pick up put down - or other methods for self settling for naps?

[bozemum]

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone had tried using pick up put down as a method of teaching baby to self settle for naps. My 4.5 mo will self settle at nighttime (he did this on his own without much 'training' from us). But won't self settle for naps.

Or anyone tried any other methods of teaching them to self settle that has been any success?

Hiya, my DD was a nightmare to get to sleep to we have used everything! I really like the Baby Whisperer book for ideas of techniques to use and the shush-pat technique really, really worked for us. Day one using it, she slept all her naps in her cot for the first time.

The only drawback was that whilst it worked, it was a bit of a long haul though. I had to shush-pat for a long time before she would be ready to sleep. Her problem was that in the day she really struggled to 'switch off' for a nap and it did take a while for the shush-pat to work quickly. But we kept with it and we're really glad we did. She is now 11months and sleeps very well (except when poorly or teething).

Other things we tried were static radio on in room, pick up/put down (just stimulated her more, no hope of sleeping), rocking her (decided that my arms couldn't hack it!). Goodluck, I hope you find something that works!

i used it with my DS1 and he found it very over stimulating

DD is 17 weeks and i have been putting her down awake for naps

i started by feeding her almost to sleep, and then unlatching her and she fell asleep in my arms

i then moved onto letting her do this in the cot - if she was upset then i turned her on her side and patted her bum rhythmically and it seemed to help her settle

now, i can generally put her down and she will go to sleep (sometimes i need to pat her but she is still really little so i think we are doing really well)

sometimes i still feed to sleep

We used pu/pd from 5 months and it has helped enormously getting DD off to sleep. She's just 8 months so I can't comment on very long term effects but it now generally takes very little time for her to get herself off to sleep.

Best of luck!

Thanks for all your replys.

In the past I have been using a combination of rocking, breastfeeding, buggying or baby bjorning. But Breastffeding now rarely works. He seems to just see it as food now - rather than comfort. Rocking rarely works - it seems to overstimulate him. And he often just screams in the buggy. So baby bjorn is my only option left. And he is getting too heavy for that. And not much fun in the rain. So going to have to find a new solution. Which I think will have to involve settling him the cot.

Going to embark on lots of shush patting this week. And see how it goes.
Fingers crossed. Thanks again for repies.

If you'd like any info about shush-patting from the Baby Whisperer book just let me know. Hope it goes well

Thanks. I have the bbay whisperer book. And from what I can gather it basically involves doing a slow shush noise and rhythmic patting like a ticking clock. And while them are on their side, doing the patting on their back.
Is that basically what you did with you lo?

I think at 4.5month he may be a little old for this though. Especially as he no longer likes to be swaddled. So going to have to modify it slightly I think. I know he finds the shush noise calming. So will definitely do this. And maybe just rest my hand on him.

II made an attempt at this morning for his first nnap. But it didn't go down well. I think maybe I need to darken the room more. So have ordered some black out blinds. Or perhaps I am just stalling for time!

Boze Yep, thats pretty much what we did. We started much younger and had to do it in our arms and gradually got her into the cot etc.

'The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems' books says it should be a steady rhythmic pat in the centre of the back whilst doing a fairly loud "shh..shh..shh" so that it sounds more like water rushing out of a tap rather than the slow chug-chug of a train. It also says to keep doing it for 7-10 minutes after the baby has calmed, slowing the pat down and finally stopping the shush.

Sorry if you have that book and have already read it but I thought I'd put it in as that is exactly what we did. It does say that its really for babies under 4 months but I certainly found that my DD couldn't cope with the 'older' pu/pd method and shush-pat continued to work for us.

Hope all goes well, goodluck!

I tried a version of ssh pat with dd when she was a little over 4 months. I didn't swaddle, but held her close, one arm down her back & patting bottom other arm keeping her still and holding hand. If I got my timing right she dropped right off, if not I had up to 10mins of fairly vigorous protest. Unfortunately she seemed to suss ssh (why don't they embrace sleep like us?) and I switched to twinkle twinkle, then baa baa black sheep, now puff the magic dragon.
Master plan was to move to ssh patting her lying beside her, to her cot, to self-soothing with pu/pd as a back up plan, but I stalled somewhere; she's nearly 6 months now...
Hoping to see some success stories to get me going again!