WIBU to give up on DS's naps?

[Cluelessandhelpless]

DS is 16 mo and has had trouble napping since he was 4 mo. Apart from short spells of three or four weeks every three months or so, naps have always been a bit of a hit or a miss. We have a naptime routine which had been working fine from the beginning of February for about three weeks, when he got influenza. Since then, his naps are all over the place, he is back to two naps a day, he sleeps nine instead of ten hours during the night and wakes up screaming instead of happy.

I have been battling with his daytime sleep for a year now and it's really getting at me. I have just put him down for a nap today and all he did was scream. I got so angry I couldn't look him in the face or speak to him when I finally gave up after twenty minutes and got him out of his bed, it was horrible. WIBU to just give up on his routine altogether, which means he'll sleep twenty minutes in the pram in the morning one day, and and an hour and a half in his cot the next day? I feel like an awful mother doing this because I worry he'll get even less sleep than he is already getting (11 hours in total on a good day, more like ten normally) but surely I can't keep on doing what doesn't work? Any ideas?

[splendide]

The only thing I would say is that I don't let mine (same age) sleep in the morning now unless he's ill. He gets up about 6 and we normally go somewhere in the buggy in the morning so he gets a bit of a rest but doesn't sleep. Then we do something outdoors before lunch and by 12.30 he's knackered and goes down fairly easily (usually).

We did naps together in my bed for a while till his body got used to sleeping at the same time everyday - would that be worth a try?

Also I recall that when we dropped the morning nap (I think at about a year) he started getting up later which was brilliant - it's still 6 or so but used to be like 4.30 :(

[WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant]

Have you tried napping in a different place to his bed?

Dd has refused to nap in her bed since she was 6 months old. Bed was (and is ) for the big sleep. 8-8 ish.

She will usually nap anywhere else in the day! Car seat, beach, buggy, lawn... Just not her bed.

I think the best advice anybody can offer is 'try it for a couple of weeks'

If his night sleep is enough, he won't need a nap.

If he gets really tired and cranky after a few days, then it looks like he needs a nap, so try different things. Put a blanket on a big cushion on the floor? Let him sleep on your bed?

[splendide]

Oh also he doesn't go to sleep himself at naptime or bedtime so I in no way have it cracked - I sit holding his hand and shhing in the dark for ages sometimes.

[Cluelessandhelpless]

I am confident he'll drop the morning nap again soon, he was having only one nap for a month or so before he got influenza. It did make a difference to his morning wake-up time, I noticed that. What I was trying to say was that I was also going to give up trying to keep him awake in the mornings and just let him find his own nap time, seeing as my keeping him awake hasn't improved anything.

Trying to let him nap on the floor sounds like a good idea, he often lies down on the floor when he's tired. I would never have thought of actually letting him sleep there, though.