1 year old resisting afternoon nap - ideas for quiet time?

[notonmywatch]

My year old DD is increasingly resisting her afternoon nap, having previously been sleeping for an hour or so, for the past couple of months. Her morning one is normally a cert, but a couple of times this week it has even been refused. She sleeps a good 12 hours a night, so understand she now may only need one nap (she isn't mobile yet, so think once she is, she may need it again).

Anyway, I am loathe to dismiss the afternoon nap entirely, as some days she does take it. I want to intro some quiet time for her, but I am not entirely sure what would be appropriate for her age? She isn't one to just drift away to sleep without being in a dark room, but thought the quiet time might be worth a shot.

Has anyone got any suggestions for what might work when you have such a nap resister?

Any reason you're resisting binning the afternoon nap?
With my dd, when she stopped having them herself, I didn't try to force her, she obviously didn't need the extra. Now she has 11 hours at night, and one nap for 1-2 hours before lunch.
If you really want her to sleep and have quiet time, why not try reading with her in a room with slightly dimmer lights?

I am resisting binning it as some days still takes it and I do think once she is mobile she will get back to it, so I don't want to lose the 'routine' as it were.

it's normal to drop a nap at this age. if you'd rather she took one in the afternoon then you might need to stop putting her down for one in the morning.

I might just have to start pushing the morning one back a bit later as she really struggles without it. Also she does tend to struggle if she doesn't get a sleep at all between her morning nap and bedtime, which makes me think something needs to change.

I stopped giving my dd her afternoon milk at around 12 months, and gave her an afternoon snack instead to boost her energy. Didn't take long for her to change her own routine with sleep then. She, like your dd, was sometimes napping in the afternoon, sometimes not until then. I know that each child is different, so obviously this is just what worked for us.
I hope that you have some luck.. @notonmywatch

Thanks Jenn. So you dropped the afternoon nap and gave her a snack to see her through? Did you push the morning nap a little later?

Yeah, almost an hour. She has her morning milk just before her nap, then her lunch almost an hour after she gets up from her nap, then a snack when I can see she's flagging a bit, I don't have a set time, although what and how much I give her depends on how long it is before her dinner. I don't limit her nap, I just let her have as much sleep as she needs, which always goes up when she's poorly.

Thanks Jenn, v helpful. Did she adjust okay to the morning nap moving back?

My DD normally gets up about 730 and up until a couple of weeks ago would go back down for a nap about 930/10. I think I need to push that back to about 1030/11 and hope she takes a longer sleep.

I also give my DD milk before her naps, something which I feel I should try and stop at some point, but it works for us!

I have struggled over the last couple of months with my 14 month old's daytime sleep. We have finally settled (touch wood) into a routine of him going down for a nap at about 11 (with a BF beforehand), and he sleeps until 12.30-1. He can then go through until bed time at 7ish, and he then sleeps till 7am or so. At first when it became obvious he was ready to drop a nap I found it really hard as I was assuming that one nap should be after lunch so as to break the day up evenly and so that he wouldn't wake up too early from his nap from hunger. But I couldn't get him to go through the morning without him being an overtired mess. It was a bit of a revelation when I realised that he can actually make it to bedtime even if he is awake from 12. He will still have an afternoon nap if we're in the car for any length of time, but apart from that I think it has finally settled down.

Yep, thinking is the way I will be going and let her have a wee catch up in the pram if we are out and about. Oh my word, we will be able to go out for hours at a time!!!!

My DD had a nap around 9am and another in the afternoon until about 15 months, and then she just wasn't falling asleep when put down in the morning.

So we moved to one nap, which started off being about 10.30/11 am for 1.5 hours or so, it gradually moved later and later over time (did get a bit tricky for a while when it was straddling lunchtime and I was never quite sure whether to give her lunch before or after her sleep, but we muddled through) and within a few months she was reliably napping after lunch.