Has My Daughter Out Grown Naps?

If she's tired she still needs a nap. The problem is that she realized that if she sleeps she can't play while she's sleeping. So she thinks she's gonna miss out on all that fun she could have if she wasn't taking a nap. My son did the same thing. All it took was a few days of pointing out how unhappy he was when he was tired and saying things like "I have so much more fun in the afternoon after I take a nap." and telling him all the boring things I would be doing while he was sleeping. That got him back on his nap schedule. He kept taking naps until a few months after his 3rd birthday. Good luck to you.

Hi!
Just keep on going and call it "quiet time"! She can have toys/books, but she has to stay in her room for at least an hour.

My daughter did the same thing when she turned two. I used to just put her to bed and she would go to sleep. Then one day she started doing what your daughter did. So I realized if I still wanted her to nap I was gonna have to help her sleep. So I started putting on soft music, sit on her bed and tickle her arm until she falls asleep. It sucks to have to do that but she is usually out within 10 minutes and then she will sleep for an hour and a half to two hours so for me it's totally worth it. I think it helps for me to sit right by her and tickle her cause it helps to keep her still so she can relax. Another trick is to play with her hair or softly tickle her face by her eyes. I noticed that if I would stroke from her forehead down the bridge of her nose it would make her close her eyes and therefore help her to fall asleep faster.

have you tried letting her nap on the couch? sometimes it can make a difference to let them sleep where they can hear/see you moving around the house. then just carry her to her bed if she falls asleep to avoid accidents (rolling off, wetting).

Right around when my daughter turned 2, something similar happened with us. It lasted for 2-3 weeks. Then she went back to napping. I guess it was a phase. But I've heard of some 2-year-olds quitting their naps (I freaked out and went to mamasource for help, too!) So just make sure she's getting enough sleep at night, and continue to give her some quiet rest time during the day. Who knows, it may be phase, or she may really have grown out of naptime.

My nephew has been the same way since turned 2. When I babysit, I have found that a "rest time" usually works. Usually I have to make it mandatory for all of us (me included) so that he feels like it is the thing to do. I require him and his sister to lay down for a minimum of an hour, no more than one very small toy. They either sleep or play very quietly for that time. When my niece was that age, I sometimes had to make rest time "supervised". That is, the nap occurred either on the couch or with the bedroom door open (means I had to be very quiet with whatever I was working on) so that she knew I was paying attention to what she was doing.

M.,
I call it Rest & Reading time. They get to "read" look at books for whatever age they are (in your case 2) while soothing music plays (I use classical). When they are finished with their books they lay still and quiet until the music is done. They can get up if they are still awake when it ends. Figure out how long you want her to be in there and time it by the music CD. If they get up before its done or are not being still and quiet then I start the CD over and Rest & Reading time is extended. Either way I get some quiet time and they do too, weather they sleep or not. And if it is extended, it doesn't bother me one bit! :)
I would keep trying to at least have some down time for her she needs about 14hrs of sleep in 24 hours. If she is sleeping 12 hours at night then she needs a little more in the day, I would say at least 1 hour, wishful for 2. You could also try moving her bed time up if she is still not getting any sleep in the day, and see if she will sleep longer at night. That in its self might help her body take a nap in the day. And remember it takes about 2 weeks being consistent to see results. Good luck finding the right routine.
Hopefully happy napping,
E.

Hi -
I had the same thing happen with my son on and off through his toddler years (so frustrating!), and I decided to go the Quiet Time route. It really seemed to work (Ihad to be really consistent with it though), and he would often fall asleep, and if he didn't, I usually limited it to one hour so it didn't feel like an eternity to him. Every so often i would try to do without it and just move bedtime earlier, but he would be so crabby and just could not cope! So I would go back to the quiet time routine. But at age 3 1/2, he really seemed to do well with no quiet time and a much earlier bedtime, so that's when I finally ditched quiet time. It's interesting how each child has a different need for daytime sleep at different ages. We have to be super strict about that early bedtime for the whole thing to work.

