could you quickly tell me how YOU would handle this?

[yaya]

our prob is naps: he will now go down happy and chat, play , sing etc. All very good.
It seems IF he falls asleep within 20mins or so great, if not he gets more and more hyper, throwing stuff out of cot etc
I'm not sure what to do as he isnt cryign , screaming yes.
He cannot seem to calm himself when he gets into this state
Today i went in 3 times and said 'thats enough, go to sleep' and eventually after over 1 hr he did (well i had to put my hand on his back and removed when he was calm)
WHat should I do? leaving him to it seems to make it worse, it's almost as if he needs to be 'told off' LOL
shalli continue doin gthat? give him and hr then go in?

[Samuel's mum]

I wouldn't 'leave him to it' TBH. What you are doing is a version of wi/wo which I think is the best thing at this age.
Of course you could take a moment to consider whether there are any patterns here - why fall asleep easily some days but not others? Activities? Diet? Temperature?
Consider overall sleep time, nap time. Presumably he's only on one nap now.

You could try and 'help' him by making a more secure routine for naps. Like a particular book about sleeping/naps, putting a toy to sleep and then a gentle piece of music (always the same music).

[yaya]

thanx Emma. I have really tried to work out what goes on on diff days but our routine is pretty firm, yep he's on one nap has been since about 14 months. Our naptime routine is also same as it has always been. The only thing I can notice is as I said, he starts off well and it's almost as though if he's not asleep within the first 15 mins he starts to loose it.
am at a loss

[Ami ~ 3 girls' mom]

Does he need a "wind-down" time at night too?  Can you put him down for nap earlier so he has more time to sort through the morning and then fall asleep?

[yaya]

yep he has a winddown for bedtime too....think i'll try ur suggestion dont think he  is too tired but yes maybe too wound up

[Mum of girl, boy, boy]

What time are you putting him down?

My DS would mess around if I left anything in his cot now (18 months old). If I still hear him up I go in and turn him onto his front (that's his sleeping position) and say in a firm voice bedtime Max goodnight. Thats the same tone we used when we sleep trained after moving countries 2 months ago so he does know it.

Have you got blackout blinds. My DD was more likely to play around if she didn't have blackouts.

Hope this helps.

J

[Critter]

Does he need a "wind-down" time at night too?  Can you put him down for nap earlier so he has more time to sort through the morning and then fall asleep?

I had to do this for Luke and it worked.  I had to spend about a week with his nap 30 min-an hour early.  It sorted itself back out, though