8 month old naps

[Noahsmamae]

My little boy is almost 8 months old now. We have always fed to sleep and sometimes I rock him if he isn't due a feed. However I'm thinking ahead to when I go back to work and he goes to my sister who is a childminder. She has other kids to look after so won't have time to rock him/feed him to sleep. Does anyone have any tips to get him to go to sleep on his own at nap time? I keep reading to just put him in the cot when he's tired but I've tried that and he just rolls around and then starts crying. I'm not interested in CIO or anything similar but any gentler techniques or advice would be great.

If he cries in his cot then maybe he is over tired, try putting him down for a nap a bit earlier. This was a revelation for me, baby did not appear tired or maybe I found it difficult to pick up on the signs of tiredness.

A child minder might find it easier if he has naps in the pushchair, she's not restricted to the house when he sleeps then. In which case you can side-step the issue and move naps to the pushchair.

What times and lengths are naps currently?

Thanks for the replies. His naps are a bit erratic but I've never been able to put him down for a nap awake. He always falls asleep after breastfeeding or just cuddling in my arms. Usually he has his first nap at about 8 after waking up at 6. That will usually be for only 40 minutes or so. Then he will have some breakfast and usually wants to go back to sleep by 10:30/11 when he usually has at least an hour. Then he will have an afternoon nap sometimes in the buggy. Maybe I need to stop feeding to sleep but I'm not sure how to move away from that as he always falls asleep on the boob.

The No Cry Sleep Solution has good advice on gently moving away from feeding to sleep.
I have managed to stop feeding my baby to sleep, we switched to rocking instead, and we are just in the process of transitioning from rocking to putting him down in his bed to go to sleep by himself.
I want to avoid crying as much as possible and we've had minimal crying so far.
I really rate the advice on the Baby Sleep Science website/blog and they have a nap guide for 6-12 month olds which is $10 but worth it IMO.
childsleepscience.wordpress.com/home/solutions/nap-training-guide-for-babies-6-12-months/