Early Riser: Help!

James is 20 months old.
He has a daytime nap of 2hrs. He goes to bed by 7pm at night (generally too tired to stay up any later).
He sleeps all through the night. But wakes any time after 5am. I try to get him to sleep or stay in his room untill 6:30 or 6:00am at the earliest.
It's still dark when he wakes so that's not the issue, and even closing his curtains & balcony door to shut out any bird noises doesn't have much effect.
He does have some toys in his room to play with and isn't at all upset when he wakes up, he will actually happily stand in my room looking out the window or wandering around for ages! I can't complain as he has a solid sleep and gets plenty of sleep (12hrs a day). I know he probably wakes because he has had enough sleep.

My question is: What is the best thing to do so that I can get him to sleep untill at least 6am in the morning?
Most of the time he does a poo not long after he wakes, I have tried changing his nappy & putting him back to bed, but that doesn't work either.

Hi Kristina,

Unfortunately some toddlers are just early risers, I would suggest you try pushing the daytime nap forward a bit and try putting your son to bed a little later each day for a week or so, a bit like creating your own daylight saving.

Good luck, Maree

Kristina,

I was the same for my parents except that my wake up time was 4 am and no matter what they did, i just wouldnt go back to sleep. THis is going to sound a little strange but by 20 months, they'd taught me to use the VCR so that I wouldnt disturb them. And in doing that, they didnt turn me into a couch potato. I was a very active child and the 4am video thing what i did each morning. By 6am, everyone would be up and I didnt watch TV for the rest of the day.

I was taught that the sticker faces you and the two holes go towards the bottom and it made me feel so grown up when i could do it.

I have an 9 month old son who is doing the same thing, waking anytime after 5am usually for a bottle and then a dirty nappy change and i havent been able to find anything that has worked for us yet, although he is still only little.

Hope you have some luck soon

Belle