You can avoid nightly battles by anticipating needs, setting and enforcing rules, and letting your child have a
say in her bedtime routine.
No single intervention can prevent your child from having nightmares, but making
changes in her bedtime routine may increase the likelihood of a restful night for you and your child.
Your child can't choose when to go to bed, but you can let him have some
power in his bedtime routine by letting him have a choice over which pajamas to wear and which books to read, etc..
You can still do all of those things, just move them to a little
earlier in your bedtime routine and put your baby down in his crib while he is drowsy but still awake.
We typically have the sitter come around 7:30 p.m., so she can take
part in the bedtime routine and wouldn't be a total stranger if she needed to go into our daughter's room before we return home.
This was a sure sign she still had some energy ready from the rest of the day, need for fun play and connection go with the play, let her laugh and play (and factor in time for
that in the bedtime routine, was a sure fire way to help her sleep more deeply (laughter releases melatonin the hormone responsible for sleep), and children sleep better when they feel closely connected to us.
The suggestions so far have been for items to include
in a bedtime routine.
Make one of his special stuffed animals his «protector» and include
it in his bedtime routine.
In the bedtime routine the PAT is, of course, story time.