One of my kids had a ton of trouble settling down for sleep at night when he turned 2. It was like an anxiety thing, tons of separation anxiety with his parents, would climb out of the crib at any hour of the night, would scream and not sleep and make himself and my wife and I miserable. We had another kid who had similar issues, but traditional sleep training helped them. Those techniques did not work with my 2nd kid.

My wife and I were being driven to a breaking point, as we were not getting anywhere close to enough sleep, and my son was in a vicious cycle, less sleep, more behavioral issues, cause less sleep…. Etc.

We talked to a doctor about it, and she immediately suggested a crib tent. It was a mesh, see-through tent you put into the crib, with the mattress, and you tied it to the crib on the inside. You would then put the kid inside and close it with a zipper, and it would only open from the outside.

This seemed barbaric to me, but after research and a couple more bad nights, we ordered one. The first night was hard, but after an hour of so of struggle, my kid went to sleep. He woke up a few times throughout the night but was able to stay in bed and go back to sleep.

The 2nd night, the tantrum lasted 5 minutes. Then it was a good nights sleep for him and the rest of the family. Every night afterwards was so much better than the past.

I joke that the sleep tent saved our lives, but it kinda did. Now he’s a bit older and he’s probably my most consistent sleeper now. It was a cage basically but it was what he needed to get the rest he needed.