My Almost 11-Month Old Won't Take Naps in His Crib Anymore

Maybe you are putting him down too late for his nap? once in a while we need to rub his back to settle him down.

Good luck

I would, for your sake, as you have many more years of naps ahead of you, try to get him to nap in her crib. If it means rocking him until very sleepy (or asleep outright)or even letting him cry longer than 1/2 hour. I would let him cry 1 hour and see what happens. No matter how hard that hour is for you to listen to, as long as you know he is not sick or hurting, let him go an hour. I would do it as long as 3 days. If he is still battling you, maybe think of the time of day he is taking his nap. Is he still taking two naps/day. I rocked my older daughter to sleep at nap time until she was almost 2 years old (i know, probably way too old to be rocked to sleep). She was always able to put herself to sleep at night, but not nap time. When I had my second I could no longer rock her to sleep at nap time. It took a few days of her crying a bit, but with each day she cried less and less. Good luck. Hopefully, like all things with little ones, it is just a phase and will pass.

Is it possible that he doesn't know how to get back down again in his crib?

What I did was practice the standing up and sitting down in his crib while he was awake and make a fun game out of it, jsut to make sure she knew how to sit then lay down from a standing position in the crib.

Then during nap time, I would literally just say "it's time to lay down and nap" and I would pick up my DD enough so that I coudl lay her back down again to sleep. The first time we did it, I no kidding laid her back down over 100 times. The second time, no kidding, 200 times. The third time was like 30 and then she was back to napping like normal. Since you've done Ferber as well as gone in after 30 min, it may take you longer than that honestly. Since right now her expectation is 30 min.

Personally I dont' believe in letting a child cry like that at that age. He may just honestly need your help. And even if he doesn't, I feel it's abandonment.

This advice is more in detail in Tracy Hogg's the Baby Whisperer Solves All your Problems.

The only way to really get him to nap in his crib again is to put him in his crib and leave him there. It sounds to me like you are training him to scream until you rescue him.

My 17 month old has pulled little crying sessions off and on since she was about 9 months old. The last two nights she has cried when I left her in her crib for bed. Though it's hard, they reach a certain point where they will test their limits, and if there is a chance that you will come back to them, they will scream and cry for it.

I would let him nap in his stroller for a while if it's at all feasible. Sooner or later, he'll want the freedom to sprawl or turn on his tummy. My daughter napped on me in the recliner on weekends until she was almost two, and still does sometimes. In the grand scheme of things, well, how much longer will he even be napping? If he's sleeping in his crib through the night, you're doing pretty well ;).

I highly recommend these resources....

http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/sl11.asp

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"Distressed Babies Need to be Held"
http://www.mothering.com/crying-comfort-distressed-babies...

"Babywise Advice Linked to Dehydration, Failure to Thrive"
http://www.ezzo.info/Aney/aneyaap.htm

As the mother of a former high-need child, I also highly recommend a lot of holding and rocking and nursing.

I also highly recommend using a lambskin specifically designed for baby-use (they are real lambskin but can be laundered as needed).

http://www.sheepskintown.com/baby-sheepskin-short-wool-p-...

http://www.kiwi-sheepskins.com/detail.asp?product_id=BA001

http://www.sheepskinfurs.com/27-baby-lambskins.html

You might also find some help by taking a look at this book, which is probably in your local public library (or at least available through inter-library loan)...

http://www.amazon.com/Family-Bed-Concept-Child-Rearing/dp...

It seems to me that if he's waking up more now than before, then perhaps that is a clue that this is not working for what he needs at this stage of his life. Cooperation with what a baby needs (rather than expending a lot of energy in fighting those needs) often makes everybody happier and healthier.

I agree with the idea that perhaps it would help to cut back on the number of naps that he gets in a day.

I do not recommend letting him cry it out. I believe that that kind of treatment causes a deep grief in babies, which can leave internal emotional scars for the rest of their lives (unless they get treatment for it).

I also disagree with the belief that if you don't let him cry it out, then for many years you will have a child who will not transition to a more grown up style of sleeping. The people who practice attachment parenting, in which the parents respect the needs and natural growth patterns of their children, have found that the opposite is true. Those children who frequently have their requests for holding and nursing and sleep needs denied are the ones who are most commonly the fearful and tense and clingy ones. Those children who are constantly respected and made to feel heard, and who get the amount of holding and nursing and physical contact that they ask for, are the ones who are peaceful and self-confident and more likely to move on to separations from their mothers at a normal pace.

I often think that people who suggest the cry-it-out method might feel differently about the issue if they would think about how they themselves would feel if they were asking and asking and asking for love and holding and attention and comfort and reassurance and a listening ear, and getting ignored by their loved ones (husbands, family, friends, pastors, or whoever their support network is), and then sobbing and sobbing and sobbing for that, and still getting ignored by their loved ones.

When a baby starts waking up more times in a night or afternoon than s/he had been for awhile, it might simply mean that s/he is going through some kind of change or development stage in which s/he NEEDS more holding or nursing or something, NOT that they are somehow regressing in a negative sense. When we ignore those needs, we risk not being sensitive to or caring for our babies' legitimate growth processes and changing needs. The baby has no way of reading the mind and knowing of the good intentions of her/his mother. The baby can only feel ignored and unheard and abandoned and alone and very, very, very profoundly sad and grief-stricken.

I hope that you find some relief soon.

Best wishes,
J.

By 8:30 am he is yawning?

I think it might be time to move to one nap, later in the day. By 11 months, a lot of kids are only taking one. I would move his nap to around lunchtime and see how it goes.

I would never let a baby cry it out... Dr. Ferber came out a few years ago and said NOT to let babies cry it out at all... I would never let him cry for more than a couple of minutes. Part of what he is doing is gauging whether he can depend on you to come and get him... and he should be able to. So I would scrap the Ferberization. It's not a great way to do things.

E. Pantley has a great book, The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers. It's wonderful.

I hope this helps, but I would cut back to one afternoon nap and see how that goes. I bet you will have a much more willing napper then. :)

What is wrong with letting him take little naps in his stroller or in the car seat?? There is no rule that says a baby has to sleep in his crib. He will probably be a child that stops taking naps at an early age, like my son did. But if he felt he needed a nap he just laid down and napped. My suggestion is just let him nap where ever he feels comfortable as long as he is sleeping in his crib at night.
S.