What is your 15-18 month olds routine

[saffron55]

DS is 16 months old and I really need to sort out his sleeping /eating routine. He wakes up at 5am every morning, he screams until he has a bottle but to be honest I think he's mainly just still tired. He has breakfast between 7-8 and I try to keep him up until 11 so he can have a good afternoon nap but most days he's so naggy by 9am I have to put him back to bed. He will usually have 1 hour. Then lunch at 12. He will not have another nap after this. He's exhausted but will not sleep. I put him to bed at 6am due to this and on a good night he will sleep 11 hours until 5am. Some nights he is up 3 or 4 times through the night. I really want to get him sleeping 11-2 at least bed for 7 and then hopefully he will wake earliest 6am. This way he might last until 11. Also want to know when you would give lunch if going for a nap at 11. Do I give it before for after the nap? With a snack beforehand. Please give me your routines x

I'm pretty baby led so mine wakes early 6am, I bring into bed and they have boob and usually another hour or so sleep.
Up before 8. Breakfast then.
Nap around 10am until whenever they wake up (12/1pm) lunch after.
Bed is quite late so 830/9pm with boob and the excitement starts again.

@HooverWhenTheCoastIsClear thank you & you don't find they are naggy/tired with them having a later bed time? X

Not hugely to be honest. Sometimes but really my first was similar in that they would wake all night if they went to bed early, if I'd try and get them to bed before 9pm they'd just wake midnight or 1am, if they went 9pm they'd sleep until 8am.
Each child is so different.

16 month old:

6:45 get up (if she wakes earlier we leave her to chat to herself as long as she's happy)
7am breakfast
11am lunch
11:30 nap (2-3 hours, mostly 2.5 hrs)
2:30pm snack
5:30pm tea followed by milk drink
6:45pm bed and asleep by 7 mostly

We've just gone down to one nap. Early morning wakings for us were an indication to drop the morning nap and it worked. She reliably sleeps for 11.5/12 hours now.

@Ihaveoflate thank you. I think I'm going to try and keep him up tonight until 7 and see if we can start waking later. When he wakes at 5 I usually go running in and bring him into our room, maybe I will leave him for a bit longer tomorrow morning. Trial and error I guess but I really want him to have a consistent routine x

If you leave him, he may well go back to sleep when he wakes at 5. My daughter occasionally wakes at 5:30 and will go back to sleep after about 20 mins.

The one thing I've always been quite strict about is the day not starting until a certain time. Anything before that time is treated like the middle of the night. Days with a toddler are long enough as it is!

We had a similar issue with my now 16 month old but we gradually kept pushing the nap back. He now has a snack at 1030 (banana and something) then naps 11-1 and then has lunch. It’s basically his lunch split in half. It doesn’t always work, today he was exhausted by 10am and so will probably be in bed a little early.

I’d also try leaving him for a few minutes at 530. My son whinges or talks for a few minutes and then goes back to sleep for a bit longer.

You’ll find what works for you though, all trial and error ! :-)

My daughter is 16 months old. This is her daily routine:
7:00 wakes up
7:15 milk
8:00 breakfast
11:45 lunch
12:15 nap (about an hour and a half to two hours)
3:00 milk and snack
5:00 dinner
6:00 bath
6:30 milk and story
7:00 bed

Anywhere between 8:30-10am wake up
Breakfast 9-10:30am
Lunch 1:00pm
Nap 1:30 hour and half two hours
5:30 dinner
6:00 milk and yoghurt
6:30 bath every other day
7/7:30 bedtime

Could yours just be waking for a bottle ? Have you tried cutting the bottles out ? Just offer water at 5am then he might stop waking as he’ll realise he’s not going to get any milk. If I were you I would do lunch at 11 then down for a nap. I know It is really hard to keep them up when they get up at 5 😫

So I think I've realised the reason he is waking so early is because he is hungry. We've started giving in and giving him a bottle at 5am so his belly is obv used to this now hence the crying, he's hungry. So today he had one at 6 and from now on I'm going to try to push back the bottle until eventually he's having it at 7am - this could then push back nap time to at least 11am. fingers crossed it goes to Plan. Any tips ?

It sounds like a plan.

When we cut the morning nap recently and had to keep her awake longer, we didn't drive anywhere or have long walks in the pram in case she fell asleep. For the first few days we put her down at 11 and then when she was used to that, we pushed it to 11:30 so we could give an early lunch first. Eventually we will edge toward 12 for nap time.

Accept he'll be tired initially but power through. His body will get used to the new routine. Have your end goal in sight and edge toward it by shifting 20-30 mins every few days. Write out your ideal routine and aim for that - it's a case of nudging him a little bit at a time until you get there.

Good luck!

My 16 month old wakes up at 8am. She has breakfast around 8:30/9. Lunch around 12ish then dinner/tea at 5ish. Then bath and play time and then it's bed with milk at 7:30/8pm. She sleeps through 90% of the time.
Some days she will have an afternoon nap at around 2pm for an hour but not every day.
I've never pushed her into a routine, she formed it herself

All times are approximate
7.00 wake up and bf
7.45 breakfast
9.10 snack
11.30 lunch
12.15 nap - always woken by 1.45
Bf
4.00 hot chocolate
5.00 dinner
6.25 bath, stories and then bf to sleep by 7.45/8
Usually sleeps until 12/1 and then she wakes at least 2 twice for more bf. From 6 she often snoozes, feeds and cuddles.

My 16 month old is a second child so her routine is a mixture of fitting around the school run and older child and what works for her.

17 months old
7:30 wake and milk
8 breakfast
11:30 lunch
12-13:30 nap (no longer than 2 hrs)
3 snack
6 dinner
7 bath
7:30/7:45 story mill &bed.

DD is 15 months and in nursery 4 days.
Nursery days:

Up at 6am if I’m in the office, 7 if WFH
Breastfeed (both sides) before we go to nursery for 7.15 on office day or 8.15 WFH
Nursery give breakfast at 8.30
Lunch at 12
One nap 1.5-2hrs at roughly 12.30
Tea at 4pm
DH picks up from nursery at 5pm
BF when I get home 6-6.30pm and she sometimes has a snack too
Bath about 7pm and in bed 7.30-8pm with more BF

She wakes 1-2 times at night to BF

On non nursery days we get up 7.30ish but occasionally 8-8.30am, fortunately DD not a morning person so will often sleep in. I try to feed at roughly the same time but not a slave to it. Same with her nap.

Sounds a great idea , you could try cut the bottles all together ? Then he might stop associating milk with comfort and just have it out of a sippy cup or normal cup with your help at meal times? Snack before bed is always worth a try too, my son is such a hungry boy he always used to wake hungry before I did a snack 30 mins before bed x

We’re baby led for our 17MO, her little routine is:

8am wake up
9am breakfast
12pm lunch
Afternoon nap is usually between 1330-1430 for an hour
5pm tea
730pm bath
830pm milk and sleep

We had an awful sleep regression a few month back and after fighting to try get her in a set nap and bed time we decided to just follow her lead and are all so much happier for it!

8-8:30 - wake up & milk
9 - breakfast
10:30 - snack
11 - nap - 30-60 mins max (his choice)
12 - lunch
3 - snack
5/530 - dinner
6:30 - bath, milk, bed