19 month old refusing naps

[rlbjsf]

DD has generally been a good sleeper, would sleep 7:30pm- 7am and have a 1 to 2 hour nap after lunch. The last couple of weeks, all of a sudden she’s started refusing her midday nap every other day, regardless of whether she’s at nursery or at home. She won’t sit still for “quiet time” either, just keeps going through the afternoon. The days she won’t nap, she is absolutely exhausted by 5pm but so overtired and emotional it’s hard to get her ready for bed (teeth brushing, quick wash & getting nappy/ pyjamas on is traumatic to say the least). This has also impacted her nighttime sleep with frequent wakes and even some night terrors which again feel traumatic.

Has anyone else experienced this and how did you manage it? Surely 19 months is way too young to be without a nap, she seems so exhausted, it can’t be good for her, just at a bit of a loss as to how I manage this, hoping it’s just a temporary regression 😅

I would just keep trying for at least the one now as at that age she would normally only drop to one nap anyway . I also find with my 14 month old if he doesn’t have his second nap he is extremely over tired for bed time and then struggles to fall asleep and is then constantly waking up

I know it's not what you want to hear but both of mine were 18/ 19 months old when they dropped their naps.
It took a few weeks fir them to not be hateful little gremlins late afternoon/ early evening but we readjusted the routine quite well. I was gutted though, I loved that little half hour in the afternoon to get things done!

Yep - both mine dropped their naps at 18 months. I could sometimes force one if they were really exhausted by taking them out for a drive.

DS1 dropped his nap at 12/13 months.

My daughter dropped her last nap at 18 months. My son napped, when he wasn't at nursery, until he started full time school!

Dark room with white noise and a Toni box story on works well for me

Mine stopped napping young
you could try popping her in a buggy for a walk at nap time ? It might help her rest / take a shorter nap

Thanks for your ideas folks

I don’t think she’s ready to drop the nap entirely, she’s been on 1 nap a day since she was about 11 months old, mostly because that was the routine at nursery and I kept it the same at home.

The days she isn’t napping, she is so tired by the afternoon, in the last week at nursery she’s had 2 incidents of falling over and bumping her head, giving herself nosebleeds because she’s so tired and unsteady on her feet, but she just won’t nap, it’s like she gets hyperactive at nap time.

The past weekend i’ve tried her in the buggy but that didn’t work, the only thing that did was getting her in the car seat but obviously nursery can’t do that to get her to sleep 🤦‍♀️

I wonder if her overall sleep needs have dropped a bit. I'd try capping the nap at an hour and/or shortening her overnight sleep slightly, and see if that gets her into a more stable routine after a week or two.