How can I change my LO's sleep & eating pattern?

I would just try and adjust his sleep times by half an hour here and there for a few days and that will gradually change it without too much fuss or resistence from your DS. Also my DD is 2yrs 4months and she sleeps from 730pm - 6am and has a two hour nap from 12 - 2 everyday. Hope that helps for your long term goal.

Hi Sant My DS is about the same age (just 11months) - he sleeps from 7pm - 7am (well until 2 days ago when he decided to start waking up at 5am and 6am - suppose I should be thankful the sleep-ins lasted this long!) Your DS should still be having 'breakfast' as such, because whilst he isn't sticking to 'traditional' day hours, he is still awake for 12 hours, so kicking off with breakfast is the best way to start his metabolism in the morning. Don't panic if you have been skipping this meal, until about now - 12 months, most of their daily nutritional requirements are still obtained through their breastmilk/formula feeds. Do just be a little bit careful with restricting his eating hours. At the moment, he only has 7.5 hours during the day of an eating window - this should be longer. If he is not going to bed until 10.30pm, I would happily give my DS dinner at 9.30. e.g. my sons routine is dinner at 6, bath at 6.30, PJ's, final bottle and bed at 7... His first 'meal' is at 7.30 - 8am. Basically, if you have short eating window through the day, your body goes into 'starvation' mode throughout the rest of the time, which leads it to store as many calories as it can as fat, as your body thinks 'I am not going to be fed for a while, I have to store as much as I can..' Don't panic at this point, it isn't too much of a problem, but as they get older, it is really important to establish good eating patterns, so as to avoid issues with digestion (through a reduced metabolism) which can ultimately lead to weight issues. Anyway, I think with adjusting his schedule, I would just treat it like I do when we are adjusting timezones. Do you have a clear night-time routine? This makes it far easier if you do, particularly at this age when the routines are usually fairly well established - they can be fooled into thinking they 'should' be getting tired and going to sleep, if you start the normal bedtime routine. I 'believe' the basic rule of thumb for jetlag, is that every hour you want to bring your forward your DS's sleep, will take a day - but this may be different if these timings have been what he is used to since early on in life. You might need to perservere a little bit. You will probably have him being a bit grumpy and resistant for a while. I would 'personally', try and wake him an hour earlier to start with - make sure all the curtains are open, so he knows it is daytime and that he should be awake. Make sure he does not oversleep during his daytime nap (to make up for the lost sleep) and make sure he doesn't have that nap too close to bedtime. e.g. I don't let my DS sleep after 4pm (with a bedtime of 7) so I would work out what you think is best for him (every baby is different). I find the first few days of dealing with jetlag, my DS is really grumpy at night as he is tired, but I still try and keep him awake, knowing that ultimately, he will be back in his original schedule - which TBH, he actually set the timings of as a young age, so it must be his 'natural' sleep pattern. The hours of the day they sleep aren't so much of an issue when they are really younger, but as you say, once you are wanting to get them into nursery/school/play groups, they need to start keeping to some type of timing then. Good luck, you may have a grizzly baby for a few days, but I am sure it will come right! edited by TanyaR on 04/01/2011 edited by TanyaR on 04/01/2011 <em>edited by TanyaR on 04/01/2011</em>