13 month old bedtime struggle

[claire1711]

my 13 month old boy has always been a good sleeper and with a bit of help from here and tweeking routines he now has a nap 10.30 - 12.30 goes to sleep around 6.30pm and wakes up about 7am

He is a good eater and rarely wakes in the night unless bad teething etc.

the problem we have at the moment is bedtime, i give him supper 5-5.30, then bath and cup of milk then bed by 6.30
sometimes he is so tired by then that he just conks out and falls straight asleep but if he doesnt then we have a battle, he cries if we try to leave the room. we used to use sshh pat but it doesnt seem to have much effect anymore, not sure if theres anything else we can try?


thanks again, you are all great!

claire x

[anna*]

I'd suggest that bedtime needs to be a bit earlier or his nap a little later (if you can get it there without him getting overtired). He's having only a 3.5hr A time in the morning, but a 6hr A time in the pm.

[claire1711]

thanks, i struggle at home to keep him going much later but at nursery (mon-wed) he goes down for a nap after lunch but only sleeps for 45mins - 1hr so then i think he is really overtired.

Do you think its still all about being over/under tired as opposed to difficulty settling, it always has been in the past and routine tweeking has always helped im just not sure how to tweek this time!! in the nursery they say he isnt tired to go down to nap before lunch and he doesnt sleep long because there is so much going on there, do you think hes over tired?

Thanks so much x

[Maxdrewe]

I agree his day maybe needs to be more balanced. We had the same problem with nursery naps really being too late for our LO for a while, still is a bit!! We had to just help our LO catch up on home days and compensate by earlier bed although looking back we should have gone earlier sooner.

[anna*]

The fact that you say that he EITHER conks straight out or has screaming troubles settling - yes that screams overtired to me.

[claire1711]

Thanks for your reply

Yesterday I put him down for a nap at 10.50 and he slept till 12.10 then had him in bed by 6.10 (earliest i could manage) but he still struggled and took an hr to fall asleep.

Today I put him down for a nap at 11.10 and he slept till 1.00, again i had him in bed by 6.10 and he went straight to sleep!

so now what?!!

does seem like its overtiredness that is stopping him falling asleep. I know that most children drop the morning nap instead of the afternoon nap but should I keep moving the morning nap later till it is after lunch and at what rate?
At the moment i am giving him a decent snack (fruit/breadstick/rice cracker) before his morning nap so he doesnt wake from hunger but he ended up having lunch at 1.15 today, is that ok?

thanks so much xx

[anna*]

so now what?!!

Try and keep the nap to about 11 and hope for a long one? The naps do tend to lengthen over time. Move the nap slowly, and only when you start to feel that he's really not struggling with OT and could really cope. My daughter is 15 months and wakes at 7.15 in the morning, and still needs her nap to be at 11.30, really, although she can sometimes manage 12. If we wait til 'after lunch' she's overtired and does a short nap and then we have a miserable afternoon. It is a pain with meals, but I give her a big snack and a big drink of milk before her nap, and another substantial snack after her nap.

[claire1711]

Good to know that this is "normal" for some children! Guess they are all different and suppose it doesn't really matter if he eats lunch later although on nursery days theres not much I can do about it!

[anna*]

Yeh, nursery days  will always be difficult but if it reassures you to know, loads of little ones have one routine for 'at home' days and another routine for childcare days, and go between the two no problem. My son never napped well at nursery, we just did early bedtime on those days.