1 year old still cat naps - need advice!

[Pineapplebaby]

Please help.... my little boy just turned 1 and is still on 3 naps a day, all around just 25-35 mins a time.
We’ve tried changing the wake windows, we’ve tried resettling when he wakes (which sometimes works but it’s by picking him up and rocking him, and he finishes his nap on me), we’ve tried changing his feeding schedule, but literally nothing works.
He’s a very active child, been walking since 8.5 months old and is on the go constantly, but has never really been one for day sleeping.
Thankfully he does ok at night now; bedtime around 7pm (depending when his last nap falls) and usually wakes around 6.30am (with a couple of cries when he can’t find his dummy but stops the second you give it to him) so I know we’re really lucky there. He also goes to sleep with no help; just a chilled routine and then put him in his cot and say good night; within 5-10 mins he’s gone.

Question is, how do we get him to have 2 longer naps rather than 3 small ones? It’s so hard trying to plan anything knowing you’ve got to stick to a wake window of 3hrs before he’s likely to get tired again. Thank you.

What times is he napping?

You might think I’m crazy, but this is what worked with mine. Dd1 woke up 30 minutes into a nap every single day like clockwork, this was the length of her sleep cycle and so I needed to disrupt that cycle. Disrupting the cycle makes them slightly rouse and then dive into their next cycle. I literally just went into her room and lightly jostled her. Sometimes simply making the floorboards creak was enough. The trick is not to fully awaken them.
Another trick you could try is leaving in his cot for an hour, even if he wakes early. That would teach him that nap time doesn’t end just because he’s woken, and hopefully would encourage him to fall back asleep.

As he’s sleeping so well at night with this routine I’d be too scared to mess about with it!

Will he not sleep in the pram when you are out?

Ha - I misread your title as '1 year old cat still naps' and was about to come on and tell you that that's entirely normal as cats are lazy buggers that sleep day and night

Have you really stretched the wake windows tho? If he is on 3 naps a day I’m guessing his wake windows are still around 3-3.5 hours? Increase them.

I had this with my 10 month old. The trick was stretching the wake windows, even if she became over tired, and only allowing 2 naps a day. Ditch the 3 rd nap, DONT be tempted to do a rescue nap at 4.30 ish to stretch to bedtime. Push thru, even if he wakes at 1 or whatever. Yes he will be overtired for a few days but the naps will stretch. You need to do this continuously for a few days for it to work.

Honestly just ditching the 3rd nap, and pushing thru the overtired ness was the only thing that helped. I thought the 3rd rescue nap was helping but it was actually stopping her consolidating the earlier naps.

Totally agree with PP - I had to do the exact same thing with my DD at 7.5 months. Yes it was a tough few days but it made such a difference and she started sleeping 1.5-2 hours per nap!

My DD turned 1 at the beginning of the month and her wake windows are often 3.5-4 hours. She wakes at 6-6:30, first nap at 9:30 and second nap between 2 and 2:30 (wake no later than 4) then goes to bed between 7 and 7:30.

Thank you all so much... we will definitely try pushing through. I guess we were scared because he does so well at night but will definitely give that a go! Thanks again x