Pediatrician's Top Tips For Helping Your Baby Learn to Nap

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  2. How do you feel about napping and feedings and that relationship? I know they say to not to feed babies before they sleep, but I’m nursing my almost 4 month old son and he always gets sleepy after eating.

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  4. Dr. B's, Is this something that we can apply strictly for naps if the child has no problems with night sleep? Or do they need to be fully night sleep trained first? Worried about affecting their night sleep since that's not an issue. She just won't nap if it's not a "contact nap" anymore, which is frustrating. 7 months old. Ty!

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  5. Thank you both so much! Hearing this was SO refreshing- we have a 5 month old, first time parents, and are definitely going through this! I was curious because our son would sleep only for 20-40mins in the afternoon so learning to try again at the next wake window was so helpful!

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  10. My baby is 5 month old and just refuses to sleep during the day. The 1st nap goes down well, the 2nd and 3 rd nap just don't happen. We follow wake windows and sometimes she stays up for 4 hours, the minute her body touches the crib she starts crying . The room is dark with good temperature. What can I do to fix this ?

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  11. You guys are a lifesaver. My baby would never nap throughout the day at the ripe age of 4 months old. He stopped napping. He was starting to develop bags under his eyes, Then, i followed your advice and he fell asleep in 8 minutes. I feel hope again!!

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  12. Ok please clarify; baby woke up at 20-25 minutes CRYING. You said to let them lay in their crib for another 20ish. Do you mean even if they are crying? You didn’t specify. You just said if baby wakes up at that mark, let them hang there. Thanks!

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  14. Should we start teaching baby how to sleep on their own with daytime Nap first and move onto teaching them how to sleep on their own at night time? My baby is 8 months old and we still rock and give him a bottle to fall asleep at night and nap time. Something needs to be done! 🙁

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  15. We did sleep training for night time and it was successful. We saw improvement every night and by Day 7 she went to sleep on her own without any crying. However, the naps are really difficult. I’m on Day 3 for naps and wondering when does it typically start getting better? She takes 3 naps a day and I’ve had to abandon ship for all her naps since starting.

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  18. Thank you! As a home daycare provider you have given me good insight to wake windows and the amount of time to check on my daycare babies. My job is to make sure my babies are well rested and able to enjoy their families when they go home without messing up the bedtime. It's easier said than done but I've learned much from you.

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  19. what if they wake and are crying after a 35 min nap? YOu mentioned that your daughter would wake early and you let her stay in there for another 20 min but was she crying? Would you suggest letting them cry for that 5-10-15 min intervals. Or end the nap?

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  20. My daughter had a VERY hard time learning how to sleep. What helped was… re ognizi g when she was just fussing in her sleep, and time. She went from IMPOSSIBLE to put down for a nap during the day (only slept with my boob, or if I carried her in a carrier – hated strollers). With time, she woke less and less during thw night, and it was her dad taking over for mw at night, so she got no boobie then. Now (2.5 y/o) she fusses once between 1-2 AM, but then falls asleep again and sleeps until about 7:30–7:50. Sleep training did absolutely NOT work with her

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  21. I was wondering 🤔 if one has the same environment (white noise, dark room etc) for nap times, doesn't that condition them to only be able to sleep nap times in the same conditions? What will happen if we can't be home for a nap, will my little one still be able to fall asleep if the conditions aren't the same?

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  22. Hi guys. Thanks again for a helpful and informative video. So, I have a baby who just turned 1. And I guess I’ve fallen into the bad habit of giving her a small bottle- 4 to 5 ozs of whole milk (previously formula) to help her get to sleep. She’s come to expect this for naps and night time. Now her pediatrician recommends I cut back her milk a bit. She generally sleeps through the night, and takes 1 – 2 naps per day. Any tips for getting her to sleep without the bottle?

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  27. If she wakes up in say 20 mins and we leave her in her crib till it’s 40-45 mins, she will be crying for the entire time she is awake and in the crib… Is my understanding correct? Is that what is being done by others generally? Advise at: 11:28

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  28. We talk about our daughter the same way. She’s 5.5 months old, and is seriously the most picky sleeper. We’ve got her night trained for sleep but now we’re staring naps. Love that girl so much, but she won’t fall asleep unless we are home in her dark nursery and she’s always been this way. We call her “fomo baby” because If we are out and about she’s up and aware, wants nothing to do with naps. We can’t really have anyone watch her still because she will refuse to sleep and it becomes a whole overtired situation. It was funny seeing my nephew whose 5 weeks younger than her still sleeping like a newborn…or at least how she was as a newborn.

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  29. This is great! Thank you for sharing! Did you have any difficulty getting your newborn to nap in the living room? We're planning on doing the same but wondering if naps are better in the same room/bassinet as nighttime sleep.

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  32. Hi, just checking if maybe my little one isn’t ready for this. We’ve done the night time training and he got the hang of that really quick. We’re on night 3 and he cried for a min or two and then just fussed a bit and was asleep within 15 mins. I’ve read that you should have the same approach to naps and you guys reinforce this but he just does not sleep at all, cries the whole hour 😢
    We are only on day 3 of trying this so maybe it’ll get better? Just looking for some guidance please. He is 18 weeks old so just over 4 months.Thank you.

