21-month-old suddenly refusing cot naps, any advice please?

[Nooooooooooooo]

My DS is 21 months & up until now I’ve been really lucky that all I had to do was put him in the cot and leave the room & he would go to sleep.

For the last week or so he has been refusing to nap in his cot - initially I thought it was the heat but it’s really cooled down here and it’s the same story. He’s also been waking up before 6 so not catching up on sleep at night either.

I know some children do give up their lunchtime nap before 2 but up until 10 days ago he was having 2-3 hour naps in the day so it seems like a massive drop. He also keeps going to fall asleep in the car (this morning he was nodding off only a couple
of hours after wake up time), and if I put him in the pram at lunch he will go to sleep almost instantly l. So I’m not convinced he doesn’t need the nap anymore.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone has any advice on how I can get him back into the cot for his naps please ? We already do white notice, black out blinds etc. His lunchtime nap was my time to get my chores done so really not ready to let it go without a fight !!

The PP is right,he will be dropping his nap very soon so you'll have to find a way to do things alongside him as he won't be having naps at all. You've been really lucky with the amount he's been sleeping, 6.30-5.30 is an incredible stretch of uninterrupted sleep. If he goes to bed really early then you need to adjust your bed time too. To be fair it sounds like you have a husband problem rather than a child problem, working all week then playing golf all weekend? He needs to help out at the weekends so you get a break.

Stick them in the car or pushchair and have a drive thru or takeaway coffee while they sleep. Mine refused cot naps after 18 months and he didn't drop his nap until 3. Just gotta roll and take the breaks however you can get them. When they give up the nap is when you really need to worry 😂

Just to say I know I have been lucky up till now with his sleep but i suppose the point of the thread was that he’s gone from being in the higher end of the sleep scale to the lower end and it just seems extremely abrupt and sudden to go from needing 14 hours of sleep to 10 hours in a day. And going from being happy to get into his cot to screaming and trying to climb out.

So I was just looking for advice in case this was a sleep regression or something like that.

This is just what happens though it's always a bit all or nothing with kids, hard to keep up!!

My 3 year old dd is usually up at 5.30am and been the same since she was a baby. Dropped naps before 18 months. 6.30pm to 5.30am is good for a toddler. The only time I have to myself is when my toddler goes to bed in the evening (I also work full time).