2 year old naps gone horribly wrong - help!

[Michelle6557]

I'd love any thoughts on a specific problem please!
My daughter just turned two & has developed a huge nap problem. She was a very bad sleeper for the first 14 months & needed rocking to sleep. Some controlled crying resolved the issue surprisingly well & with no lasting negative effect. My parents kindly have her one day a week while I work & she has napped well there for 6 months. Suddenly this has gone badly wrong - she screamed one day as soon as my mum put her down & mum quickly got her back up out of the cot. My daughter is apparently quite bright & realised that screaming pays off & Nana will get her up!
Every naptime is now horrendous for my mum with screaming. It wouldn't be a major issue as its only one day a week, but the screaming has now spread to the 2 days a week my daughter spends at nursery. She now will not nap there either. I fear that its only a matter of time before she starts screaming at nap &/or bedtime at home. Does controlled crying work for 2 year olds or does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks x

Is she definitely tired at nap time? My dd has just turned 2 as well and some days doesn't nap or just has a catnap late afternoon, but it depends what we're doing - walking home from a busy morning at toddler group she will often fall asleep in the pushchair, but after a morning at home she doesn't seem tired. Dd is very strong-willed though and it's a battle I've decided not to have, I'd rather enjoy time with her awake than spend hours trying to get her to sleep when she doesn't want to, and we have more important battles to get through at the moment. Could your mum/nursery try a later, shorter nap if you really want her to be napping still?

I would perhaps think about changing the routine a bit, perhaps rather than put her down in the cot, take her out in the pushchair or car and if she is tired and needs the sleep she will sleep. She may have got into a routine of fighting going down in her cot.
Another idea which worked with my kids was to do alternate day naps as they needed to nap less. For my son this was at 2 years but my daughter went through until 4 years napping.
I would recommend trying to keep naps as long as possible though.

For dd dropped her day time nap at around two, sorry. It was a huge shock after having ds who knapper religiously between 2 & 4.30 pm every single day till aged 4. She would be impossible by bed time, just SO tired but still couldn't get her to nap in the day.