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  33. It’s actually pretty reassuring to know not even trained professionals have all the answers. Been trying to study like I was trying to get a doctorate, Now I know that’s going overboard. Lol You guys are my favorite YouTube couple by far!!!

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  34. At the moment, i am planning to start sleep training my baby at night. Currently, we give her a bottle to fall asleep for her nap and at night time. I know I can't do that any more for bed time or nap time but my questions is can I try to change and take away her nap time bottle and night time bottle at the same time or should I keep her nap time routine the same by giving her a bottle but at night time not give her a bottle and follow the steps you outline on your pervious video on night time sleep training. Her naps are good right now by giving her a bottle, she will sleep for 2.5 hours once a day. She is 1 year old. But night time is horrible up every 2 hours for a bottle. So should i focus just on night time sleep training or try and do both at the same time naps and nighttime? Thanks in advance RS xoxo

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  35. I have a baby that doesn't nap anywhere too even till now. he is 1 year old now. I used to put him to sleep anywhere when he was a newborn, unfortunately as he grow, it stopped working. I nap trained and sleep trained both at once (did not night wean) at 4 months old because good naps usually lead to good night sleeps XD His nap started to deterioate gradually from 5 weeks old and at 7-8 weeks he not sleep for 4hr of wake window no matter what I do, can you imagine that? He went crazy by the time it's evening, hours and hours of inconsolable crying. Some people was questioning it was my milk supply issue. At 3 months old, he was waking every hour at night. My mother in laws kept questioning me if it's because my milk isnt enough to fill him. Gosh, they really don't know how horrible it feels for the mother to say that. Nobody seems to think that baby's sleep is a science, but truthfully quite many of them do need help to learn to sleep. When I started dark room, sleep schedule, white noise, they thought I was crazy. Nobody likes the idea of white noise and dark room including my husband. They don't get it. I went ahead with everything myself and you know what, best decision ever, my husband is really appreciating what I have done now because he gets lots of peaceful night sleeps and a happy baby LOL

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  37. Thanks so much for this video! As a fellow physician mommy, I find these so helpful. My 8 month old rarely naps for longer than 40 minutes, which is hard. I think we’re going to start daytime nap sleep training soon. Thanks!

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  39. two questions 
    1) do you still go in to reassure the baby if hes not crying but not falling asleep? my baby can stay in the crib looking around/sticking finger in his mouth/stomping his legs for 30 mins+
    2) how does the ferber method work if baby is waking up at night because he is hungry? do you pick him up to feed? or wait 60-75 mins of reassuring before feeding?

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  40. Great video! Any advise for me, my 3 month old keeps waking up after about 30 minutes during nap time, she wakes up crying. It seems like she doesn’t know how to transition between sleep cycles during the day? She doesn’t have this problem at night. I’ve ended up holding my baby during naps to help her nap longer.

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  42. Thank you soooo much for saying it’s okay that we use nap schedules. Some family doesn’t understand that we want our daughter to take good naps as she sleeps better and is a happier toddler.

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  44. This is disappointing advice. I come from a place where sleep training is not the norm, but I know in the USA there is a lot of pressure to return to work, which is why I can imagine sleep training is so popular.

    I am really lucky to have been able to take a year or maternity leave so never needed to do any sleep training. Waking at night is so normal in the first year or more of life. My son wakes once or twice a night (usually 10pm and 5am) for a feed which works fine for us. I do practice the ‘pause’ so give him a couple of minutes before responding at night as sometimes if he wakes and cries he is just uncomfortable and wants to adjust his position.

    It was also disappointing that you did not talk about the wide range of normal for infant sleep and the fact those ‘wake windows’ have no scientific basis and are widely different depending on which ‘sleep expert’ you ask. Anything from 9-16 hours of total sleep is normal for babies and some babies need more or less naps.

    My son dropped to 2 naps at 5 months and 1 nap at 11 months as he gets major fomo during the day and loves to play and practice skills.

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  45. Great video! I wonder if you guys……or any of you moms have advice for kids in day care. My daughter is just about to be 5 months and she is a terrible napper. She is an excellent night time sleeper but naps are rough. She attends day care at a center where she is one of 6 infants and was until last week the youngest baby in the class. They have a really tough time getting her to nap. When we really buckle down on weekends and get her to nap, it's in a darkened, quiet room with white noise. At day care she is in a classroom with other babies. They try and keep the lights dim but there is LOTS to look at and noise from other kids. Needless to say she is normally pretty crabby when she gets home and it makes weekend naps hard

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  47. Just curious and I will totally ask our Pediatrician at next visit, why do we have to wait until 4 months to start sleep training? Our girl just turned 2 months but at night typically goes 4 hrs in between feeds and is gaining weight. What makes a baby “ready” for sleep training? Thanks so much and love your content!!!

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