How can I get my 6 month old son to take an afternoon nap?

I'm having a difficult time getting my 6 month old son to take an afternoon nap. Often times he will only nap in the afternoon for 20 minutes and then is very tired and fussy around 5:00. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Discussion Information posted by vm30 to Sleeping on Jan 03, 2007 at 9:11 PM PST

2 Responses:

It could be that your 6 month old is still in need of three naps a day, especially if the mid-day nap isn't a very good one. Try putting him down for a rest around 5:00 and see if he'll sleep. If so, let him sleep for about an hour. Chances are he'll be ready for bed again at 7:30 or 8:00. If the third nap is interupting his bed time though, you may have to tweek his nap times a little. Hope this helps.

Comment Information posted by Tania on Jan 22 at 10:59 AM PST

I agree with Tania. For instance, we didn't wake up our child tonight until 6:30 from his afternoon nap (normally we wake him at 5 or 530), but he still was in bed about 8pm with no trouble. Seems like, most of the time, he still likes to go to bed around the same time no matter how many naps he does or doesn't have.

Also, some times when he only goes down in the afternoon for a short time (for some unknown reason usually), we can put him back down an hour later, even if just for a half hour.

Comment Information posted by Chuck Cheeze on Jan 22 at 10:55 PM PST

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