Please, some tips on getting a four month old to nap in his cot...

[Jane7]

Mine screams blue murder if I leave him in his cot in the day to sleep, even though he goes down perfectly well in it at night. The only way I can be sure he'll nap is in his buggy, but I'm tired of trecking outside when I've got a million things to do inside...any ideas, or do they suddenly decide to sleep in the cot quite happily...

I am sorry I cant offer any words of wisdom but will be watching this thread as I have exactly the same problem with my 3 month old! He will sometimes go down for his first morning nap but its no go after that. I think its not unusual as have spoken to one or two other mums who have had the same problem. All the best.

Have you tried putting him in his cot when he's awake and not sleepy - with toys/mobile/blanket or whatever it is he enjoys playing with at the moment so he can get used to it in the daylight? We had the same prob with our 1st DD and this worked a treat...

Would love to hear if anyone has any tips as I have the same problem. Seems there are lots of us

Hello - my ds now 5 months would only ever sleep in the sling / buggy until about 3 weeks ago. Basically what I started doing was making sure he napped at exactly the same times each day so his body was expecting sleep, then moved to lying down with him at those times until he fell asleep, sometimes jiggling him a bit in the crook of my arm if that makes sense, then started putting him in his cot. It's still not ideal to be honest - I have to rock him in my arms him for a minute or two before he'll go down AND he has a dummy for daytime naps (talk about stacking up all the sleep associations!) BUT he does go to sleep really easily - he's still awake-ish when I put him in his cot - and it means I can actually sit down in the day. My next plan is to start using a light-show thing to cut out the rocking, then I'll tackle the dummy... Hope that might help someone!

I have same problem. DS (3rd Child) is 14 wks, goes down OK at night (although I generally breastfeed to sleep) and in day if in buggy or car but really resists and gets really upset if I put him down in cot in the day. He will lie happily for about 20min until fussing then crying starts. I just persevered for 1 and a half hours to get him to take morning nap in cot. Gave up put him in pram and rocked him in kitchen while I read Mumsnet on laptop on worktop!! I just keep trying and hope for the best. Have just pinned a huge note to front door saying QUIET so the others don't wake him up when they come in from swimming.

thanks for the tip bubba, shall try that. how interesting that there are lots of us with this problem...hoping someone will come along who has faced it and overcome it! my lo is often ok to go in cot for his first nap of the day, at about 9am but no hope of leaving him there for lunchtime nap or 4pm nap.

thanks others too, posted my comment before reading average mum and renaissance woman. what i find hard is that, exactly like you renaissance, he fusses for about half an hour and i'm fine to leave him to it, but then the crying starts and then i don't know whether to leave him to cry - seems to get himself very worked up - or move him into pram, take him outside and admit defeat. i hate admitting defeat because it feels as though next time he'll remember that if he cries, i'll take him out. hmmm. any tips?

Jane I am just copying and pasting this from another thread I commented on:

"My DS was really resisting his daytime naps and what I have found recently is that I need to put him in his cot before he even looks tired - if I wait till he looks tired (yawn, red eyes) then he starts crying as soon as I put him down. So now I go by the clock. He's awake at 10am after his morning nap and so I make sure he's in his cot by 11.45 with a 10 min light show on. Once the light show is finished he is still gurgling to himself for another 5-10 mins and sometimes has a short cry out but he's put himself to sleep now for the past week like this. He is 13 weeks BTW so your LO might be able to stay awake a bit longer - but I would play with timings of putting her down."

The other thing I forgot to say is having a short routine before the nap seems to work for us - mine is take him up to his room singing twinkle twinkle, change his nappy and put him in his sleeping bag, read him a short book and then into cot with light show.

Also - as the 9am and 4.30pm naps are short ones I take him for a walk then and just concentrate on getting him to sleep in his cot for the long lunchtime nap (we are doing GF BTW) which takes off some pressure for both of us.

Thanks so much chocorange - lots of useful stuff there. I have a great routine at bedtime, with a bedtime bear, a storybook and a CD of lullabies but didn't want to repeat it in the day incase it confused him and it didn't work so well at night. Maybe i'll have to start a different one in the day with me singing him a song or something. Btw just had victory and he's asleep in his cot now. I must admit, though, I pretty much fed him to sleep, although he woke when i burped him and then fussed a bit in his cot while sucking a muslin. but hurrah, he's asleep, and i didn't resort to either using the dummy or putting him in pram. hope for all of us struggling with naps in the cot

I found that timing was everyting. If DS was over or under tired he would not settle. I did it by the clock too, once I'd worked the timings out and that usually worked.
We have a naptime routine too of nappy change, story and a special song. Oh and black out blinds were the best thing ever when DS was that age!

Lots of good advice! Have been rubbish at spotting a pattern to ds sleeping habits so I have thought of keeping a sleep diary so I can anticipate when he needs a nap before he even looks tired (if I leave it too late he tends to go from cooing to screaming in a matter of seconds!) It's just finding the time to write it down! Its good to hear that I am at least thinking in the right way as so many people have found timing so important for settling them down in the cot.

Would be really interested to hear how everyone else gets on. How are things? Good luck!