"How Do I Get Him to Nap?"

My daughter is two years old and still won't sleep in anything but her bouncy seat. She also has acid reflux. I don't know if this is the reason, but she sleeps great in her bouncy. As for not taking naps, you might have to take the hard road. Let him cry himself to sleep. I know this is hard, but we had to do the same thing. It is amazing, how at such a young age, they can already manipulate. He knows if he cries enough, you will come get him. He will cry himself to sleep, you just have to have the strength to let him. I hope this helps. A frind of mine, mother of three, said, "why not let her sleep in her bouncy chair? She gets rest and she will eventually grow out of it." Since I have heeded her advice, we have had much more restful nights.

An alternative to letting him sleep in his bouncy seat is to elevate his mattress on one end. We did this with my son because of sinus issues at a young age (he is now 6 and has had some ear, nose, throat surgery every other year, 2, 4, 6) but we found that by placing a pillow or two under one end of his mattress it helped relieve some of the drainage that made him sick. Might work for reflux too since sitting in the bouncy seat works. It's like adding a second pillow to your bed when you are stuffed up except since you can't put a pillow in his bed, you use it to elevate his bed. As for the not sleeping unless it's dark, you might want to get a dark color mini-blind for his room. I get migraines and have to have a completely dark room and I found a smoke blue miniblind and covered it with a dark patterned curtain, it works wonders to block out the light.

try putting him swaddled in his carseat... my nephew slept in his carseat until he was 91/2 months old because of his reflux

Well i know how you feel. Starting at 3 months my son started this thing where he will only nap for 25 to 30 min at a time. Some babies just don't nap. He was on such a good routine and then boom no naps. I always put him down about 8am he gets up at 630 to eat. I put him down at 8 he sleeps until about 10am and then after that it is a 15 min. nap here and there. Your babies reflux might be why he might want to sleep in the bouncy. Just try to lay him down each day for a nap at the same time even if it is in the bouncy. Don't let your baby cry it out he is to little.
Even if you lay him or sit him in the bouncy and he don't sleep he is getting quiet time. After a few days of putting him there and letting him sit for a few min and getting him back out after 5 min. He will figure out o yeah i am suppose to rest right now. Just don't let him cry it out.. I done my son this way and it works. It took about 3 weeks though.
He gets up at 10 am eats his baby food and a bottle and i play with him for a while and then lay him in his crib about 12 to rest. He will lay there and play for a while. At 1PM I get him up and take him put him in his bouncy seat and he will fall asleep for a few min. And so on.. This seems to work. A long nap in the morning and evening is all i get and he is 5 months old.
I hope this helps.. Just be consistant with putting him down no matter where after a while i hope he figures out to rest.
Good luck

Hi- As a mom of two refluxers, I agree with elevating one end of the crib. My son's dr suggested using bricks and putting the wheel in the hole so that it's sturdy. My son kept sliding down, but he didn't care. Also try to keep him upright for about 30 minutes after each feeding. Hard to do when you're sleep deprived, I know, but it does help. I think I slept more upright than lying down in the early months!

I also agree that at this young of an age, most anything you do for a baby can be undone- sleeping in a swing/bouncy seat, etc.

Finally, check with your doctor about meds. If he is on a reflux medication, the dosage may need to be increased if he has gained weight. We had to adjust my daughter's frequently. If he's not on meds, check to see if the dr. thinks that would be beneficial. My son's pediatric gastroenterologist says that as long as you have a happy volcano, everyone is happy. The pain from reflux CAN BE controlled and if it is not, the acid can cause damage to the baby's throat.

Good luck.
J.

My baby has really bad acid reflux (now 9 months) and he was on two different medications for it (now just one). The only way I could get him to sleep (aside from in a swing... the papasan swing only) was to get him to sleep on his tummy (I know they say this is bad, but it works) slightly elevated. I talked to the pediatrician about it, and he said as long as we didn't have bumpers and avoided blankets (instead using those sleeper outfits that are all warm and snug with footies), then he should be fine. And, once we made this change, he almost instantly started sleeping through the night and taking good naps during the day. I would encourage you to talk to your pediatrician about it.
Oh, and I'd mention that my baby also didn't want to sleep during the day, so I have put a dark blanket over the window in the baby room to block out all daylight.
I know it isn't much, but I hope this helps! It will get better!

Ironically I have the same exact issue. My daughter is 2 1/2 months and will only go to her bed at night so I either let her sleep in her swing or take a nap with me on the bed. I do think being upright is very conforting to babies with reflux, actually most babies at this age would rather be elevated slightly to sleep due to regurg. I gave up trying to make her sleep in her crib during the day. My advice would be to try changing your routine with him and maybe that would help him sleep (for example feed earlier or later, try some of the same activities from the morning) or he may just being going through a stage right now and will not take an afternoon nap.

Try taking him for a sort ride in the Car that always puts my son to sleep. Or put him in his car seat and turn on the dryer and place his car seat on top of the dryer. it will not harm him at all

More than likely, YES, that is why he will only sleep upright so to speak, in a bouncy....I have a friend that said her youngest son had to do that all the time, even at night, to get any sleep...I don't know how long they had to do this but she seemed to still remember the frustration/exhaustion of it all. I would just do whatever worked even though it is hard at the time. By the way, my 5 month old does not nap very much either...over the course of a whole day sometimes it is not but a total of three to four 20 minute naps each! That's it! Then he is not ready for bed until 8 pm, or later!

I have a 3 year old daughter and when she doesn't want to take a nap. I put her in a bath tub with bedtime bath and that helps her to take a nap. Beleive me it works! Try it. You just by a bottle of it and put one capful in the tub with the water running.
S.