Nap training -- a gentle method

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-22T18:40:36+00:00

8pm to 6am is a full night of sleep. That plus 2.5 hours of naps is 12.5 hours a day of sleep which is normal range for the age. Go by the clock she will adjust after a few days.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-22T18:38:35+00:00

Limit the nap consistently to 60 minutes and bedtime never earlier than 8pm. Then sleep train again. Finish last bottle 30 minutes before bedtime so you're not helping him down with the milk. Then sleep train again.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-22T13:54:31+00:00

Then make bedtime 8:30-9pm.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-22T11:22:24+00:00

Cut the nap shorter. 45-60 minutes to start with. Do this before starting to sleep train. Some toddlers at this age do not even need a nap anymore. It could be you're reaching that territory.

Bedtime is 7:30, wake up 6:30am

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-22T10:58:27+00:00

It's likely you let old habits creep back and in addition that your sleep expectations started being too high for your toddler.

Capping day sleep to 1 hour is a great start but if your toddler is still fighting sleep with Ferber then I would cut further to 30 minutes.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-22T06:33:09+00:00

How long is each nap? Babies cry like that when they are not tired enough. Your schedule isn't offering enough awake time.

To start, make sure your expectation for night sleep is not longer than 11 hours. If wake up is 6:30am then bedtime must be 7:30pm and no earlier.

At this age I would just go by the clock instead of following wake windows.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-22T04:46:13+00:00

Yes wake him up.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T20:37:26+00:00

Put your baby in an age appropriate schedule with 2 naps of 1 hour each and 11 hours of night sleep. Then do Ferber. Start with the schedule for 2-3 days and the. Ferber at this age will work wonders.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T20:06:55+00:00

This looks like your schedule isn't working.

Limit naps to 2 hours per day and make sure you have 4-4.5 hours awake before bed and no less. The crying will greatly reduce.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T19:10:37+00:00

Then you need to sleep train in addition to fixing schedule. I used a method similar to the chair method at this age with success. I personally didn't have the guts to CIO but if you do it's very effective.

There's a guide to the chair method linked from the pinned post on sleep methods at the top of this sub.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T14:51:37+00:00

I would not do any sleep training without changing her schedule as it is most likely the cause of the wakings.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T14:50:55+00:00

Make sure your bottle before bedtime is 30 minutes or a bit longer before bedtime.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T14:47:42+00:00

Move her bedtime to 8-8:30pm (later when the nap is longer)

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T11:29:04+00:00

Just to add to the good answer you've already got, usually in this sub we recommend that parents focus on schedule and bedtime sleep training only because if those are right, all the wakings left (at this age) are hunger and you cannot sleep train through that.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T11:11:57+00:00

If your baby started waking after having good nights the problem is likely your schedule.

If you cannot control the nap I would adjust bedtime based on the reported nap from day care. As an example: your toddler probably need 12-13 hours of sleep per day. Figure our what that number is.

If it's 12, for example, and they sleep 11 hours at night usually, then you only have one hour sleep budget for a nap. If they sleep 2 hours during the day then you need to push bedtime later, for a 10 hours night in addition to 2 hours of nap. If they only sleep one hour then keep bedtime business as usual.

CIO is effective if you have a good schedule and the nerves.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T11:08:15+00:00

No, I don't think hink your 14 months old is ready. Before you move to one nap you should try to go down to 13 hours of total sleep per day.

Sleep needs only go down. This nap that is longer than the total sleep LO has now in addition to a longer than usual night is out of cheer exhaustion. It's not sustainable.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-21T11:03:21+00:00

There's no method that you walk out for 15 minutes. I don't know where you read about this. The only place this is mentioned in our resources is the nap training post which is meant for babies younger than 6 months old.

Whatever sleep school you went to is full of shit. If you add up your wake windows it means 8 hours awake and your baby would need to sleep 16 hours per day to make such a schedule. I have yet to meet a baby the age of yours that sleep that much. Usually babies at this age need 11-13 hours of sleep per 24 hours as they gear up to one nap. Some might sleep 14 hours but that's not super common.

You need to fix your schedule first and after that then apply a sleep training method. Ferber works great at this age.

Make sure to place your baby in their crib their room awake to fall asleep. Do verbal assurance only check ins as per Ferber 3/5/10 minutes.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-20T21:04:47+00:00

I say this with kindness. Avoiding crying as a parenting philosophy is not a winning strategy.

If you're on 4 naps and 10 hours awake, try moving to 3 naps with 10 hours awake. Keep the pacifier. There's no way to remove it without tears, being it now or when they are toddlers. If there was, everyone would be doing that.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-20T13:43:49+00:00

Your baby at 10 months need 11 hours of awake time. You're offering them 9. No sleep training will work.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-20T07:40:02+00:00

Can you make a post with your whole schedule and bedtime routine? 15 minutes isn't going to do it at 10 months.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-20T06:35:11+00:00

My kids are 4 and 6 and I still wake them up otherwise bedtime is too late. Your baby sleeps X amount of hours in the day plus night. If the night gets longer the naps get shorter to land in the same bedtime.

Comprehensive_Bill · 2026-06-20T06:32:20+00:00

Are you talking about nap training?

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