ideas to stop grizzly five month old cyring during day

[helsbels2007]

my five month old is great when we are out of the house and sleeps well at night, but most afternoons, he goes through a really grumpy stage and cries as soon as I put him down or move away. After a few hours this is really wearing .... any ideas for how to avoid it. how long did everyone else find this lasted?

My DD is 4.5 months and getting the same way. I think it's lack of daytime naps. But it's so hard to make a baby who thinks they don't want to sleep think otherwise!

It gets especially bad around 5pm when she's been up since 8am and only had 3 x 45 minute naps all day (on the back of 11 hours sleep). But nothing can persuade her to have a catnap to see her through to bathtime. And going out for a walk isn't a great option now that it's dark either!

I know this is no help, but just thought I would let you know I share your pain.

My almost 4 month old is getting to this stage...I think increasingly their reasons for discontent become more complex - it's not just about food anymore, they want to be entertained at the right moments and put down for a nap before they go beyond tiredness and become fractious!

I think your DS needs a nap late afternoon but make sure he's awake at least two or three hours before his bedtime or nightime sleep might be affected. I'm probably teaching granny to suck eggs as I am very much a novice and I'm sure you've tried everything I can think of...do you avoid him getting an adrenaline burst by being as calm as possible and removing stimuli like toys and television a syou build up the naptime?

Have you heard anything about controlled crying? Quite controversial, I think, but you could take a little inspiration from it...have you tried going through a mini version of his bedtime routine, soothing him etc., and then - once sure he isn't hungry, in a dirty nappy and so on - leaving him in his cot to see if he eventually settles himself? You could leave the room for ten minutes or something and then return to go through the routine again if he's still upset? I do this with my DS and once he's in his cot and there's nothing/nobody else distracting him, he accepts sleep after just a few minutes.

thanks for the advice - i have semi cracked it this week with the old stand-by, dancing. Three tunes in with baby in my arms, and he falls asleep - will now sleep for about 30 minutes after teh dancing routine (god help me, i must look like a lunatic prancing round the kitchen to sinead o'connor, but it works). but he is still complaining mercilessly if i leave him alone for a milisecond when he is awake. I think it is boredom to be honest, he chirps up when presented with a new toy or whatever.... don't know if this is normal, if i should always go to him or if i should let him cry.... trial and error i suppose. let me know if anyone else has any bright ideas.