How to Get Kids to Sleep in Later

It may not be done a lot, but I put aluminum foil over my sons window (6yrs) and a heavy blanket over my daughters window (1yr).

Ok I know this is going to sound crazy but put him to bed earlier. If you are putting him down for bedtime at 9pm change it to 8. If we don't get our boys to bed by a certain time they will be up till 10-10:30pm some nights but they will still sleep till 7am, but when they were your son's age we were laying them down around 8-9 and they would get up around 5-5:30 so a friend of mine suggested I put them to be earlier and sure enough it worked. I hope I was some help.

I don't know if your son room is dark, try to cover the window with some dark covering so that the sun doesn't come in until you remove the covering.

First I had to make sure my son was getting good naps during the day. I know that sounds crazy but if my son did not nap he slept horribly. Second is that I had to start blacking out his windows, as soon as the son would rise it would wake him up. The time change was especially hard. So at night I would hang a blanket over his window then take it down the next day. It seemed to help him sleep at least an hour later. What I have found over the years is that his sleep patterns change like I change underwear! I never know what he is going to do, as soon as I would think we are on a schedule he would start doing something different! Ah the joys of parenthood.

T.

I have two girls and whenever the time changes so do there sleep patterns. To help with the sun coming in a waking them early I put a blanket over there bedroom window to keep it dark. I know it sounds crazy but it worked and everyone gets more sleep. Good luck!

I am having similar issues myself! I think some of it depends on what stages they are going through, teething etc. The only thing I know that USUALLY works is to keep them up later at night and I personally make sure the blinds are completely closed at night so the sun doesn't wake her in the morning. Good luck!

when my daughter used to get up on weekends the same time she got up during the week i thought i'd never get to sleep in. but i found that if i wanted an extra hour or so all i had to do was pick her up and bring her to bed with me. she'd snuggle down and fall right back to sleep. this doesn't work now that she's older but i put toys in or near her crib that she can play with unsupervised and she entertains her self now (she's almost 2). hope that helps!

You can't. You can try and it may work a little, but they get up when they want to. And unfortunately, it's always way too early. Get some black-out or heavy denim curtains to block out the light from the windows. Get a sound machine to have white noise in the background. The garbage man used to wake up my son until I got him that sound machine. It could be any number of sounds going on outside... neighbors leaving for work, putting out the trash, trucks on the road again. Keeping them up late doesn't help. It just makes the more cranky the next day.
Definitely don't try giving them medication like benadryl. I've heard some parents say they do this and over time the benadryl stops working. Then the child could have a real, serious allergic reaction to something and the benadryl doesn't work anymore, that child is in serious condition. It's not worth it and it doesn't work. Medications are not tested on children so dosage is usually guessed anyway.
Anyway, I hope some of the suggestions help a little. He should be taking two naps a day at 9 months. Don't try to keep him up during his naps... overly tired babies also don't sleep well at night. Weird, but true. Good luck!

Hi V.,

Is he truly waking with the sun because of the sun or just waking up earlier? If it's the sun, then try shades like Faith suggested, if it's not it may just be the traveling you are doing. Going from the northern to the southern hemisphere you just changed seasons even if the weather is the same as Florida.... There are a lot of effects from traveling and just being in a new home but, WOW, thats a big change for a little one.

How long is your visit going to last? If just a little longer try and wait it out til you get back home. If you're planning on staying in Brazil indefinitely then you might want to keep looking for a solution. It might be the only one is time.

Good luck to you and enjoy that wonderful Brazilian cuisine...

Regards,

M.

This is going to sound nuts, but put him to bed earlier. You can try 10 minutes earlier per day or just try 30 minutes earlier at once. A good book on this is Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Baby. It doesn't teach a sleep method, but rather gives an overview of all of them and talks about physiological sleep and wake times that are best for each age.

Just when you get used to your child's sleeping and waking schedule, they will switch it up on you!

That's life V.! Trust me.

If you breast feed, giving him the breast milk when he wakes up might make him sleepy again.

You might just need to bite the bullet, let him wake up and I'm sure by 10 am, he'll want to nap.

My kids do this to me all the time. She waks up at 4, I give her a bottle. My son wakes up because he hears me up and he asks "is it waking time?" and I take him to the bathroom and put him right back to bed. Sometimes back into my bed because its the only way to get everyone to sleep again.

Sleep deprivation goes hand in hand with motherhood, my dear! LOL Thank God for Coffee!!!

If you want, try keeping him up 90 minutes later than he normally goes to bed - it won't work right away - trust me. But eventually he'll get a new schedule. He just might be going through the 9 month growth spurt or he's not used to his surroundings....

Just take this all into consideration. And no matter what anyone tells you, never use medication as an alternative...I've heard terrible stories lately and just want to warn you about it too!

I would say it depends on a couple of things. First, my son also gets up around 6-6:30am--it's just his usual time. I feel lucky when I wake up around 7 and haven't heard him yet. Many, many kids just get up at this hour.
Second, a lot of babies (and my son did this too) will wake up at 5ish, babble for 20-30 minutes and then go back to sleep--so don't run in there right away and wait--there is a good chance he may go back to sleep.
If that doesn't work and 5am is his definite wake-up time and you want it to be later, I know of two things you can try which are the opposite of each other. First what time is his bed time? Kids at this age usually need between 11-12 hours of sleep a night. So if he is going to bed after 8 already, he may actually need to go to bed earlier. OK sounds crazy I know, but according to Dr. Weissbluth AKA the sleep Dr who wrote Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child this is very true since an over-tired child will actually wake up earlier. I have also read many other child "sleep experts" quote this and his studies. This would also be true if they don't get enough sleep during the day--which at 9 months is usually 2-3 naps totally 4-5 hours. So first check to make sure he is getting enough sleep and if he isn't bring his bedtime back and see if that works.
If he already has an pretty early bedtime (6:30-7:30pm), then I would do the opposite and gradually move his bedtime back 1/2 hour or so. My son is 2 1/2 and around 18 months went from sleeping 12 hours to sleeping 11 hours a night--so 7pm-5:30/6am was just too early! So I moved him up to 7:30 and now 6:30 is his norm, which is still early, but doable for us.
Finally, I have also read to try and keep the room as dark as possible so the light doesn't affect them and to only go in there "when it is time to wake up" so if you want 7am to be the wake-up time, don't get them until then.
Good luck!!