10 mo will only sleep for 1/2 hour in his cot

[FizzyWhizz]

My 10 month old will only sleep for a maximum of half an hour at a time in his cot during the day. I usually have to breatfeed him to sleep (although not always before putting him down and it doesn't matter how tired he is, half an hour is it! He will sleep for longer in the car or if I shoehorn him in to his battery powered swing and the motion sends him off. As soon as he's awake, he stands up and shouts! Any suggestions as to how I can encourage longer naps would be greatly appreciated!

I have the same issue with my 4 month old, he sleeps 40 minutes - I think it's just that he gets to the end of the first sleep cycle and then can't get back off to sleep. I've been going in to his room 5 minutes before he wakes up and at the first sign of stirring ssh-patting him back to sleep. Today he went to sleep at 1.30pm, I patted him back to sleep at 2.10 and he's still asleep now

It's taken a while of doing this for it to have an effect though, and actually it's only really started working since I've stopped feeding him to sleep.

That sounds like it has to be worth a try as it's a very regular 30 minutes. Thanks for the suggestion!

Agree with MUA

Try feeding just as he starts waking up.

Try getting him off sooner as 30 mins can be a sign of overtiredness in some babies (but not always).

My 11 m.o. always needs resettling between cycles for his long nap, and has done since 7 months. The patting thing doesn't work for me (although DH has had some success) - I feed him. I usually rock him to sleep in the first place.

Just a caution: don't try extended patting if you have dodgy wrists, or you could have a lot of pain and problems as a result

at 9 / 10 months old my twins were taking just a 40 minute nap am and another 40 minutes pm. It was so consistently between 35 and 45 minutes every time it was spooky and it never felt long enough. When they turned a year old they switched to just one nap a day, partly instigated by me, i just toughed it out in the morning and kept them awake, gave them an early lunch and then straight off for their nap. It was soooo much better all round. They are now 16 months and their one nap is consistantly 2 hours or even more, typically about 12.30pm to 2.30 or even 3pm. Its long enough to feel like a real break for me and i can get stuff done around the house and relax without the the pressure of them being awake again so quickly.

Its also less of a battle to get them to sleep because they really are tired they go easily.

Worth a though if you think your little one might switch to 1 nap sometime soon, it was a massive improvement for me.

My DD was a serial short napper until @ 10 months I tried a lot of things, longer awake periods, shorter awake periods, wake to sleep, then one day she slept for 2 hours and that was it, her naps changed over night. I think with hindsight she was just a short napper & I wish I'd just accepted it instead of wasting energy trying to get her to sleep for longer stretches when I couldve just had a quick cuppa! It is exhausting though as you never get a good relaxing sit down.

Thanks for more suggestions. It's so nice to know I don't have the only child who doesn't like sleep. I'd like to get to the one nap a day situation fairly soon but when this happened by accident recently, we still only got 1/2 hour and then a very miserable person until bed time!

Will try the patting technique for a while (probably won't feed him as he's breastfed so I don't really want to get him up from his cot) and if that still fails, will go for that quick cuppa and another cry for help on Mumsnet!

Thanks again

You could try wake to sleep and/or holding through the jolts as per Baby Whisperer - I found it did work with DD when I wanted to extend her naps but it was tricky to get the timing just right. Good luck :)