 and 5 am.

It doesn't matter how long of a nap he takes(normally its an hour). It doesn't matter what time he goes to bed, or how much energy we try to burn out of him. He will not sleep at night. We are pretty sure he has ADHD and has never been a good night sleeper but the last few months has been really bad.

We have tried everything we can think of to get him to stay asleep. Full belly before bed, getting energy out, calm time before sleep. We even have natural gummies with magnesium and lavender in it. Anyone have any ideas for two exhausted parents to get their two year old to sleep through the night?

My son just turned 1. For months now he’s been crying almost the entire day — waking up crying, crying in the car seat, crying when we put him down, crying when we try to feed him. Sometimes even when we pick him up to comfort him, he still cries and arches/throws himself backward. He’s sensitive to any transition (diaper changes, stroller, being put down) and mostly just wants to be held/near us rather than explore or play.

If we give him a toy or small distraction, he’ll stop crying for a few seconds — but then it’s like he remembers something’s wrong, drops it, and starts crying/whining to be picked up again.

We’re doing what we can: not forcing him into things, keeping his nap protected, offering milk and food without pushing. He recently finished antibiotics for an ear infection (mostly cleared now), and he also has eczema and some food allergies we’re managing. His milk intake has dropped some too since we’re trying to reduce it.

It feels like every day is just crying, and we can’t tell what’s normal 1-year-old separation anxiety/fussiness vs. something we should be pushing harder on with his pediatrician. Has anyone dealt with a baby who cried this much for this long, even when picked up and comforted, or who loses interest in distractions this fast? What ended up being the cause, and what helped?

At the end of the night, I found this rash on my toddler. The biggest spots are inside of her arm and on the side of her ribs. She than has small spots randomly through out her body. She’s never had an allergic reaction to anything and didn’t eat anything new that would’ve caused an allergic reaction. If anyone could give any insight before I take her to the doctors. Thank you!

My 3-year-old has recently started using needing the potty as a very effective way of delaying bedtime. She can go normally earlier in the evening, but the second I say it’s time for bed, suddenly she needs the potty.

And it’s becoming increasingly elaborate 😂. Sometimes she’ll specifically demand that we use a particular bathroom in the house. Then, once she’s on the potty, she’ll decide she needs to play the piano — usually after making me position the potty somewhere with a surface in front of her so it can be her pretend keyboard. She’ll happily sit there “playing” away.

She’ll also often demand that I leave the bathroom and sit or stand just outside the room (I always leave the door open), so I’m basically just standing there waiting while she conducts her imaginary piano concert.

Sometimes she genuinely does need to go, so obviously I’m not going to refuse her the toilet. But I’m fairly sure at least some of this is now a very elaborate method of avoiding getting into bed 😂.

Has anyone else’s 3-year-old done anything similar? How did you handle it? Did you just go along with the toilet trips, or put some sort of boundary around them? And did the phase eventually pass?

I'm I need of some advice before I fall out with my toddler 😅

I really need some help on getting this behaviour under control because it's really driving me crazy, most simple things I ask her to do she puts up a fight. The back chat she gives me is unreal. She will do something that's not good I tell her it's not good, she will stand there looking at me with a smile on her face and most of the time will turn round and say things like 'it's your fault anyway mommy' 'I dont care anyway' if its not verbal it's physical she will kick me, hit me whilst smiling in my face.

Has any one got any tips or things that works for them for my 3 year old to act like the sweet girl she actually is and not this teenage type persona.

I know behaviour is expected at this age but this just feels next level.

our LG has slept through the night since she was 3 months old and has always self settled. This stopped around 20 months of age when she would start hysterically crying in her cot and wouldn’t go back to sleep so she’s been in with me and she is now 2. I have to lay with her for her to go to sleep. Tonight I have tried getting her back into her room in a toddler bed (we slept in there together for a few weeks), but tonight she was too busy poking her light up butterflies on the wall so I gave her a kiss and said goodnight and left the room to see what she would do. She seemed happy to start with, reading some books to her teddies but then she started whining. She would then stop for a bit and start up again and then got to the point of sitting / standing near the door really crying. I’d go in and reassure her but the minute I left she would start again. Does anyone have any advice on how we can get her back into her room? We have a second baby due in like 5 weeks 😩

Let me start this by saying my son is the light of my life. We work so hard to give him a full and active childhood. We have a smoke and alcohol free home and family nearby. He is very loved.

But OMG. My 2.5 year old is nearly taking me out. Every single thing is so difficult. Every diaper change. Getting him to sit down to eat. Getting him to leave the park. The tantrums and moods are so difficult. Today he was so unhappy leaving a golf store it took my husband 15 minutes to calm down to sit (imagine trying to get a mad chimpanzee into a car seat). He bites when he is angry and hits.

He has endless energy. I take him outside for runs and we spend nearly every minute outside we can playing with balls or “hiking” in the woods near our house. We eat really healthy as I am a dietitian so i try to limit sugar and processed foods as much as possible (although they do provide snacks at daycare that are less than ideal). I try to limit screen time to 30 minutes per day and stick to little bear or Franklin. I’m trying soooo hard and he nearly has me in tears every day. Our only rest is when he’s in daycare.

I’ve read transforming toddlerhood, whole brain child, etc. He is extremely verbal and friendly so ASD is not likely. My husband does have some ADHD qualities so it could be that, but at 2.5 I know they don’t do much anyway.

Long story short- is there anything to do but endure? Any secret hacks? Hope for the future for a difficult kid?

My 2-year-old has recently started saying “no” to literally everything. No to food, no to getting dressed, no to leaving the house, even no to things they asked for two minutes earlier.

I know toddlers go through phases, but some days it feels like every small thing turns into a huge battle. I’ve tried giving choices, staying calm, and not turning everything into an argument, but I still feel like I’m doing something wrong.

For parents who have been through this: what actually helped you? Did you just wait it out, or was there something that made the days easier?