Need To Put 20 Month Old In Chair To Sleep

[makap]

I have a 20 month old dcb who has been with me since he was 11 months old. This child can never stop moving. He is constantly in motion, running in circles, climbing on things, moving from one toy to another to another just NEVER stops moving.

When he is in a chair for breakfast, snacks or lunch he is still always squirming and making noise, banging his hands on the highchair tray, kicking the footrest of the highchair, making whining or yelling or squealing sounds, just a very busy little boy.

He has always fought going to sleep. Every single day as soon as I leave the room after lying him down he will get up and jump up and down, run around the pnp, try and climb out of it, kick the bottom of it or just move around for excessively over an hour.

I had to keep such a close eye on him that I would have to eat my lunch standing by the bedroom door watching him. If I stayed right beside him he would stay lying down but as soon as I left right back up again! I can`t stay until he falls asleep as I have 5 others in different areas. I can`t put him with anyone else because he would keep them up too with his loud voice.

Being up at 5 am and not getting a break until my own child is in bed at night after 7 30 pm makes it a very long day and I was becoming extremely frustrated and exhausted.

I have been telling him mom about the trouble I was having at nap time and she was just saying oh yeah he does that sometimes!

I was getting ready to term as this has been very difficult for me with him not napping and me not having a break all day, so I told mom on Wednesday that I did not mind how active and busy he is but that it was becoming very difficult at nap time and there was nowhere I could put him to sleep safely and I did not know what to do. I told her that I have 5 others to supervise at nap time and now that he is trying to climb out of the pnp I am not able to keep him safe. I told her that if he continues to do this I might need to hire someone to help me. I asked her if she could come up with some ideas.
She basically just thought it was cute I think, and really did not say much at all. I was planning in the next week or so if this did not stop, to tell her that I needed to hire someone for 2 hours at nap time to sit with him and that I would need to raise her rates.


Yesterday as he does many days, he had started to fall asleep in his chair at lunch time but as soon as I take him out change his diaper and put him down for his nap he starts doing all of these things. My hubby was sleeping yesterday as he works night shift a few days each month and when he has to sleep during the day he sleeps in the basement just below where this little guy naps. There was so much noise that I had to take him out of his pnp and put him in his high chair in my laundry room which is the quietest place in my house and I can see him from my kitchen.

The little boy banged and kicked in the chair but fell asleep within 15 minutes. I left him for about a half hour and then he woke up crying so I gently carried him back to his room and laid him back down and covered him up. He slept for 3 hours!

Today same thing! Tired, rubbing his eyes, falling asleep in the chair but as soon as I changed and put him to bed he started again so I did the same thing only 15 minutes after he fell asleep I moved him to his bed.

This is the only thing that has worked since I started caring for this boy!
Has anyone ever had a child like this where they just can`t stop moving long enough to fall asleep!

Mom knows I did this I told her yesterday and I will tell her I did it again today.

[Breezy]

When my 15 month old can't shut his mind and body off to fall asleep I sometimes take him into my bed and cuddle him in a way that I am holding his arms at his side and he falls asleep within minutes. But, gosh I don't know what you can do with a DCK that won't settle down!

[jojosmommy]

Never done it. I think he needs to learn how to quiet his own body to go to sleep. Hard skill but necessary. Someone on here mentioned turing on a tape of books being read. I tried it and forces my 2 yr old dck to stop rolling around in her pnp, she wants to hear the book reading and can't hear it over her own rolling around. Took her about 2 days to realize if she laid still she could hear the tape. I would try that.

I also have a camera ($99 at babies r us) on all my dck kids. I can see what they are doing even if I am out of the room.

I would simply lay him down, say night night and walk out. Rinse, repeat, until he learns how to quiet himself. What are your nap plans for when he is too large to sit in a highchair?

[cheerfuldom]

Have you asked direct questions to his mom about how they get him to sleep at night? I suspect they may do car rides/car seat and that he may be used to being restrained in order to fall asleep. I would ask mom step by step what he normally does at home. As for climbing out of the PNP, can you get a toddler sized sleep sack so he can't get his leg up and over the side. This should help calm him down because he wont be able to jump around as easily.

[permanentvacation]

I have an 18 month girl who won't lay down to take a nap to save her life! She started not taking naps 2 months ago. She will roll around, talk to herself and all the other kids, crawl over to the toys and get toys out, you name it, she'll do it - EXCEPT LAY DOWN AND STAY STILL!! If I put her in the play pen, she talks, jumps all around, pulls up the mat, pokes holes in the side mesh, halfway climbs out - I started being afraid that she would fall out and land on her head or something, so I refuse to put her in the playpen anymore. If I put her in the high chair, no matter how tight the straps are, she gets out of them and stands up in the chair!! Again I am afraid she'll fall out, so I won't put her in the high chair. Then I went to putting her in a carseat!!! She still talked and made noises to try to communicate with the other kids! So I had to turn her carseat away from everyone so she could not talk to or try to communicate with anyone! THAT WORKED!!!! She would fall asleep in 5 minutes!!! However, I really CAN NOT have a child taking a nap in a carseat!!! SO... since her mom is at home - and does not work... I told her mom that she has to pick her up by noon - before nap everyday.

