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As a young Mom I have found that a routine has helped my child fall asleep. Our routine for going to bed is quite simple, both my husband and I play with our daughter for about 45 minutes followed by some milk and sitting and watching a short show to calm her down. Most commonly parents like to use a bath as a night time routine.

First, you should determine a time range that you would like your child to fall asleep. I choose 8:30pm to 9:30pm. Sometimes things may not go as planned or you are out so having a range helps you to stick to it. My husband also gets home from work sometimes around this time. So, for us, this helps because if he is just getting home at 8pm then she can spend sometime with him for the day rather than going to bed and not have seen him at all.

Second, identify how you can get the most use out of this time. If your child is older and plays out side all day it may be a great idea to start out with a nice warm bath to calm them down. Then you can follow that with milk and cookies or something a little healthier.This maybe a great time for them to finish dinner if they didn't want to eat. My toddler as always slept better with a full tummy.

So after we have our fun and a full tummy we give kisses. Well, at least ask for them. My toddler is now out of the crib and into a toddler bed. So the only trouble that I am running into is that she likes to get out of bed and stay up. If your child starts to cry best things is to ignore them most likely all they want is the attention.

After about two days of ignoring our daughter's cries about going to bed she stopped. So I simply put a gate up in her doorway. If she is not tired yet she gets out of bed and quietly plays with her toys and when she is ready she climbs into bed and falls asleep. My rule of thumb for time to go to bed or nap time is you can play but you have to be quite about it. My best advice is to find out what makes your child tired.

Some children get sleepy watching a short movie. Just make sure you turn the TV off before you go to bed as the low light from the TV can ruin a child's eyes. A routine may take some trial and error before you get it right.

Learn more about this author, Erica Smith.
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