Ds not sleeping in day

[BlingLoving]

Just when I thought our sleep issues had got to a manageable point, ds has decided he will not sleep during the day. He is 18 months and clearly exhausted but just will not sleep. He plays, sings etc for up to an hour but no nap. But put him in the car and he's asleep in minutes.

We thought maybe he needed to move to a later nap but that was a complete disaster. I am at wits end. Any ideas?

whats his usual routine?

18 months sleep regression may be your issue - basically a huge developmental leap which can send things prety wonky for a while & its common to have nap resistance/refusal, bedtime resistance, NE & EW). Its quite likely he will go back to napping in a few weeks time. In the mean time, offer him an opportunity to rest (quiet time) & if he doesn't take it do an early bedtime to prevent overtiredness. Hang in there!x

I had heard about an 18 month sleep regression but don't know much about it. Will research.

Routine was(until he started refusing) :
6-7 am wake up : happy to hang out in crib for a while . Once up, milk.
About an hour later, breakfast
Mid morning : walk/park etc with a snack
11:30(ish depending on what time he woke up) down for nap
Sleep about 1.5-2 hours
Then lunch, play/outing
5pm supper
5:45 tv
6:10: books and iPad
6:30 bath, bottle, bed

He is doing night time fine still. And is clearly tired in day, just won't sleep at home.

We did try doing lunch at 11:30 and a later nap as that is probably a realistic routine for a toddler but originally it just didn't work and trying again after his day sleep refusal started has not worked either.

hmmm. WRT later nap, what time did you try & when you say it didn't work, what happened?

I found 18-22 months a pretty tricky stage with my DS, we got lots of EW, nap & bedtime resistance & then all of a sudden it settled back down again & he went back to taking lovely long naps & settling well at bedtime. The only thing I did to change things was to make his nap later & this seemed to sort it all out. At 17-18 months he was up at 7am & napping at 12.30pm for 2hrs but by 19/20 months I had to move the nap to 1pm as he wasn't tired enough to go down at 12.30 anymore & he would scream & cry when it got to naptime. Thats a surefire sign!

I know he's refusing no matter what atm but I think thats prob down to the regression. 11.30am is pretty early for a nap at his age, so I do think, long term, you may need to push his naptime later. IIWY I'd keep offering the nap (but at a later time, maybe 12.30/1pm to start with) & in a few weeks, hopefully the developmental leap will pass & he will start napping again.

Thanks. I agree that 12:30 is a better time so will keep trying.

Do I just leave him for the hour when he's not sleeping. The problem us that then he falls asleep in car which I don't want to happen too late . Right now we are putting him car when he refuses and just rescheduling our day accordingly eg yesterday we left early for afternoon tea at a friend's and he slept on way there and then in car for a bit after we arrived. It feels like either we leave him in his room for an hour or so then do local things in afternoon and put him to bed early or we let him sleep in car as per current recess but i don't know which will be worse long term.