16 month old refusing day sleeps

Hi Marie

My son has never had any real sleep problems until the past few days. Usually he sleeps from 7pm-7am, then goes down at about 9.30am for 2 sometimes 3 hours, and will have a catnap (30mins-1hour) in the afternoon at around 2 or 3pm. He's been in this regular pattern for a few months now. But for the past few days he absolutely refuses to go to sleep during the day. He screams as soon as we go into his room. I leave him for about 15mins before I go back in, and when I do I just try to reassure him without picking him up but he just won't settle. Today this went on for over an hour and I ended up just getting him up as he was getting hysterical. I tried again later as he was rubbing his eyes and lying on the floor but it started all over again. He ended up falling asleep on the loungeroom floor at 4pm and slept for an hour - one minute he was playing and the next he was asleep. He has no trouble going to bed at 7pm, it's just the daytime sleeps we're having trouble with. I only put him to bed when he's showing tired signs ie rubbing his eyes etc. I've tried giving him his favourite toy which seemed to work at first but now he just throws it on the floor and cries even more. I'm hoping it's just a phase as I'm 22 weeks pregnant and don't have a lot of energy or patience at the moment, I'm worried he's forming some bad habits.

Thanks for listening
Jasmine

Hi Jasmine,

At this age and with the nice 12hour overnight sleep he’s getting I’m not surprised that he is going to start to need only one good early afternoon nap. Try pushing his morning nap forward a little until you get to having an early lunch (say 11.30) and one good early afternoon nap. For the moment watching for the tired signs as you are doing is still your best guide to knowing when it’s time for his nap. Try not to make a battle out of it, give him a clear message that it’s time to sleep using some of our settling techniques for 6 to 12month old.

If he’s not responding after one hour then get him up.

Good luck, Maree

Thanks Maree

I think he was just having a few bad days last week. I just kept persisting and he finally gave in and is now back to 'normal'.

I was going to ask you about pushing back his morning sleep, but you've already answered my question! I find it odd that he needs to sleep just a couple of hours after he gets up from a 12 hour sleep but he really is tired then. I've often thought of changing it as we miss out on playgroup and swimming lessons etc as all those things tend to be in the morning when he's sleeping.

Thanks for your help
Jasmine

My pleasure, cheers Maree