sudden refrusal to go to bed 17 months

[Vally]

I hope tha t someone can help. My DS is 17 months old and has been a consistently good sleeper since about 4 months old. He has always gone to bed at 7pm and generally have never had problems with his bedtime. The last two days he has completely refused to go to bed and just screams. At first I thought there must be something wrong as it is so unusual however when we eventually got him up he was perfectly happy and in fact seem to have tons of energy. In the end we put him in his cot at 9.45pm and let him cry for 15 mins. We then went in and picked me up, he eventually went to sleep.

What is going on?

[Tweakster]

It sounds a bit UT.  Can you post the routine?  We just ran into this ourselves.  Bedtime was always good for us but we had some real bad resistance.

[Vally]

His reoutine really varies as I work three days per week but generally it is like this:

7am wake
730am milk and breakfast
Activity whether at home, grandparents or nursery
12.30ish nap usually 1 hour
4pm tea
5.30pm bath
Wind down
630pm bottle
7pm Bed

It has worked for us for a long time. He has never had too much sleep in the day and tends to sleep 11/12 hours at night. Occassionally he has a morning and afternoon nap rather than lunch time especially if he is in the car or buggy. Even with two naps they never equate to more than an hour so I can't see how he could be that UT.

Last night he did fall asleep in the car on the way home from nursery just before 6pm but was only for 10 mins and he has done this before and it has never kept him up for almost 3 hours at bed time.

Really nothing in his routine has changed. The only thing is that he is really develolping in terms of his communciation and general activity and seems so energentic. My husband and I joked last night and said it was as if he was on drugs as he was so wide awake and active at 9pm!!

I just don't know!!!

[Tweakster]

Actually 10 mins can have a real effect.  It can refresh them enough to carry on. 

I am a bit stumped because he is doing a very short nap for his age as it is, and if you move it out then you are only going to be met with more bedtime resistance.  The only thing I can think of is to move it back, say 11:30 or 12 and give him more A time to bed.  I would not say to cut the nap at this age.

It could be developmental so maybe hold off and see if it persists or was just a blip.

[Vally]

Thanks Wendy

I agree that I should not cit his naps as they are short anyway.

last night was a little better and he went down at 8.45pm which is better than 10pm. We are just sitting with him in his room until he gets tired enough to put down. Will try and make his afternoon A time longer.