Please tell me this is a phase.

[AFWife]

My soon to be 16 month old suddenly WILL NOT SLEEP. He gets tired around noon, exhausted by 1pm, and pretty much passes out at 3pm. This makes bedtime ridiculous (I think he went to bed around 10pm last night...and it was a fight to get there) We try a bottle of milk (we're weaned) and cuddles (I do it during the day and DH helps in the evening) but nothing works. We even tried the hot bath and sit in the dark route last night...he was nodding out and when we tried to get him into bed he screamed and literally fought us.

It's driving me crazy. I mean, I wouldn't mind the late naps if he were the same happy baby after he gets sleepy. He becomes intolerable after the exhaustion hits.

Is it a phase? His eating has also been a bit off lately (like, last week he ate everything in sight and this week he takes a few bites and he's done) so is it a growth thing? I'm so frustrated and tired (there's a lot going on in my life right now) I NEED him to sleep...or at least be nice.

[katmann]

I'm not sure how helpful this idea is, but maybe it's the bed itself that he has a bad association with. I just think this because you said at one point he was very tired, but when you tried to put him in bed he fought you.

We had this issue with DS at around 14 months, when we had been successfully getting him to nap in his crib rather than in our bed (we cosleep, and we were trying to transition him to his crib). After a few nights of trying to get him to sleep in his crib, he just got worse and worse and worse. So we finally abandoned the whole thing, which was actually great, because even though he's still sleeping in our bed (at 19 mos), he goes down really easily. We're getting ready to switch him to a new bed in his room, rather than his crib, since he can now climb out of it.

Maybe there's a way you can make bedtime more enticing for him by making his room more of HIS room. Like, if he's in a crib now, get a mattress for him. Let him help pick out a set of sheets. Let him know it's all for his benefit, and make it a treat. Or maybe there are other changes you can make that would make his room more comfortable. But it you make him feel special during the process, he might be more accepting.

Sorry you're going through this. I hope it gets better soon!

[lotus.blossom]

Where is he at with teething? Mine is a couple weeks younger than yours and he just got all his molars in. We had some rough sleeps while they were coming in. Good news is: it is just a phase. Bad news: There will be different variations of phases in the coming years. Awesome news? My 4 year old sleeps like a rock and has for the last year. I never though that would happen as he was the WORST sleeper in the world.

HTH!

[Comtessa]

My 14.5 mo DD recently went through a similar stage -- her sleep schedule has been all over the place. I strongly suspect that teething pain is the culprit in your case (I think it was for us), especially since you say he's refusing to eat much either. If his little mouth is hurting, he's probably not going to feel much like chewing.

Have you tried giving him teething tablets around naptime? If it is teething causing the sleep issues, it might calm the pain enough to help him rest. You could even try Tylenol once to see if it makes a difference (though I'm not sure I'd do that unless I had run out of other options; I try to avoid medicine unless there's a really good reason).

I'm also normally super car-averse, but as a last resort have you considered taking him for a car ride just around the time he's starting to get tired (before he's completely exhausted)? DD always nods off in her car seat and a few minutes in the car is often enough to convince her when she's stubbornly fighting a nap.

I suspect that if you can improve his nap schedule, his nighttime schedule will improve automatically. If DD hasn't napped well, she is often impossible at bedtime and will fight going into her crib.

Oh, one other thing I just thought of. The other night DD fought bedtime for a full two hours. I was at my wits' end -- it was after eleven o'clock and I could not get that child to sleep. Finally I thought to check her diaper. The poor kid had the most enormous poop ever. I was so tired I didn't even notice when she did it! In hindsight, I'm sure that she couldn't go to sleep because her stomach was hurting her while she tried to get all that digestion worked out. Perhaps your LO is constipated and it's making him uncomfortable? Just a thought.

[meemee]

yup its a phase.

it also could be some form of growth spurt. there is going to be a change somewhere -whether it is language explosion or something else.