16 month old sleep - where are we going wrong?!

[Freddie15VES]

Any help/advice would be great!!

our current routine is roughly this -

wake 6/7am
nap 11/12pm for around 2/2.5 hours
bed 6/7pm

at the moment we’re just getting constant screaming for 2 hours in the evening. He doesn’t fight his nap, he’ll happily go down for that. But bedtime has just become awful. Every ‘sleep coach’ states that he shouldn’t be awake for longer than 4 hours before bed, but I’m not sure whether this kicking off is him not being tired enough?

4 hours is a very short wake window for a 16mo? I’d definitely ignore that. Half the sleep coaches out there don’t seem to have a clue.
If he’s taking 2 hours to go down, he’s not
tired enough yet, it’s really that simple. Don’t worry about what anyone says they should do, just follow your child. Sleep needs vary hugely from child to child and person to person, it’s not one size fits all. Put bedtime back an hour and a half and see what happens

I agree have you tried lengthening his last wake window? My 17m only fights bedtime when he's not tired. Right now his morning wake window is 4hrs and evening is 5.5hrs EXACTLY. Not a second more or less or he will go bananas
😀

That’s a crazy amount of sleep and not enough awake time you are aiming for. Average sleep at this age is 11-14h (10-11h at night, with 2-3h during the day), so you are aiming for the top end of that, if not over on days the nap is 2.5h long.

I’d aim for 13h total, but be prepared to reduce as necessary depending on your toddlers needs, by adding time onto wake windows. Ive always preferred a shorter nap in favour of more night sleep, so I’d try something like:

Wake 6:30
5 hour gap
Nap 11:30-13:30
6 hour gap
Bedtime 19:15 with aim to be asleep by 19:30

If the nap was 11:30-14:00 shift bedtime back by half an hour, so down at 19:45 and asleep by 20:00.

I would keep him awake longer. It doesn’t sound very long at all, my 10 month old goes 4 hours from his last nap to bed time.

The majority of sleep coaches talk rubbish. Nobody is an expert on babies sleep, they’re all different and what works for one won’t work for another. I would just try and figure out how long your little one can go between his last nap and then bedtime and go from there.

Thanks guys. I worked out that he isn’t actually going to sleep until 8pm most nights, so he’ll be crying on and off for an hour at least 🤯 I did say to my boyfriend I just feel like he’s not tired enough but he’s adamant these sleep coaches are the best and know it all. But tomorrow I am going to stick to his 12pm nap, and bedtime 5/6hours from whenever he wakes up. See how that goes!

Cut the nap short and don’t let it go past 2hrs and not past 2pm.

Try putting him to bed at 7:30 and do it for a few days before assessing if it’s working.

I dunno where you are both reading max of 4 hrs awake time at 16 months! My 12 month wouldn’t be ready for normal bedtime at only 4hrs awake.

Our 16 month old does 6 hour wake windows, so I would agree a later bedtime should go more smoothly.

If you want an “expert” to quote, try this page: huckleberrycare.com/blog/16-month-old-sleep-schedule-bedtime-and-nap-schedule?utm_source=push&utm_medium=in%20app%20inbox&utm_content=free_user&utm_campaign=16_month_old_sleep_schedule%3Fuid%3DxvDAMuhGCGSZx7gL9xbzskkGvwN2

Well….he napped for only 1 hour today. Fell asleep within 10 minutes. I now will be telling everyone not to pay for baby sleep therapists advice 😂

my 16 month old only needs 12 hours of sleep total.
wakes up at 7.30
naps btw 12.30-2.30
asleep by 9.30 on a good day
some babies just need less sleep