How can I teach my 10 month old to self settle for his nap?

[wastingyourgum]

We did a very gentle version of the Ferber method with DS when he was 7 months old, in addition to establishing a regular bedtime routine (bath, feed, story, bed). It took a couple of nights but he learnt to self-settle with surprisingly little fuss, to say we were previously co-sleeping and he was waking up every hour! Bedtime is now a lovely experience for all concerned :)

However, I haven't been able to do the same for daytime naps. He either has to be in the pram (with a blanket blocking out the light) or fed to sleep. Consequently his naps have always been fitful and easily disturbed, usually with two or three interruptions. He often wakes up before he is ready and he'll then be very tearful and clingy until he's fed back to sleep or taken for another walk.

I thought if I could teach him to self settle at the beginning of his nap - i.e. in his cot - then he might stay asleep longer and be properly refreshed, but the gentle approach isn't working, and I don't have the heart to let him cry it out.

Any ideas?

I started rocking DS to sleep at nap time then putting him in his bed asleep, has good 2 hour naps and then just very slowly stoped rocking just cuddled after a few days stopped the cuddles and just patted him in his bed then held his hand and now sit next to him but i found day time sleep harder because he is so easily distracted!! Takes ages for him to go off to sleep!
Hope this helps

Thanks for the tip - and sorry I missed your reply yesterday. I'll try putting him down when he's asleep (although he's a very light sleeper so I'm not sure it will work!) and work backwards from there. So far I've only tried putting him down awake.

I know it's boring as hell but I read that you have to wait 10 minutes before putting them down!
Good luck!