My son is 16 months. We put him to bed by going and getting his stuffed toy and dummy, he says good night to me and DD and kisses us, then DH takes him in, puts him in the cot, says ni ni, walks out and closes the door behind him. DS has gone to sleep like this pretty much ever since he was born and I think thats why he is happy just to go to bed, no fuss now- because its just how its always been for him. From day one when it was sleep time, we would just put him in the bassinet or cot and he would settle himself. If we tried to go in there patting his bottom or rubbing his back he would think its play time and jump right up! Of course there are times when we need to hold him or he doesn't go down that easily- when he is in pain or sick but thats not often.

With DD we sung, cuddled, snuggled in bed and did all sorts of things to get her to sleep, took HOURS and she was a cranky thing through lack of sleep (no idea what we were thinking!). She was almost 2 before she would go to bed alone in her cot without a fuss. DS is not missing out on all those good things, we just dont do them at bed time!!! haha

I guess for us, with DS being the second child, we figured we would try not to set patterns and habits with him that we would just need to break and change later.