2 year old fighting naps. What should I do?

[ett]

(X-posted in Baby Bargains Lounge) DS turned 2 last month and has been fighting naps for the last several weeks. He used to go down for naps around 1:30pm and sleep for 1.5 to 2 hours. It was normal for him to take up to an hour to fall asleep. Well in the last couple of weeks, it has been taking him over 2 hours to fall asleep in his crib. He would be jumping up and down, clearly not tired. I would go in occasionally and tell him to take a nap. However, I really do not like him playing in the crib for that long in the afternoon, so the past several days, I have taken him out of the crib and then put him down for a nap later in the day around 4pm. I really don't like doing this because a late nap pushes his bedtime later, and I have to wake him up from his nap because I don't want him sleeping too late.

If you're still with me, my question is what should I do? Should I give up trying to get him to nap in the early afternoon and just put him down around 4pm. He's clearly not tired at 1 or 2 in the afternoon. How do I convince a 2 year old who's not tired to take a nap? Do I have any other options? I don't think he's ready to drop his nap because sometimes he will crash around 6pm if he doesn't nap. I'm not ready to drop his nap.

Thanks for any advice.

[JElaineB]

DS has been fighting naps for a long time - probably since he was about 2. We have finally given up and barely try to get him to nap at home anymore. However he naps fine at daycare and at grandma's house. At grandma's he sometimes even says "I'm tired" and goes and lays down on his own! I sometimes wonder if it is the same child. I used to work 4 days a week now I work FT, so it isn't a big issue for us except on the weekends. Many times on the the weekends I try to take him in the car and get him to nap on the way home but that didn't even work this weekend. Sorry I don't have any good advice, we definitely were not ready to give up naps at 2 either, so I can understand your pain!

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[stefani]

I am much interested in following this thread because we have the same problem here!

DS turned 2 this month (Labor Day), and he has been fighting naps I think especially the past 2 weeks. No problem at daycare (he goes there 3 days a week) and their nap time is 1 - 3 PM. At grandma's (2 days a week) he goes down later (2, 3, sometimes 4 PM) and the same at home. It is hard for him to go down at grandma's but especially difficult at home. Today I think it took 1.5 hours with lots of screaming for him to finally fall asleep around 4:30 PM. He does take a longer nap at home, but I don't like it when he wakes up so late either from his nap.

Like yours, DS will crash around 6 or 7 PM if he doesn't take a nap (falling asleep in high chair during dinner :-) or being so fussy!

Hope lots of people will help us here :-)

[hjdong]

DS went through this at about the same age. Pushing his nap back worked for us, but ti doesn't sound like it's going to work for you. However, I remembered this post from back then http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboar...ng_type=search. Maybe that will help.

Good luck,