Getting Your Toddler to Stay in his Bed

I haven't posted for a few days because we have been struggling with keeping my son in his big boy bed. The first couple of nights in his new bed he was fine. Slept thru the night and in the morning he would wake up and walk to our room and come and cuddle with us. Fine no problem right? Wrong. I had to go out of town and my son got sick so unfortunately he went to Daddy in the middle of the night and Daddy was worried about him so he let him sleep in our bed with him.

I came home from my trip and took him to the doctor for antibiotics for his infection. He was starting to get better in two days so I hoped he would stay in his bed. No luck. I tried everything. I tried a reward system but he still got up. I tried a gate at his door so that he at least couldn't leave his room but that didn't work because he screamed bloody murder and Dadddy couldn't take it so he went and laid in his bed with him. I searched high and low on the internet for solutions. Some suggested switching the door locks so that I could lock the door from the outside, but I didn't feel comfortable with that. Finally a co-worker of my husband's made the suggestion that worked for us. Body pillows...all over the bed. Yup - it worked like a charm. Three nights in a row and three stars for my little man!