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Welcome To The Members Area! Forums Baby Sleep Help Incorporating catnaps in sleep, eat, play cycle Reply To: Incorporating catnaps in sleep, eat, play cycle

  • Emma H

    Administrator
    March 22, 2024 at 9:20 pm

    Hi Jaime,

    You can continue with your pattern of wake, play, feed, play, and then sleep if you feel that is giving your little one more time between feeds and leading to larger feeds. The main thing is to separate the feed from the nap. This reduces the chances your little one will fall asleep while feeding and develop a sleep association with feeding.

    It’s also a good idea to schedule the feed more than 30 minutes before nap time. This is because there’s a bowel reflex that occurs around 20 – 30 minutes after eating. So by scheduling the feed more than 30 minutes before nap time, you’re reducing the chances your little one will need to poop when you’re trying to settle them to sleep or during sleep (which will lead to them having a shorter nap).

    Have you had a chance to watch the video on managing catnaps? In it, I give some strategies for overcoming the catnapping phase.

    Once your little one starts to extend their naps, you might want to change the pattern to wake, feed, play, and then sleep, as the time between the feeds will be longer.

    I hope that helps!

    Emma