Nap problem affecting bedtime

[navteexo]

Hi,

So my son is 19 months and he has stopped napping during the day. I have never forced a nap or deprived him of one, its just something he has recently started doing. The problem I am now having is that he wont stay awake for dinner anymore.

He wakes around 0800, I give him breakfast , and then we play, read etc..

I give him some fruit to keep him going..I give him lunch around 1230 .. he takes a very long time to eat so we arent done until about 1330. I give him snacks around 3pm.. by this time he is still active and awake

However when it gets to about 4.45pm he starts to doze off. If anyone picks him up, he will rest his head on their shoulder and there is no bringing him back, he will be asleep within 5 mins. I used to give him dinner around 6pm but have had to bring it forward because he cant stay up that long.

I have prepared his dinner now, so I can give it to him at 5..he takes about an hour to eat so by 6 he will be ready for his bottle and sleep. I guess I am just worried because it seems like its too early for dinner..

I have also tried letting him sleep for 45 mins around 5pm, but it really disrupts his bedtime.

Is this something he will just get used to naturally? or should I just try to force him to sleep during the day to avoid this?

thanks x

I experienced this with my DD when she turned two. It was explained to me that they don't go from needing a nap to not over night it's a transitional phrase that can last afew months.
I just had to work with it how it best suited us. There was no way I could force her to nap. So some days I would let her nap late and accepted she was going to go to bed later than normal. This was fine as long as we didn't need to be anywhere the next day. Otherwise it was a case of trying to keep her awake. I did this by changing her routine slightly e.g earlier tea time, then a big fun bubble bath when I knew she would be tired to try and perk her up. I have to admit we got a lot of tantrums around this time as it's also when the terrible twos kicks in.

19months is quite young to drop the nap completely. I would really try to get him to have some sort of nap at some point earlier in the day. Will he sleep in the buggy? Sling? Car?

I would say it's just to drop a nap too. I think they all go through a phase of trying to resist it a little but I think most still need a nap until 2.5-3 years of age. I would try to either work it so you are driving back from somewhere around nap time to get him to sleep in the car or wrap him up warm and put him in the buggy with his fav cuddly or whatever he associates with sleep.

My DS tried to drop his nap around that age but I lay down with him for a lunch time sleep to get him back into the habit of it. It took a few weeks but we got another year of napping.

He is now almost 3 and has properly dropped the nap, just flops around the bed and annoys me for an hour if I try to make him! It has taken a couple months to get into the way of it because he really needs his tea at 5 now to be down for 6-6.30 otherwise he becomes very emotional. He also wakes anywhere between 5.30 and 6am .

Both of mine stopped napping quite early (before 2) and it was something we had to enforce because if they napped it would delay bedtime for ages (and they were both only ever half hour nappers anyway). They went to bed earlier for a while, but they've always had dinner at 5pm anyway and are also early risers.

My kids eat their dinner between about 5 and 5.30. Age 4 and 2 and bedtime is around 7.

Also a full hour to eat a meal is a really long time. Especially for a toddler. Is he genuinely eating for this long or eating a bit and playing up and then coming back to it? Mealtimes for the children are rarely more than 15-20min in this house, but maybe my kids have no patience

My DD won’t eat properly if she’s too tired. Hence dinner at 5ish

My 2.5 year old has always had tea at 5pm, in fact it used to be 4.30 when she was a bit younger & had an earlier bedtime.. fairly normal kids tea time I think! At the weekends, we push it back up 6pm so we eat together! Trying to get her over a very fussy phase!

We are just reaching the nap dropping stage I think, she’s not that keen to go down having previously loved a nap. I’ve been doing a bit of reading & as I understand, nap dropping is quite a transitional period & they do get very tired early on! 19 months does seem a little early to stop them completely.. is he possibly just going through a testing his limits phase but actually does still need a daytime sleep?! But all kids are different ..

Have you tried lying him down in his cot after lunch to see if he would have a sleep for an hour.My daughter is the same age and she gets an hour after lunch and goes to bed at 7:30. She would fall asleep at 5 too if she missed this.

Thank you all for your replies. I will try start putting him in the car so he falls asleep after lunch.. as the cot is not working..neither is the buggy lol .. thank you ladies! Xx

Been through this with mine. I just made dinner earlier for a while and before long it had levelled out. Or you can accept that they are going to have a nap but then be up later. Whichever works the best for you.