Two year old nap refusal - exhausted!

[Sunnyday14558]

My son is two years and eight months and is generally a very good sleeper. For the past three months he’s been resisting his afternoon nap. He used to sleep 2 hours a day and then the moment I came home with our new baby, these became inconsistent. He’s completely refusing to have naps at nursery but at home, if we put him in a sleeping sack in his cot, he would nap about 50% of the time. If we go on a day trip he’ll often fall asleep in the car.

His cot broke last week so he’s now in a floor bed and absolutely will not nap. He sleeps 12 hours at night but looks absolutely knackered now in the day. I’m worried he still needs naps but just isn’t getting them. When he’s tired his behaviour starts to decline and he starts being naughty and losing his appetite.!it’s making the afternoons really hard and I’m concerned about his development. I’ve tried quiet time and we don’t watch tv in the house.

Does anyone have experience of this? Did you manage to get your little ones to nap or just push through? Any experiences/tips would be amazing. Thank you

Ahh this is such a hard phase so you have my sympathies.

I found travel nap was the only way. Do you have a double buggy that you could pop them in. I had a similar gap between my eldest so our routine on non nursery days was a trip to the park or something in the morning. Run him around and wear him out, picnic lunch then into the buggy home and he would mostly fall asleep there.

Or if weather was rubbish a small soft play then a little drive. But this option means then sitting in the car with both kids.

Mine decided that daytime naps were no longer for him pretty much from the day he turned 2, it was a shock!

It takes a bit of adjusting to, and yes, he'll be tired in the day for a bit...but it's a new phase. And I agree with the above post, if you 'happen' to be out driving around the old nap time he'll probably nod off.

I would second a travel nap. It does often mean sitting in the car so bring a book!

I used to try and wear mine out in the morning by going to things like playgroup then I'd try a travel nap in the afternoon after lunch.

If they happened to fall asleep in the way home in the morning I'd just let them nap and feed them when they woke.

DS stopped his afternoon nap at 19 months, I wasn't ready for it at all, so I do have sympathy, but, alas, no solution.

My DD is 2y10m and she mostly doesn't nap unless we are driving or I am pushing her in a buggy. So that's what I do if she looks/acts tired.

My DD gave up napping at about 2 years old although she was still susceptible to falling asleep in the car so we would often drive her around to get her to sleep and then park up and be as quiet as possible. Desperate times!

My ds gave up napping at 18 months and he was an only!

He was at nursery and they gave up (we lived in Spain so siestas were a big thing but ds didn't get that memo 👀)

He would hover from then on until about 3 1/2 have them odd afternoon where he'd fall asleep as I walked him to nursery at 12.45pm - would stay asleep in his buggy until 5/5.30 and after I collected him at 6 and he'd have his dinner be asleep again at 7pm for the night 🤷‍♀️😂

I just told nursery if he was asleep enjoy the peace and quiet 😂

When mine began to fit his afternoon nap, I used to put his favourite show on after lunch, shut the curtains and cuddle on the couch under a blanket. He would always fall asleep like that after about 15 minutes and I’d leave him to sleep on the couch.

Around that age my daughter stopped needing a nap every day. Over about 4 months she went from missing 1 nap a week to having 1 nap a week. From 3, she's now 4.5, she would have the odd 10 minute nap if in the car mid afternoon. It was most weeks on the drive to swimming until she started school and then her swimming lesson moved later but now it's once a month at most.

Both of mine stopped napping before they were two. Nursery occasionally gets one from my youngest, but now when he does he is awake until 11pm and then gets up happily at 7am the next day, so i'm confident that he is ready to drop the nap as he is getting his sleep hours quota. I think a lot of them drop it at this age, annoying though it is.

It's really hard this stage, but unfortunately it sounds like he just doesn't need a nap anymore!