Advice please - daytime nap

[JingleMum]

hi,

hoping somebody could help me out with this.

DD is almost 17 months old, she's a good sleeper during the night, but she's started to fight her daytime nap.

she gets up between 7am and 8am, she used to have her daytime nap between 11.30am and 12.30pm, but lately she is not tired at these times. around 1.30pm i can see she is tired and normally (if we are at home) i would put her in her cot in her very dark room and she would just fall asleep. over the last 2 weeks she has been screaming and crying and refusing to go to sleep. she'll only settle if i stay with her and pat her for about 20mins, sometimes she still won't settle and just screams like a banshee. if i leave her too it, she'll fall asleep naturally around 3pm, but that's too late and it just messes with her bedtime routine.

any ideas why she has started to fight this sleep and is there anything i can do?

thanks in advance.

Teeth? there is also a developmental leap around now which causes havoc with sleep. DS is 16 months and is still napping twice a day but is starting to fight them. I find it's worse if I leave it later than 1pm - so have to start at 12.45pm. Later means it can take a good 40 mins for him to drift off. So maybe try earlier?

thanks iggly, i'm still in the middle of a war zone with her at the minute! she is just fighting it and crying and screaming if i try to put her down.

she attends nursery 2 mornings a week and they have nap time at 11.45am, she seems to have no problem going to sleep their (although she refused to nap one of the mornings last week)

i like to use DD's nap time to get the cleaning done and it just messes it all up if she refuses to sleep.

is it possible that at 16 (almost 17 months) she is just ready to drop her 1 - 2 hour afternoon nap?

I would doubt it - seems very young to not have a nap a day. I think the average is around 2/3? All of DS's baby friends (16 months) still nap.

maybe it's just a phase then? as you said it could be to do with her development at this stage.

i remember last october she went through this same phase, she was 13 months old. the fact that she was dropping her day time nap was having an impact on her night time sleep. she was going to bed at the same time, but waking much earlier (5am) and still not napping in the day. thank god it didn't last long!

Yes I def think a phase. DS does this but ends up reverting back. I'd keep up with the naps and it'll pass!

thanks for your help iggly

Perhaps try a simliar routine to bedtime so she knows what is expected of her.

Blackout binds fitted close to the window are a good idea.

Maybe let her drop off at 3pm but just for a 20-30min nap