Help - 7 month old not sleeping during daytime

[Jzee]

My little boy is hardly sleeping during the daytime which is tiring us all out and consequently he's so tired by 6pm that I put him to bed. He's good at sleeping during the night 6pm- 5.30am ish. I've tried putting him to bed later in the evening, but he still wakes up at the same time. In the morning he has a nap of about 40 mins and then that's about it for the day unless he's in the car or pushchair. I know it could be worse but does anyone have any ideas on how I could get him to have a nice long nap during the day?

Hi Jzee

Sorry no-one has replied to you yet. I haven't got much advice, but I feel for you cos dd wasexactly the same. She would only nap for half an hour at a time and normally had to be walked and rocked to get ther to do this. She's still pretty much the same (age 12 months) but we have progressed slightly, in that she will go to sleep on her own (in her carseat, NOT her cot). We are going to buy a cheap buggy especially for napping in as she is rapidly outgrowing the carseat!
For the last week or so, she's slept for an hour or more in the mornings, which is bliss. She then has between 30 and 40 minutes between 3 and 4pm and that's it. She sleeps well at night though (in her cot!) so I don't want to rock the boat.

no real advice I'm afraid. I remember when dd was the same age as your son, I used to go out for a drive for the sake of it, just to get her to sleep. It didn't really give me any rest ass she woke the second we got home, but atleast she slept a bit and wasn't quite so cranky by bedtime. We're past that stage now, thank heavens. Stick with it, it will get better when he gets more mobile and wears himself out more.

When my ds was that age I used to walk him up and down the garden desperately trying to get him to sleep. I would do this 3 times a day! Luckily it was summer. Their habits do change as they get older and now he is 16 months he has 1 long pm sleep - about 1.5 to 2 hrs.

Jzee, when I think back to what I used to do to get my little one to sleep in the day at that age ... Basically I had to walk with her in the pram in the park for hours both to get her off and to keep her asleep. The moment I stopped walking she'd wake up and scream. I was completely exhausted. It all changed when she was about 10 months old and it was largely to do with dp. He'd begun looking after her on the 2 days I went to work and was just not prepared to do all that walking. He phoned me at work and was chatting away and I noticed it was quiet so I said 'where's dd?' and he replied 'oh, in the cot asleep. She's been there an hour now.' I nearly fell off my chair. I was sure she wouldn't do it for me, but she did. I've no idea why she suddenly changed but it's stayed that way since.

Mine used to have a couple of half hour naps a day. Then, at about 7 months, when he started rolling and expending more energy, it went up to 2 two-hour naps. How old is your ds, and is he crawling yet?