Why is my baby refusing daytime naps?

[small76]

Oh My, Im all out of ideas on this one.
My DD is now 14 months old.
She has always been an excellent night time sleeper, so i am very blessed there. She has had a rountine of having a nap about 10-12 ish ,then wakes for lunch.
Now she is refusing bluntly to go to sleep then so far enough,I can't force her. If I do try at that time she basically has a tantrum (She is strong willed,independant and already starting that terrible 2 stage...Arrgghh)and points to the door to go downstairs.

But if she doesn't go to sleep at this time she practically falls asleep in her high chair at lunch. I have tried giving her food earlier so as to avoid it but she still nods off.
When i try and put her to bed then, she still has a tantrum and refuses. And seems wide awake again.

So I took her downstairs for a while with a snack.
Then tried bed at 1pm. She is definately tired but still has a tantrum and refuses sleep. Finally after 40 minutes shes gone.
But she sometimes only sleeps for 30 in the day and is definately not enough as she gets grumpy from about 3.30 -7pm bedtime.

I just don't get it, she used to (about 2 months ago)take about 2 mins to get to sleep.
I can only let her nap before or lunch or between 1 and 2.30pm because of the school run. She will not sleep in the car or after school becuse she is too excited her brother is home!

What's changed and what can i do??

kids patterns do change and the need for a daytime nap will wear off eventually. She is at the age where she should still have one IMO. I would bring lunch forward to 11.30 - try to do some physical activity just before lunch. - Put her to sleep after and do not get her out!!!! If she associated screaming with a route out she will do it every time. Be firm - my DS went through a phase similiar to this. If it takes her 40 mins to fall asleep so be it. Eventually this will settle down but right now this has become a battle of the wills and you need to show her whose the boss!!!!!!!!

Small76, at a guess I would say now that she is 14 months, the 10am nap is too early, she is able to stay up longer now. Also the 1pm nap is too late so she gets overtired.

I would experiment with a before lunch nap later or a very early lunch say 11.30 and whack her into bed straightaway before, as you said, she falls alseep in her chair.

I believe she could be in the inbetween stage. Don't worry, the phase will end, I remember it with all my three and at some point you will be able to have lunch and she will last until you get her upstairs! Mind you, we still have a very early lunch compared to most people! HTH.

My elder two at that age were just outgrowing their morning nap. Until then they used to nap about 9-10ish and 1-3ish. They didn't jsut drop the am nap, but sometimes needed it and sometimes didn't. Sometimes took it later, which then mucked up the pm nap.

The way I dealt with it (and am doig the same with 15m ds2 right now) was to skip the am nap completely unless they had had a bad night or a very early start to the day, bring lunch forward to about 11 or 11.30, and have them in bed by 12 or 12.30 for the nap.

After a few months lunch and the nap gradually slipped until they were lunching aroun 12.30 and napping from about 1.30 to 3.30 again.

Oh god, I wish my DD2 would nap without a fight and shes only 8 mths. Have to basically rock her to sleep both morning and night and only last half hour. DD1 went a bit mental with morning nap at about 11 mths then had month or so of hell as we tried to do transition to only one nap which as everyone said was about 11.30, 12 depending on how tired. Lunch is just quite stressful until you establish this.

Just wanted to say that DDs nursery do lunch at 11.30 and nap at 12.00 which seems to work for all the toddlers. We stick to this for DD at weekends too.

all i can add is that my nearly 7 mo has 2 sometimes 3 30 minutes naps a day and I'm not fighting her over it any more. She sleeps 12-14 hours every night so I'm going to be grateful for that, give her opportunities to nap regularly throughout the day and not stress about it any more. You miss the me-time though don't you? And the chance to get things done?