2 year old not having a day time sleep...is this normal?

[shinyshilling]

Our 2 yr old has just stopped having her day time sleep altogether. This has just come after moving to a new bed, then Christmas, then birthday, so lots of excitement and changes to routine! She used to go down without fail at 10:30am but is wide awake and refuses to sleep at this time. So, I tried an afternoon nap instead. She refuses and cries if I leave her in her room. She gets out and bangs on the door shouting. I have tried leaving it, returning and saying "It's quiet time now", putting her back and then repeating it, but she goes mad.I am going a bit mad too as I teach part time and have to do all my planning at home. She is clearly tired, heavy eyes and starts getting ratty which is understandable. She's starting to nod off in the car as I take my husband to work at five which is obviously not wise (but I can't avoid having her in the car at that time). We put her to bed at around 7 -7.30ish and she goes to sleep without problems and always has done, but is then waking up at 5 to 5.30am. We are all finding this a strain and finding everything else harder to cope with because of having to get up earlier. Does anyone have any suggestions for encouraging her to sleep through the day again? I'm sure I must be doing something wrong.

[MaeWest]

Wow, sounds like hard work. I know some 2 yr olds do drop their nap, but it sounds like your DD still needs it.

DS is only 18 months and has finally started having a reliable long afternoon nap (I'm dreading him dropping it ) and usually goes down no problem. However, we did find that Christmas disrupted him and he would scream and scream. What we did was to lie down with him in our bed and he did go off to sleep. Maybe you could try lying with her/sitting with her, perhaps reading? until she drops off. DS did get through this patch and now seems to go down without a whimper again.

[MaeWest]

And if she doesn't sleep, at least she's had some downtime?

[posieflump]

totally normal for a 2 year old to drop their daytime nap
I wouldn't try and get her to nap
Will she drop off in the car or pushchair if she is very ratty?

[abigaillockhart]

My son dropped his daytime nap at 2.5. I then gave up on putting him to bed but gave him a cup of milk on the sofa with a blanket and some TV. It was quite rare for him to not fall asleep. ('Come Outside' always had a sedative effect - is it still on?)

He is now three and a half and this generally still works on the days that he doesn't have nursery.

[eandh]

my dd1 dropped her daytime nap at 2.1 and like yours was very tired mid afternoon (and I was mid pregnancy with dd2)I used to take her out for a quick walk to feed ducks/round park/up to the shop. Fresh air seemed to reawaken her, she would go to bed around 6-6.30 and wake 6-6.30 (she has always woken early so that was no different for us)

In fact dd2 is only 13months and shes already dropped down to a 1 hour nap mid morning sleep hence she is now being grumpy at tea time

[CarGirl]

My dd4 suddenly dropped her daytime nap about 2.1 I was mortified - the others all kept going until they were 3ish!!! I suggest every few days gong for a walk or drive after lunch she may well have a nap then.