How long would you persevere with 2 year old not napping?

[pleasethanks]

My DD, up until about 4 weeks ago, was doing 12 - 13 hours at night and about 1.5 hours nap (yes, very lucky!). She goes to nursery 3 days a week and her napping there was not so good, but took good long naps at home with no complaint.

Well, for the past 4 weeks she is resisting napping at home. She is still clearly tired (I know the signs) but won't give in. If, after trying for an hour or so, she still is not asleep, I take her out for bed and we go for a drive. There is then 5 minutes of raging crying before she gives in and conks out. She is napping better at nursery having recently moved up rooms and sleeps for about 45 mins - 1 hour.

I know she still needs the nap, she is a grump bucket without it and melts down pre dinner. The fact she conks out in the car shows she still needs it.

But when do I admit defeat with her going back to napping in her cot? How long do I keep trying for? She is not a child who will transfer from car seat to cot either - light sleeper?

Can you not replace nap with an hour or so snuggled up watching cbeebies/DVD or reading stories? You may find she drops off when doing that and if not she will hopefully be rested enough not to get too grumpy

I would keep persisting. How about making sure her mornings are full on so she is worn out and finds it easier to drop off?

I really am trying to make her mornings tiring, but maybe need to up it a bit more!

Watching tv is fine, but she won't sit still for more than 3 minutes tbh. No matter how tired. Sigh

I had this with 2yo DD recently. She absolutely refused to nap but was still knackered - if we went out for the day she would conk out in pushchair on the way home without fail and don't talk to me about pre-dinner meltdown if there was no sleep at all!!

Previously, her nap was around 11-30/12pm for an hour or so and in the last few days she has been having it again, just a bit later, say 1.30/2pm. I was a bit afraid that it a later sleep would cause havoc at bedtime but actually have only needed to push it back half an hour or so and she still goes to bed fine (around 7.30/7.45. Today's sleep was 1.30 til 3pm which felt like a minor miracle!

Is there any way you could put her down a bit later? Do you think that might work?

Oh I remember this with DS. He started dropping his naps ridiculously early, memory is a bit dim but around 18months? If I didn't walk for miles with him in the pushchair for him to nap, then it didn't happen. I gave up trying in the end, pushed dinner time back to around 4pm and he went to bed about 5.30/6pm absolutely shattered. I had to endure 5/6am waking but it was the only way. The upside was more "me" time in the evening

Even now (he's 5) he goes to bed around 6.45pm though is more independent in the morning and will play for an hour or so.

She used to go down for her sleep about 1ish, and it made no difference if she was up at 7am or 9am, she pretty much always was ready for her sleep at 1. She is normally up about 7ish these days and I keep an eye on her and try putting her down about 12.30/1ish. No dice. I have tried earlier and later.

At nursery she sleeps about 1, but I supose, thinking about it, she is on the go there ALL the time. Maybe I do just need to totally wear her out. Laps round the garden it is then...

I have accepted DS2 (2yo) just won't nap during the day unless we are out in the car for the afternoon which only really happens at weekends now since DS1 started school. It's easier to just accept they won't always nap every day even if you can see their are cranky and need one. It just gets you stressed out and there's no point. If they refuse to nap during the day you just make sure that you are sharp with the bedtime routine and get them down earlier than normal. DS2 will sometimes fall asleep after his bath and story at 6pm if he doesn't nap during the day, and that will be him until the next morning (around 6.45).

I too am finding this a really tricky stage!

DD won't nap in bed since I stopped breastfeeding her to sleep - so it has to be car or buggy and I have to time it exactly right, too early and she won't drop off, too late and she's over-tired and just has a tantrum about being strapped in!!

If she does nap it takes her ages to drop off at night, if she doesn't nap she sleeps much better but is an absolute nightmare in the hour before bed!

Rock and a hard place!

Metro! Dd1 is 2.7 and I am in exactly same situation!