15 Month old won’t go to sleep

[user1496618916]

Can anyone please offer any advice. My 15 month old has now become near impossible to settle down at night. He’s pretty much converted to one nap now and goes down for that easily, sometimes with a little rocking. It doesn’t matter what time he has that nap though, as at bedtime he doesn’t want to go to sleep.
I used to be able to rock him to sleep but now that doesn’t work, I’ve tried a bedtime routine and controlled crying but it doesn’t seem to work anymore. Even after waking from a nap at 12 he still won’t go to bed for 7/7:30. I end up having to take him for a drive at 9pm just to get him to sleep. I’m at my wits end!!!!

No advice but my 13 month old is equally awful. Just spent the last hour trying (nods, wakes, screams in a perpetual cycle) and had to leave him in tears (both of us) and let my husband take over.

My son has always been bad but it’s getting worse and he just won’t sleep now. I’m seriously considering raiding the savings and selling my jewellery (not that I have much, a few bits of Elizabeth duke, but every penny counts!) to pay for a sleep Consultant to come and sort him.

I hope someone can help you x

Without aiming to sound annoying he cant get to sleep, not won’t. He’s not intentionally trying to piss you off! (I have to reframe my own language about sleep with my kids from won’t to can’t to help remind myself that they’re tiny and not being awkward and that they need my help)

I’m sure you’ve tried all of this/been through this however my thoughts;
12-7 without sleep is a long time for a 15month old - is he overtired? Some kids just can’t settle once they’re beyond the sleep stage and get more wired or too distraught to sleep
How much consistency have you put into a routine? If you keep changing things regularly he’s not going to learn and get used to the sleep cues. What happens when you take him to bed? Does he want to be rocked or cuddled or does trying these things make him frustrated? Can you lie with him and stroke his back? White noise or audio stories? Something to help
Him lie quietly and still enough to actually get sleepy might help. Do you have a consistent bedtime routine of 30-40 mins to help him wind down and to cue him for sleep?

Sorry you’re going through this - it’s so hard when you just want to be able to help them and to have some semblance of an evening

I’ve thought myself he might be overtired but he shows no signs of being tired and also when he does have two naps in a day he still won’t go down to sleep easily.
I can’t lie with him and stroke his back as he is in a cot, also he wriggles around as soon as I put him in the cot and sometimes when I’m trying to rock him to sleep