The mother had a doctor's appointment yesterday. So the girl stayed her after 12. I put her down for nap and for some odd reason, she actually fell asleep and stayed asleep all naptime!!!! YEAH right? - NOPE!! She then stayed awake last night til 11pm!! So mom came in this morning and gave me notice and said that she's going to keep her home to get her on a schedule.

I felt like saying,"THANK GOD!!!" I have been wanting to give her notice for the past 2 months, but didn't because I am so broke! However, this child not taking naps has been keeping the other children up during naptime which has made naptime til closing time HELL on everyone. So I am THRILLED that the mom is taking the child out of daycare!

Personally, I just think that the child simply does not need a nap anymore! They put her to bed at 7:30pm and she doesn't wake up til 7:30am. The kid's simply getting enough sleep during the night and does not need a nap!

[DBug]

I have a dcb EXACTLY like this!! He's about to turn 3 in a month or so, and he's been like this since he was about 16 months or so. I used to be able to sit beside his cot and stroke his forehead til he fell asleep -- that was enough to help him focus on relaxing and letting himself fall asleep. Then I was swaddling him for a bit -- it was just enough to keep his body still long enough to fall asleep. Then he had to be in the high chair because it started to take longer and longer for him to pass out, and I had babies to put down, etc., etc. He would read in the high chair until he fell asleep and then I'd lay him on his cot and he would sleep til I woke him up. Now, he sits in the high chair most days and reads the entire time. He will not stay still and quiet on a cot anymore, no matter what. BUT he's SO tired every day -- tantrums and screaming at the drop of a hat.

This week I've tried something different. The babies are away for the week, so I've put him in one of the pnps in a separate room from the other toddlers. I put a warm, heavy blanket on him and gave him a giant stuffed dog to cuddle with. He's slept everyday this week except one!

For him right now, I think the combination of being wrapped in the blanket, along with the weight/size of the stuffed dog (it's as big as he is) is enough to help him settle and calm down long enough to sleep.

I'm sure next week when the babies are back, we'll be back to not napping again though . I'm really not sure how to fix this one. It's so obvious he needs the sleep, but he just won't stop moving long enough to relax, unless I stumble on the right combination of things for that particular day.

[makap]

I have a routine with all my children. We put on quiet music while we eat lunch. Then we wash up. I change each child one by one and after each one is changed I say to the child `say bye everyone, *** is going do do. Bye everyone. I always cuddle with each, give them a kiss and lie them down, I say time to go to sleep and I leave the room. I rinse and repeat this with this child I swear dozens of time every single day until yesterday! I do not know what I am going to do when he is too big for a chair I will have to see what happens by then. Maybe he will be older and will outgrow this. I will deal with that when it happens. With this job it is always changing! ::

According to mom at night he is in bed by 8 and sleeping by 9. He is up at 5 and here at 5 30. I thought he was over tired so I started trying a morning nap thinking maybe it would work but nope!

In fact I have tried everything! The only other thing that worked was me staying right beside him with one hand gently on his chest but I can`t do this everyday with other little ones to watch. As soon as I have to leave to tend to one of the other children he is right back up.

[cheerfuldom]

I have a routine with all my children. We put on quiet music while we eat lunch. Then we wash up. I change each child one by one and after each one is changed I say to the child `say bye everyone, *** is going do do. Bye everyone. I always cuddle with each, give them a kiss and lie them down, I say time to go to sleep and I leave the room. I rinse and repeat this with this child I swear dozens of time every single day until yesterday! I do not know what I am going to do when he is too big for a chair I will have to see what happens by then. Maybe he will be older and will outgrow this. I will deal with that when it happens. With this job it is always changing! ::

According to mom at night he is in bed by 8 and sleeping by 9. He is up at 5 and here at 5 30. I thought he was over tired so I started trying a morning nap thinking maybe it would work but nope!

In fact I have tried everything! The only other thing that worked was me staying right beside him with one hand gently on his chest but I can`t do this everyday with other little ones to watch. As soon as I have to leave to tend to one of the other children he is right back up.

Are you SURE they aren't co-sleeping? Really, I would be curious about the hour of getting to sleep too. Something is not adding up here.

[permanentvacation]

I tried everything with my girl. I tried music, dark room, patting her back, everything!

You should ask the parents how things work at home- what time the child goes to bed, what time the child gets up in the morning, does the child sleep all night through, where does the child sleep, does the child go to sleep before bedtime such as at dinner time or in the car before they get home from daycare, does the child take naps on the weekend if so, what time and how long does the child sleep, do they do anything such as darken the room, put the tv on, music on, lay down with the child, etc. Find out from the parents about what they do at home.

[nothingwithoutjoy]

In fact I have tried everything! The only other thing that worked was me staying right beside him with one hand gently on his chest but I can`t do this everyday with other little ones to watch. As soon as I have to leave to tend to one of the other children he is right back up.

Not sure how your home is set up, but I have all the kids in one room for nap. I can sit between two mats and help two kids at the same time get to sleep (squirmiest, loudest ones first), then move on to the less-squirmy ones.