Take them for a drive in the car till they fall asleep

Whatever works! Routine – sleep at same time and before 4pm or night time sleel can be affected, I give her a dummy, put her in sleep sack, close blind and say time for sleep. She used to cry a protest cry not a distressed cry, it was very stressful and I didn’t want to dk the whole controlled crying thing. I timed it and it was only a couple of minutes (seems like forever when it’s your baby crying), then she’d lie down and eventually fall asleep. At times I’ve had to put her in the cot to get things done even though she wasn’t going to sleep (we dont have a play pen). She thought it was fascinating to see me vacuum her room!

Time.

My daughter refused an afternoon sleep from birth and from 4pm to 7pm was CRAZY. Nothing I did worked. Just had to wait it out till lunch sleep became ingrained and then as a 2 year old she also had stages of “I’m not sleeping today.”

On the upside she slept through the night from very early on. It was just the afternoons everyday that had me tearing my hair out.

It’ll pass

Make sure the room is a dark as possible if your baby won’t sleep in a light room. However it is harder to get a baby to sleep away from home that way. We sometimes used to play soft music until we knew our baby/toddler was asleep. Our 3 year old still has an afternoon sleep most days even if it is only the time it takes to pick the elder one up from school, otherwise we have a cranky, naughty child late afternoon. My niece when she was about 2 1/2 years old swapped to an afternoon sleep on alternate days or she got cranky. You may find that your baby/toddler may sleep better late morning which can mean either early or late lunch. Anything is worth a try to see if it works. Some will fall sleep in front of the TV. In all honesty I have to say I don’t recommend that as they tend to sit and their head roll to one side or fall forwards – not good for their neck or lay in a strange position and risk falling unless they are on the floor. On odd occasions our now 3y.o. has been playing one minute, laid down and gone to sleep on the floor the next. I often use an old thick full size car seat cover with a thin blanket and a sheet on top of it so they aren’t sitting on the cold floor and sometimes put a pillow down in case the toddler who now has a pillow decides to go to sleep. On odd occasions he actually tells me he wants to go to bed.