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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Surely 23 months is too young to give up the daytime nap??

22 replies

sunshine17 · 02/01/2009 20:05

She hasn't had a daytime nap for 3 weeks now - or rather she won't in her cotbed - just shouts and screams.

She will however drop off to sleep in the car without much persuasion.

Should I perservere with trying to get her to sleep or is this the beginning of the end. I'm very sad if it is as it was the only time I got some rest if I could manage to get my 6month to sleep at the same time.

Her nighttimes are terrible - waking at least once or twice and still wants milk! (another story - my husband started to give her a bottle to get her back to sleep whilst I dealt with the baby - can't break it right now without causing havoc to everyone and not getting any sleep as it is).

Is 23 months to young????????

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Dropdeadfred · 02/01/2009 20:06

sorry but my dd stopped hers (apart from in car) at 20 months...

lindenlass · 02/01/2009 20:09

No - my DD2 dropped hers at about 23m and my DD3 dropped hers at something ridiculous like 18m. IMO difficult nights are sometimes down to too much/too late sleep in the day and you may find your nights get easier if you drop naptimes - a bit of a payoff in other words. Would you prefer a break in the day, or an easy night? ;-) DD3 (now 24m) will fall asleep in the car, or in my arms if she's hurt herself and she's crying and tired IYSWIM, but then night time is shot and we don't get an evening together or she wakes repeatedly for ages in the night :-( I'm a meany, now, and do whatever I can to keep her awake until 7pm and then she's free to sleep when she wants :-)

If you do drop her nap, you may find you need to let her have one once every three-five days or something for a bit for her to catch up on any missed sleep - or give her an earlier bedtime or something. Experiment and see what works - it looks like naps isn't working right now so you've got to do something ;-)

goingfor3 · 02/01/2009 20:10

DD2 started dropping her daytime nap at 9 months and by 15 months gave up completely!

herbietea · 02/01/2009 20:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Nell12 · 02/01/2009 20:12

dd and ds dropped their naps at 15 months

you are lucky to have lasted this long

iwantitnow · 02/01/2009 20:13

She may come back to it - my DD started stopping at 20 months slowly, being inconsistent sometimes napping sometimes not. I'm pregnant so could do with a rest. DD now 2.1 and sick this week and has got back into napping but is waking at 6.30am instead of 8am not sure I prefer it to be honest. I do find that she sleeps in the car if warm. I would go for an earlier bed time. I also sit her in front of a DVD for 30mins during the day to give myself a rest.

CarGirl · 02/01/2009 20:15

dd4 dropped hers a couple of weeks after her 2nd birthday, she has had 2 naps in the 15 month since - fell asleep in the pushchair both times for the after new school run, she was unwell on both occasions. Sorry!

crokky · 02/01/2009 20:16

It isn't too young. My DS dropped his before this. If you drop the nap and keep her going til bedtime, she might sleep better at night. My DS went through a tired phase in the day, where he might fall asleep on the sofa etc - I didn't let him sleep as he definately didn't need it and he slept at night after that. Also as someone has mentioned, she may need a daytime nap once every few days.

warthog · 02/01/2009 20:17

hahaha my dd1 stopped her nap at 18 months!

Original poster

sunshine17 · 02/01/2009 20:18

Er ok - seems like its not too young then. I think something that I read about naps being benefcial up to the age of four just stuck in my mind. And because up until recently she slept better at night if she had had a sleep in the day - I thought the bad nights were because of the no napping - maybe it's the reverse.

It's a car ride then every now and then I guess...

OP posts:

haveamerrymankyscotslass · 02/01/2009 20:18

Eldest Ds dropped his at 18mths, dd at 20mths. Youngest Ds just dropped his aged 3yrs 1 mth.

moomaa · 02/01/2009 20:32

Mine's another one, at 24 months just stopping over the last few weeks. Like others have said, maybe once every 3/5 days he will have one though to catch up. I still get my break (have 6month old too) because he goes in his room for an hour or so at naptime still anyway and just plays with the door shut (he likes the quiet time, doesn't moan to get out or anything, I'm not mean, honest!)

ilovetochatupsanta · 02/01/2009 20:36

dd is dropping hers at the moment and she is 18 months, but she wakes in the night too.

InmyheadIminParis · 04/01/2009 19:31

I'm going to buck the trend and say that yes, 23 months IS too young to stop napping. A year or so ago I was lucky enough to go to a talk by a top sleep doctor. He recommended that children should have a daily nap until AT LEAST 3 years old, 4 years old if possible. I've stuck to this as a bit of a mantra when my ds and dd have gone through no-napping patches.
Keep going - you must think that your dd needs one (and you need the break!) or you wouldn't have posted. Perhaps she needs to sleep at a different time of the day? Have you tried moving her nap a bit earlier so that she's not too over-tired when you put her in her cot?
Just a thought.
What ever - good luck!

Kwani · 04/01/2009 19:56

My ds stopped needing a nap when he was about 18 months in spite of my best efforts. I remember one particularly memorable day of spending an hour putting him back into bed in the hope of convincing him he was tired before I realized if he slept then he wouldn't be tired at bedtime. Ended up spending about a week with him being tired & grumpy at about 4pm so made his bedtime a bit earlier to compensate for not napping. I don't know of any children who are still having naps at 3 never mind 4 years old. ds starts school at 4 so needing a nap would hardly be practical.

kittywise · 04/01/2009 19:59

count yourself lucky, dc6( 20 months) has NEVER done sleeping during the day

PaddingtonBore · 04/01/2009 20:00

my DD is very similar. 2 months ago she stopped napping in her cot, and now needs car/buggy in order to sleep.

But IMO she does still need the nap, as she is horribly frazzled by 5pm without it, and sleeps much better at night with it.

So I am resigned to going out in the buggy each day

PaddingtonBore · 04/01/2009 20:00

i forgot - DD is 22 mo.

Takingitslowly · 04/01/2009 20:07

Mine dropped hers around 2 years old.

To be honest, it made bedtime so much easier we didn't mind.

When she didn't have the nap anymore, she actually started going to bed easily at 7pm instead of being wide awake til 9.30pmish

newgirl · 04/01/2009 20:10

i just give mine some quiet time in the middle of the day - some colouring, or read a book or lets be honest, stick the tv on - some downtime seems to be a good idea for both of us

eandh · 04/01/2009 20:10

well dd1 was 2.1 when she gave them up (if she napped she wouldnt go to sleep till 9/10pm)

dd2 is 2 (well will be 2 tomorrow) and she rarely naps in the day for the last few weeks and if she does takes ages to settle at bedtime, today she woke at 6.30 and was fine all day until 6pm when she got a little grizzly had a story and went to bed (she did lay on the sofa with her dummy and mussie around 12pm but after half an hour 'resting' was back to chasing her sister about)

alittleteapot · 04/01/2009 20:15

my dd is 18 months and seems to be in the process of dropping hers. I'm a bit shocked - I was expecting it to go on till she was three

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