very restless sleeper

[MrsBeat9]

My 5 month old son has since birth been a very restless sleeper (legs kicking, groaning, arms punching) and I am looking for any tips on getting him into a deeper sleep. I am breastfeeding but he gets a formula bottle before bed. I stick to the same routine every night, bottle, bath, story and bed but nothing seems to work. The health visitor suggested it could silent reflux and he was treated for this but it didn't help either. Even tried moving him from the moses basket in our room to the cot in his own room but no improvement. Its keeping him and us awake at night so any tips would be grateful.

Sleepyhead? Worked wonders for us.

How about a tightly tucked in sheet? It helps to calm thrashing limbs, at least a little.

Dummy helps with deeper sleeping. It also reduced SIDS risk, as an aside.

Mostly though - lots and lots of very frequent daytime naps and daytime feeds will help most.

Try limiting awake time to about an hour in the daytime, certainly no more than 90 minutes. Then resettle at end of naps as much as possible to try and lengthen nap length. A dummy and naps in a bouncy chair helps with this.

Try to give daytime feeds before baby starts asking for a feed, by way of anticipating hunger. Much the same as naps - aim to anticipate tiredness and have baby asleep before he shows tired signs.

Thank you. He only sleeps for about 30 minutes at a time during the day and will usually only have 2-3 naps a day. I breastfeed him every few hours during the day.

As mentioned, very frequent daytime naps and daytime feeds will help most.

Try limiting awake time to 60-90 minutes in the daytime. That may mean sleep time starts after 40 minutes awake, allowing for 20 minutes relentless movement and sucking to to get baby to sleep (depending how exhausted baby is how long it takes to get baby to sleep).

2-3 naps of 30 minutes is nowhere near enough.

With 90m awake time and 30m naps, that would mean

7am wake, feed, awake time
8.30-9 nap
9am wake, feed, awake time
10.30-11 nap
11am wake, feed, awake time
12.30-1 nap
1pm wake, feed, awake time
2.30-3 nap
3pm wake, feed, awake time
4.30-5 nap
5pm wake, feed, awake time
6.30-7 nap
7pm wake, play, bedtime routine
8.30-9 bedtime

I am not suggesting you obsessive clock watch, but just to give an idea. That is 5 or 6 naps of 30 mins, assuming a 7am daytime.

A dummy and naps in a bouncy chair helps with daytime naps.