Your toddler's bedtime – our health visitor answers your questions
Q. My 3 year old keeps getting out of bed at night and coming into my room. Help!A . Start by making sure he settles to sleep on his own in his own bed as this way, when he wakes up in the night, he’ll know how to settle back to sleep without you. When this routine is established, the only way to reinforce better sleep habits is to keep putting him back in his bed each time he gets up.
Calmly but emphatically put him back, with little chat, and a firm goodnight. It’s going to take energy and commitment on your part so get some extra help for a few days so you can catch up on rest yourself. The more reliable and persistent you are in putting him back, the quicker he’ll learn to sleep through.
Try leaving a T-shirt of yours with him for reassurance and if you want to know when he’s coming put a bell on his door so you’re prepared for having to put him straight back.
Court Documents Reveal Abuse Before OKC Toddler's Death
Police interviewed the child's mother Victoria Phanhtharath, 22, and her boyfriend, Freddy Mendez, 24. Phanhtharath said before Alexis was taken to the hospital, Mendez had been yelling at her because she wouldn't eat. She said Mendez told her to get a shoe so he could spank the little girl.
Phanhtharath retrieved a brown, braided leather shoe and said Mendez hit the child all over her body with it. She said this was not the first time Mendez had beaten the child. She said in the past, Mendez had also picked up Alexis by the neck and "shaken her like a rag doll."
Phanhtharath said Mendez eventually told her to take care of Alexis because he did not want to deal with her. Phanhtharath said she took her daughter to a bedroom and became so frustrated she shoved the little girl, and that's when the child struck her head on a wooden baby bed.
Phanhtharath said Alexis began choking and her eyes rolled back into her head. That's when the couple took the girl to the hospital. Alexis died Monday, October 31, from her injuries.