Toddler napping in the car. Please help

[shoesontheglasslamp]

I wonder if anyone can share any experiences/advice?

Up until a few weeks ago, 25 month old DS would nap in his cot for 50 mins to 1 hr 20, no problem. Then he went through a short phase when I'd put him down, but he wasn't tired, so I got him up after he got bored of singing and chatting to himself.

Then his reaction to being put in his cot changed - real tears, what looked like fear. I'd get him up quickly so he wasn't left distressed, but just carried on our afternoon.

This led to him being massively overtired, being teary at bedtime in the evenings (which is not like him, he's always gone down and gone off), and waking with a 4 am nightmare that took us an hour to calm him from.

So I decided to separate the battles: he was happy to nap in the car (so long as it's moving!!!) so instead of taking him up to his cot, I've been driving around. It's been 10 days, he's now not overtired and is back to his normal self. Although our petrol bill is a little wild...

How do I now swap back to him napping in the cot, particularly if he was/is scared for some reason?

We were at a friend's before Christmas and she was taking her DS up for his nap. I explained to DS what was happening, just lightly, and his bottom lip went...
Also he was distressed when DH was off work so took him for the drive, he wanted me to go and was upset until the tiredness and car motion took over.

I'd be ok to walk him in the pushchair if it didn't mean both of us getting soaked, and I can't keep driving him around, so where do I go from here?

aw hun i feel your pain
i went through a very similar thing with my daughter who is 25 months old also, and like you as soon as she started with the tears etc i would remove her from the cot and take her back downstairs to calm her down.

after a week of this, which also affected her night time sleep, i thought enough was enough. i carried on taking her up for her nap but instead of bringing her downstairs as soon as the tears started, i would go back in her room, hug her in the cot and tell her gently that it was sleep time and mummy loves her very much. i would then leave the room again. i'd go back in every 5 minutes literally to do the same thing, but i would not take her out of her cot. after half hour she fell asleep after saying "night" to me. following day we had tears again, and i done the same thing again.

i cannot bear the thought of her going to sleep crying and thinking no one was there for her, so i would be in and out of her room all the time giving her kisses and telling her i loved her, but would not take her out of her cot.

following day she went down for her nap with no tears or anything.

hope this helps
hx

Just adding that we've just gone through this with DS and just went with the reassuring method too. I.e going back in every 5 mins to soothe and reassure. After a few days he stopped being upset and now naps and night times are the best they've ever been!

I think at this age their imagination really kicks in and causes fear.

Not sure how verbal your LO is but the other thing I did was to ask DS (once he was calm after waking from nap) why he was scared. He told me there were frogs in his bed!!! So we now check for frogs before going to sleep

DH is the same every night with checking for spiders!

Wow, thanks.

That sounds really reassuring. He's not very verbal, some of it is frustration I think, but he's well able to let me know that he wants to be in the car..!

I'll just have to bite the bullet and gently give him the message I suppose.
Hate seeing him so upset

I just put her down either on the sofa or in my bed and it seemed to do the trick.

I got to a stage where my DD struggled to nap in her bed so started taking her out in the pushchair for naps (raincover on etc). She now associates it with napping so much and usually yawns as soon as I put her in (I take her out at the same nap time each day).