17 month old refusing to go to bed

[Becky6X]

For the past 1-2 months, my 17 month old has been fighting his sleep of a night time. We take him into his room at 7pm, he has his bottle in our arms and then we’ll hold him for 5 mins until he’s asleep then put him in his cot (I need help how to get out of this situation too 🤣😰)

After finishing his milk he’d normally drop off to sleep quite quickly however for the past 1-2 months he fights it. Chucks dummy on the floor, chucks muslin on the floor etc etc. So we assumed he wasn’t as tired and started waking him up of a morning to start the day earlier. Rather than him waking up on his own accord at 7am-8am, we started waking him up at 6:30am. For a little while this seemed to of worked, but lately it’s not and going to sleep at night is becoming harder and harder and we resort to taking him out in the car sometimes for an easier life, as he always nods off within 15 minutes of driving.

He dropped his second nap at around 10 months old. He naps at around 10:30/11 until 12pm. So surely come 7pm he should be tired? 🤯

Does anyone have any suggestions what to try/change?? What are your bedtime routines?

I know it might be counter-intuitive but have you tried putting him to bed earlier? If he's up at 6.30 I'd try a bedtime of 6.30 pm and see if he's just overtired.

I would shimmy his nap later- move it 10/15 mins every 3/4 days until he is doing 1-3 or 1230-230.
I would keep his bedtime at 7, and allow him to wake naturally.
Around the same age my daughter needed changed routine, so I started doing last feed, teeth, stories and laying in bed. Took a couple of weeks, but she got used to it (no crying!).