Toddler Alarm Clock?

[MotoMommaNH]

Who out there has used one successfully or not?

Suddenly my 27 month old sleeper of 12 hour nights is waking at 4-430am regularly.
He goes to bed every night around 7ish and typically has a nap at daycare that is 1-2 hours. He used to wake up at 6 am which was perfect!

Nothing has changed recently...a few months ago he started in his big boy bed ( a twin) and he's always had a gate across his door to his room to prevent him roaming the house at night/early morning. I've tried everything from getting him to bed earlier or keeping him up later. Even days where he skips a nap by choice he still goes to bed and wakes up the next morning between 4-430am. He does the same thing every morning, he goes to his gate and bangs it and yells "MOOOOOOMMYY" or "DAAADDDYYYYY" until we get up and let him sit on the couch and eat his breakfast/watch a show.

A friend on Facebook linked me to this Goodnite Lite for Toddlers. The idea is it's a light that looks like a moon at night and you set it to turn to a sun in order to let your toddler know it's time to get up. I have a hard time seeing my DS respond to this but who knows. Can you share your advice for my situation? I'm desperate at this point and want my good sleeping little boy back!!!

TIA ladies!

[Truckerswife]

My Aunt is using the night light thing with her almost 4 year old and it has worked very well for her

[my2sweets]

I bought a $12 timer from home depot and plugged a night light into it. I used it for naps/quiet time and bedtime. Worked wonderfully and was cheap.

[clnapoli]

We started using the toddler clocks when my son was about 34 months and it has worked really well for us. I'd recommend it

[MotoMommaNH]

Originally Posted by clnapoli We started using the toddler clocks when my son was about 34 months and it has worked really well for us. I'd recommend it

Do you think you could have started earlier with it for your LO? I am just wondering if he will 'get it'.
I'm sure there's some kind of training period to it as well. Any 'best practices' you could share?

I didn't even THINK of a timer! That's a much cheaper alternative I'm sure!

[aaiya]

We have a MyTot Clock. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS.../chrisficti-20

It was spendy (like $50...almost purchased from the manufacturer but then didn't complete the sale...a few days later started getting emails that made it cheaper)... but we like it. It can play stories and songs with cartridges but we don't use those features AT ALL. It automatically turns blue when it's bed time and yellow again when it's ok to wake up (and has an option for nap time and "reward" and "time out" which we also don't really use because we don't do time out around here). We got it when DS was about 2. At first he didn't really get it but by 3 he loved it. It especially made bedtimes easier for us ("My clock is Blue!") because then WE weren't the ones imposing bedtime...the clock was. And when he tries to get up and it's not time to get up yet, we just ask him, "Is your clock yellow?" Or sometimes he'll come find us and tell us, "My clock is yellow!" The blue light at night is also bright enough to be a night light (a little too bright for me personally, but DS seems to like it).

[EmilytheStrange]

I love love love my toddler clock and I recommend the concept to everyone.

We got one when she was 25months. It took about 2 weeks and then her sleep was back to normal.

I don't think any of the ones on the market are better than the others - we have the one with the little girl who sleeps and rides a scooter. A friend of mine has the one with the monkey that opens and shuts their eyes. The MyTotClock mentioned above also has great success stories.

but I do highly recommend this concept. It makes it so much more gentle on them. You're not 'not reacting' to them, but you are taking the focus off of seeing mom and dad and onto looking at the clock to see if it's okay to be up or if it's time to be sleeping. It gives them another security item to help them ascertain what they should be doing.

[SamanthaSews]

Subbing. I've been wondering the same thing about toddler clocks. My ds is a super early riser so I know exactly how you feel.

Sent from my iPhone using DS Forum

[MIpiccolo44]

I love ours too, we use it for naps and night time, DS is almost 2.5 but we got it for his birthday - he (unfortunately) won't really go back to sleep if he wakes up early, but he knows I'm not coming to get him until "the bunny wakes up". I can hear him in there talking or singing to himself, but he doesn't start yelling "I need my mommy" until the bunny is awake, so I don't feel bad ignoring him! He knows I'm not coming before the bunny wakes up, and he knows that I will come once the bunny is awake, so I think it's okay developmentally.

[SaraElise]

We have this one http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS.../chrisficti-20

my kids love it, but unfortunately when we were first trying to implement it, my then 3 year old thought it was hilarious to get out of bed and unplug it then yell for me to come in and fix it. The clock resets and you have to reset the time and the alarm every time it's unplugged so it quickly became a very very annoying game and we stopped using it.

Now that they are a little older (4 and 5) I'm thinking of getting it back out again since they get really confused with the sun coming up so much later in the winter.

I would definitely put it in a place there they couldn't have access to the plug (which we didn't have at the time)