Dear M.,
Naptime can be such a hard thing!!! :) When my son was about your daughters age, he started doing about the same thing. I decided that instead of forcing the issue, I'd call it "quiet time" instead of naptime. I would say, okay, it's time for quiet time. He'd go in his room and have some time to look at his books or play quietly with some toys. Sometimes he would fall asleep and sometimes not. It seemed to work for me. Of course, there were times when he was cranky throughout the day because he hadn't had a nap, but he sure slept well that night. He is now almost 3 and he takes a nap probably twice--maybe three times a week. Hang in there!

My little ones will be two in two weeks. They've skipped a few naps in the past few weeks and I was trying to figure out why. Turns out it's two-year molars. Peek in her mouth - that may be the issue. You might try something to ease the pain a little at naptime.

I would say just keep your routine that worked before. My mom always told me that even if you don't sleep you are resting or having alone time and that is important.

Just put her in her crib the same way you always did and do it the exact same way you did it before. Added steps to your routine will make it worse. Leave her in her room as you always did and do not go back in until you would expect her nap to be over or at least an hour. She may not sleep or even lay down but at least she has that time to wind down.

Now that being said, this does not mean she will not be crabby but my guess is she will start sleeping again after a few days or even a few weeks. She does still need a nap and her body will remember that. At this age they just have the growth spurts that send them off their routines.

Good luck!

Her brain is going through huge spurts of development and she is sooo busy its harder for her to settle down. This doesn't mean she should give up naps, especially since she still acts like she needs them.
Make it "quiet time" instead of nap time. If she watches t.v. at all, it shouldn't be within an hour of when you want her to go down (t.v. actually wires kids brains making it harder for them to fall asleep). Also try to not have any outings or other activities that will get her excited in the 30 minutes or so before her nap.
Get her room as dark as you can, close the blinds/drapes and turn off the lights. You can play some quiet, relaxing music if it doesn't keep her up. Give her 1 or 2 small toys or stuffed animals she can play with in her bed. For a while at least, you may have to lie down in the room with her - just make it a household quiet time. (I had completely thought my son had outgrown naps by 3, but when he went to a new daycare who had a quiet time like this everyday for the whole class, he started napping again! and was a lot happier in the evening too).

You'll probably find that she goes through several more phases like this in the next few year. She's just trying to do and see everything and to adjust to all the growth her brain is going through (which also makes it more important for her to have quiet rest time).

ALL of my four children outgrew naps at 2. Sometimes they might go 5 days without a nap, then have one. Or perhaps they'd fall asleep in the car if we were out that time of day. But even if they did nap, it was only for 20 minutes or so. Yes, it gets a bit grumpy toward the end of the day. But if you can plan something (like playdo, or even a short movie) they can sit and chill a bit. The pay off is they may go to sleep earlier. If any of my children *did* nap, it meant they were up till 9:30 or 10, so letting them outgrow their npas when they were ready worked well for our family.
A. www.breastandbottlefeeding.com

ugh, I empathize. My daughter stopped napping at 2 as well. sometimes she will take a nap but most days we just do quiet time, she can watch a movie or play quietly on her bed, but it is quiet time and she so needs that down time (and God knows I need it!) I got the idea from my sister who's kids all still do quiet time and her oldest is in Jr. High now its just nice to have some down time to relax. I have friends who's 5 yr olds still come home from kindergarten and take their naps and my almost 4 year old hasn't really napped for the past 2 years. each kid is just different.
hang in there.

My personal opinion is that 2 is way too early to stop naps. Enjoy naps until she goes to kindgergarten if you can! Feed her some lunch, telling her it's time to read a book and take a nap afterwards. Then spend some time reading a book saying o.k, we'll read this book and then you get to take your nap! Let her even look over the pictures by herself and say after you look at your pictures, you close your eyes and take your nap! It works for me and my 3 1/2 year old, but every child is different and they each go through stages. Keep at it, it's so worth your own quiet time and helps our children be much happier!
Good luck!