Ella’s (20 months) short lunchtime nap is causing other problems with sleeping and eating. Ella is one year and eight months old. The problem is that she is only sleeping 30-40 minutes at her lunchtime nap. The knock-on effect is that she is waking earlier in the mornings too. She also often doesn’t want supper as she is too tired. She is very run down from lack of sleep and subsequently keeps getting various illnesses. She currently has terrible conjunctivitis and a cough and cold. I always put her down at 1pm and she used to sleep for about 1.5 hours but not since the beginning of January. I have…

My daughter of 19mths has suddenly stopped sleeping at lunchtime. How can I get this nap back? My daughter of 19mths has always settled with no problem by 1pm for two solid hours, sometimes slightly longer, always woken by 3pm. Suddenly she stopped sleeping at lunchtime and is also taking longer to settle at night. She is in bed just before 7pm and sometimes still awake chatting but not crying at 8pm. She seems to be awake earlier than normal in the mornings although not much before 6.45. Until this began to happen my daughter had always slept until 7am or mostly later, sometimes 7.30/8am, with the two hours at…

My 18mth daughter settles well when with her grandparents for this nap but screams and cries when she is at home. My 18mth daughter has all of a sudden started to resist being put down for her lunchtime nap. She is ready for this nap as she seems quite tired at lunchtime. I have bought lunchtime forward to 11.45pm so that she goes down at 12.30pm. Grandparents have no problem with this nap, it is just at home she screams and cries and is difficult to settle. As your daughter’s grandparent’s care for her during the week, her routine with them is familiar to her. If you care for her…

My daughter, aged nearly two years, has started to have inconsistent naps at lunch time, often remaining awake in her cot chatting for 1.5 hours. This began after a period of illness where she lost her appetite. Following the afternoons when she does sleep well, she will not settle to sleep until 8pm in the evening and, on the afternoons when she doesn’t sleep well, she is a total nightmare as she is so irritable. My daughter aged nearly two years has started to have inconsistent naps at lunch time, often remaining awake in her cot chatting for 1.5 hours. This began after a period of illness when she lost…

My 1 year old daughter has started to fight going down for her daytime nap on the days when I care for her. My 1 year old daughter has always been a CLB, following the routine to the letter. We started having a nanny 1 day a week 2 months ago and the nursery for 2 days a week one month ago (we have to do this until we get the full 3 days in the nursery in a couple of months time). She adjusted immediately without much separation anxiety (at least not displayed) and has her usual lunchtime nap from about noon to 2pm with the nanny as well…

My son is only 17 months old but doesn’t seem to need daytime sleep. My son, Oliver, is 17 months old and weighs 11 kilos. He truly is a contented baby and has slept through the night since he was 5 weeks old. He has an excellent appetite and eats a wide range of food. We follow a mostly organic diet and use a number of the recipes from your weaning book – thank you Gina for all the great advice in your books. I am a working mum and Oliver spends the day with our nanny, Jill, and they have a excellent relationship. Jill follows the same routine as…

Since staying with relatives my 9-month-old son has begun to wake in his lunchtime nap One month ago I went to Italy to my parents’ house; my son had no problems in setting for his naps but at the lunchtime nap he began to wake up crying loudly after 1 hour or max 1 hour and 30 minutes (before he was sleeping for 2 hours and he woke up very happy and singing). I made sure of the fact that he was not hungry, thirsty or uncomfortable. I thought perhaps that some new sounds could be upsetting him but he woke up also when there was no sound at all.…

Can I move my 8.5-month-old son’s lunchtime nap onto 1pm? My son is 8 months old and sleeps at 9.30am until 10.15am, from 12.30pm till 2.30pm and the full 12 hours at night from 7am-7pm. However, due to other commitments, I need to move his lunchtime nap to 1pm. I was thinking that I could let him sleep from about 1.15pm to about 2.45pm, giving him about 1.5 hours and maintaining the morning sleep as is. Can you please advise me if this is the right thing to do? Will he be able to go from 10.15pm till 1pm comfortably? It is impossible to say how your son will be…

How can I get my 6.5-month-old daughter to nap for longer and settle better? I seem to be surrounded or read about people’s babies who take long naps. I can count on both hands the number of times my 61/2-month-old daughter has ever done a stretch of sleep longer than 45 minutes at lunchtime. I can’t remember when she last slept for 2 hours. Rarely she sleeps for 1 hour and 20 minutes. I used to leave her crying and sometimes she resettled herself at lunchtime but she’s changed and in just 1 month seems so much older and wakeful. She sleeps all night 7.15pm to 7.15am and at every…