baby won't sleep in any bed but his own

[starodyssey2015]

I have a one year old boy and if you put him down in his bed he would happily stay in there for hours (sleeping or playing). But if he goes in travel cot or either mine or my partners parents house he just screams. Right now he is knackered, i'm at my mums and he's in his cot. I've sat up there for 30 mins till he's sat down and I got up and left. Now he's crying inconsolably and obviously not sleeping. Been rubbing his eyes and face, pulling on his ears for 2 hours so I know he's tired. I took him for a walk in his pram as sometimes (rarely) he'll sleep in there but it didn't work so I've had to put him to bed.

When sleeping at the in laws. His grandma sits with him till he cries himself to sleep (4 hours past his bed time) then he will sleep a few hours. Wake up at stupid o clock and won't go back down. She says she doesn't mind but I feel awful for her.

Any suggestions?

He sleeps a full night (6.30- 8.30) at home

Apologies if you've already tried this but someone suggested this to me when I was wanting to get DS to make the move from Moses basket to crib. He's a lot younger than your son though so might not work anyway.

Carry a comforter/ blanket round with you, up your top, for a day or so to make it smell of you. Then get your son sleeping with it in his bed for a while so it smells of him too and he gets used to it/ associates it with sleep. You then take it with you wherever he sleeps and the theory is that he'll have something familiar with him.

DC4 was exactly the same. He loved his own bed from being very tiny and never wanted to be cuddled to sleep. He grew out of it around 2.4 when he became aware of it being fun to sleep a Nanas/in a hotel etc.
He would sometimes settle if I let him sleep on me but then I got no sleep.
We used to ask my parents or PIL to stay at our house if we wanted a night off and we stayed in a premier inn.

I don't think travel cots are very comfy. We bought a mattress enhancer for ours from John Lewis and dd did sleep a bit better.
m.johnlewis.com/mt/www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-travel-cot-enhancer/p231855337#page_loaded

How often does he sleep elsewhere? Does he have a comforter/favourite teddy in his cot at home? Do you take it along with you?

We used to try to recreate ds' home sleeping environment as closely as possible so would send his pillow, his sleeping bag and his favourite teddies from home, and also a blackout blind for the window. The first few times he struggled but he wasn't staying there regularly at the time. Once he was going there more frequently (PIL looked after him 1 day/week) he soon got used to it & napped as well in it as in his cot at home. Is this something you could try?

TBH I think I would go with the flow and arrange things so that he mostly gets to sleep in his own cot. Could the PIL come and babysit for you instead of him going to theirs? Or, this might sound mad, but if the idea of him being at theirs is that you get a full night off, you could swap houses?

I had the same issue with DS1. We did have a mattress for our travel cot, in fact, luckily, his cot mattress fitted so we brought that with us wherever we went. When he was a little older, we put him on a mattress on the floor which he preferred. I feel your pain, we got so little sleep when we went away, we had to ensure we were not away too often. So he got older, having special bedding at Grandma's helped.

have you tried the travel cot in his bedroom, so he gets used to it?

Travel cot in the room lots of times. He just stays awake crying or babbling until the early hours so we usually just call it a day and put him to bed. He sleeps at his grans roughly twice a month. Will defo start sending him with some comforts like his pillow and teddy though. And would love to do a house swap (there's is gorgeous and always really warm) but we have a dog and I don't think she's very fond of him. Thanks for all advice x