Length of nap and overtired 2.4 year old.

[Kiwikiss1]

Could anyone give me some advice on nap times for my 2.4 year old? I have recently cut his nap time to one hour (he used to nap for 2-2.5 hours) as he started waking up in the early hours of the morning and wanted to start the day at 5am! Since I have started waking him up after an hour he sleeps from 6.30pm to 6.30am with only one night wake up (I simply put him back to bed and he falls asleep) but his behaviour has gone to pot. Loud, defiant and tantrumy, typical behaviours of an overtired toddler are happening throughout the day and driving me a bit potty as he used to be so well behaved. Has anyone experienced this? Should I leave him to sleep during the day and move his bedtime to 7-7.30pm or do I have to ride out this period until he is used to having only an hours sleep during the day? He does need his sleep and he did not drop his morning nap until 17 months. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I want my little angel back!

The tantrums may be nothing to do with naps, many two year olds have tantrums, its not called the 'terrible twos for nothing'. However I'd try letting him sleep as long as he wants at nap time and move his bedtime to 7.30 or even eight . Do this gradually over several days.
Hope you get the angel back.

Thanks for your reply. He did used to have the odd tantrum but at the moment is multiple times a day and it did increase a couple of days after I shortened the nap time. I will give your suggestion a go:-)

6.30 is really early for bed! I'd definitely let him sleep longer on day and bed at 7.30/8

Agree. We tried the same thing when ds was about 2 & he also got horribly overtired, then his nights went to pot too. We reinstated the nap, combined with a later bedtime. His day looked like this
Up 7ish
Nap 1/1.30 for 2-2.5hrs
Bed 8pm

What time does your ds nap OP? If its considerably earlier than this, that is the likely cause of his EW. Hth.x

Of course, length of daytime & nighttime sleeps needed will vary for each child, but my DS2, 2.5, currently has one nap of 2ish hours (will only get 1 hour 10 mins today as we need to go out), after lunch, so usually at around 12.30-1pm. He sleeps 11 hours at night. Bedtime is 7.30pm at the earliest, usually more like 8pm, then he wakes up at 7ish. He never wakes at night unless something is wrong.

He does also have the occasional tantrum, and his favourite thing to do of this nature is just to sit on the floor & refuse to move. When this happens, or when he tantrums, I just leave him & it rarely lasts more than 2 minutes. If we are out & he sits on the floor, I just pretend to walk off, really slowly & deliberately have my back to him (but watch discreetly). 9 times out of 10 he quickly follows me

Thank you for your replies they have been really helpful. It seems the best solution is to move his bedtime until 8pm and let him sleep as long as he wants at nap time. I did try this once before but he started waking at 5am but I can only but try. I wish they came with a manual! I presume once the nap drops bedtime moves to 7ish?

Yup, ds is just turned 3 & pretty much dropped his nap & we currently have a 6.30pm bedtime! Its bliss!

It's probably trial and error. My dd dropped all naps by 12 months so I've never had to deal with this before. DS has just turned 2 and he refuses to nap before 4/4.30 now but if he does nap, he's still up at 9 or 10pm. So we're not letting him nap atm and from 4 until about 7 when he goes to bed, he is very, very delicate. You have my sympathies. Oh and I wish pretending to walk away worked here. DS just says goodbye and wanders off in the other direction.