Hellobee Boards

We used a stoplight one starting right before he turned 2 if I am remembering correctly. For us it was just a way of explaining that he couldn't come out of his room until it turned green. It helped him to understand when wake up time was. But it didn't keep him in his bed. We keep his door closed and for a long time he would wake up earlier and babble to himself by his door until it turned green. It wasn't magic, but I think it definitely helped.

@Mrs. Sunshine: But I know people it did work for, it's really hit or miss I think. My son got the idea of the clock, but it did not keep him from wanting to come in our room. He would just yell at us "mom, the clock isn't green but I need breakfast now."

@Mrs. Sunshine: A lot of people don't like this answer because they say it feels wrong to them, but we have our son's door locked from the outside at night.

We always come to him if he is trying to come out, but once he got used to the fact that he couldn't open the door after a day or two, he just calls and waits for us. We switched out of the crib really early, and I wanted to know that he was safely secured in his room overnight while I was sleeping, just like he would have been in a crib.

@BandDmommy: I have heard too many stories about kids getting out of the house during the night. My son figured out how to unlock our deadbolt as soon as he was tall enough to reach them, and the thought of him wandering outside kept me awake at night! As soon as he could open his bedroom door we flipped the knob around.

We got it for our two year old a few weeks ago. I'm not sure how much it's helping, but that's partly our problem. He does seem to understand that at bedtime the sun goes to sleep and the sleepy star comes out, and then he stays in his crib until the sunshine is awake! He gets it - he says "Sunshine wake up, mommy daddy come get me!" but that doesn't stop him from crying for us in his crib. We do try to make a big deal out of it when he sleeps right until the sun wakes up, and talks about how he's going to have so much energy just like Percy Pig (we have the Gro Clock, which comes with a book). I'm mostly hoping that by introducing it now, he'll be used to it when we switch him to a toddler bed and he'll know not to get out of bed until the sleepy star is gone.

we started using it when she turned 2, and she has been great about it so far. She comes to our room as soon as it turns green and tells us that it's green so she gets to come to mommy daddy's room. only negative is she used to have a pitch black room, so i think it's actually waking her up when it lights up, so we're gonna try to push it back a little.

Ours started working right when LO turned 2. We tried earlier than that and failed.

@BandDmommy: Haha, that would totally be my LO! Solidarity

I love that clock. I can't remember exactly when we got it, but it was about 20 months I think. Took a few weeks to sink in - and my DS is in a cot still so different situation, but he sits there every day and reads a book quietly until his clock changes, then he calls for us. We had it set to 6am at first as he was waking usually between 5.30 and 6, and we've been able to really gradually move it forwards so it's now set at 7am which feels like such a lie in! His sleep has adjusted over that time and he now usually wakes about 6.30 (although that could of course just be coincidence).

It was successful for us right around 2, but was a month-long process.