6 Month Old Canberra Baby Fighting Sleep
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Baby Sleep Consultant Raquel Tara Infant Sleep Q & A
A Mother from O’Connor, Canberra ACT asks:
“Hi Raquel,
I’m having some issues with my almost 6 month old son.
For the last 7 days he’s been fighting naps and not wanting to nap at all. He’s also been fighting his bottles, or when he does eat he won’t eat very long.
He tries to fight bedtime too.
His routine has always been the same. He wakes around 8am, usually takes 1–2 naps, has a bath around 7:30–8pm and goes to bed around 9pm.
Our paediatrician said it could be the nipple size on the bottle, his formula or teething.
He’s fine with the bottle nipple size and I’m nervous about increasing it because he already drinks very fast and almost chokes sometimes.
His formula seems fine too. He’s on soy because he couldn’t tolerate milk-based formula.
It could be teething or overtiredness — I honestly don’t know anymore.
I’ve tried everything from teething toys, Panadol, bouncing him to tire him out, cuddling and skin-to-skin, but nothing seems to work.
Any advice would be amazing.”
Baby Sleep Consultant Raquel Tara Responds
I can see fairly quickly from the information you’ve given that a few changes likely need to be made to his overall sleep structure and routine.
At around 6 months, babies become much more aware, much more physically active, and significantly more sensitive to overtiredness.
This is also the age where some babies begin showing signs of the 3-to-2 nap transition.
That can look like:
• fighting the third nap
• shorter naps
• bedtime resistance
• increased night waking
• feeding distraction
• appearing tired but still resisting sleep
However, many babies at this age are not fully ready to comfortably sustain long awake windows yet.
One thing that stands out to me immediately is bedtime.
For most 6 month olds, a 9pm bedtime is usually too late.
The most restorative overnight sleep generally occurs earlier in the night — particularly between around 10pm–2am.
At this age, most babies do best with bedtime occurring somewhere between approximately 6:30–8pm depending on naps and awake windows throughout the day.
The final nap of the day also becomes extremely important around this age.
Ideally, we want the last nap finished by around 4pm so enough sleep pressure builds before bedtime without tipping into overtiredness.
I would also begin looking more closely at his feeding and sleep relationship overall.
At 6 months, many babies are still waking for 1–2 overnight feeds and that can still be completely developmentally normal.
However, the ability to settle and resettle without relying entirely on feeding, rocking, bouncing or sucking becomes increasingly important around this age.
This is where we begin gradually helping babies learn how to settle with less external assistance over time.
I would personally start introducing more structure around an E.A.S.Y (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You) rhythm while making sure full feeds are occurring earlier in the wake window rather than directly to sleep where possible.
Overtired babies often become distracted feeders too.
Many babies who are struggling with sleep begin:
• snacking instead of taking full feeds
• fighting bottles
• feeding inconsistently
• becoming harder to settle overall
Which is why sleep and feeding often need to be looked at together rather than separately.
I also wouldn’t panic that you’ve “broken” something.
At this age, small timing issues can suddenly begin snowballing very quickly because babies become less sleepy and much more aware of their environment overall.
Sometimes relatively small adjustments to awake windows, naps and bedtime timing can make a very significant difference.
Can You Get Help With This Overnight in Canberra?
Yes.
Raquel Tara provides FIFO overnight baby sleep support throughout Canberra and regional ACT, working directly with babies overnight in the family home while parents sleep.
Rather than simply giving parents advice to implement alone, Raquel physically comes into the home and supports settling, resettling, naps and overnight sleep changes in real time.
Many families seek overnight support when they feel stuck in cycles of overtiredness, feeding difficulties, bedtime battles and fragmented sleep.
You Don’t Have To Figure Your Baby’s Sleep Out Alone
I work with your baby overnight in your home, implementing changes in real time and taking the burden off your shoulders while you finally get some sleep yourself.
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