9mo won't sleep in evenings

[RunJHC]

Hi our DS (9 months) is normally quite good at going to sleep in the evenings. Usually asleep by 7/8pm - settles himself with a dummy in the cot, or if fidgety he'll fall asleep on me and then I'll put him in the cot. He generally sleeps all night, sometimes wakes up once or twice but either settles himself or finds dummy himself.

But since last week he's been really difficult to get to sleep in the evenings and has been awake until about 10/11pm - after which he pretty much sleeps all night.

When we're trying to settle him, he gets really upset when left in his room on his own (and we tried leaving him to cry for 5/10 mins but he just got really upset) but cheerful and wide awake when we go in. Last night my DH resorted to sitting with him and reading to him until he eventually went to sleep at 10.30pm. I've tried waking him up at normal time (7am) to make sure he's tired by bedtime, having good naps in the day etc but nothing seems to be helping.

My only thought is that it could be teething? He has 8 teeth already which have caused him almost no problem. We gave him some Calpol last night but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Any suggestions would be very very welcome thanks...

Hi,

I completely sympathise with you. My son is 9 months old too and has started doing the same thing. I miss those baby free hours!!

I found out that if he naps too late in the afternoon, say after 2pm he will not settle until 9 or 10. My DS takes 2 naps, one around 10 and another around 1.30. After he wakes up from his second nap he will not sleep till bedtime. But if he does, or the second nap is very late then bedtime goes for a toss!

Not sure if u have the same problem but hope this helps!

agree with aleesmum i try not to let my ds nap after 1pm. have you tried giving him some supper like porridge i had to do this with my ds. the food seemed to make him sleepy. also a bath in johnsons sleepy stuff. its in a lilac bottle just cant remember the name. good luck you must be tearing you hair out

Just searching for answers to the same thing. I did suspect that late naps are the problem. My DS is nearly 8 months and suddenly needing much less sleep during the day and we need to lose the late afternoon nap. But at the moment he gets tired and grumpy at 4.30 - want to lose that nap, but it's a long time to keep him going till bed at 6.30. Any suggestions? Additional problem is his twin brother who still sleeps loads, but goes to bed fine - but DH is having 2 weeks off work from the 1st, so we can deal with one each

(He naps 9.30-10, 12.30-2, 4.30-5 at the moment)