My daughter won't nap....

Nicola - posted on 07/27/2012

Yeah same as the other comments. My son stopped napping about the same age :-( those peaceful moments of respite of day time naps are probably over - for mommy anyways. What I found helped us was waking him up early, playing him hard outside, running all day long in playgrounds and swimming pools, then he'd nap for me only if I went for a drive.

At daycare, with his dad, with my mom he napped every single naptime until just last fall. But my son never ever napped for mommy unless it was an extra long day and I played him right out and fed him until he's stuffed. That was the only time he would nap for me - pooped right out, strapped in his carseat. Which can be costly when all day everyday you're running yourself ragged trying to play your child out.

Karen - posted on 07/26/2012

My son turned 2 last month and I have had to stop him from taking naps! If I allow him to take a nap he will stay up all night like until 2am no matter what I do. But if he doesn't take a nap, he will lay down and go to sleep around 9:30 pm and he sleeps until about 9 am most mornings. We have been doing this for about 2 weeks now and he doesn't seem to get sleepy or need a nap anymore. I think sometimes kids will break themselves from taking naps when they get ready to, but in my case I had to break him out of it. Good Luck and God Bless!

Jenni - posted on 07/26/2012

A lot of children do give up naps around 2 years... some still take naps until 5 years, it all depends on the child.



The best thing you can do is to not force it so much. Especially, with an almost 2 year old. You don't want taking a nap to be a traumatic experience for her. Allowing her to scream until she vomits will not encourage napping. I know how frustrating it can be at this age when they start refusing naps and you *know* how miserable she'll be for the rest of the day. All you can really do is pick a time when you know she's tired but before she gets overtired and try. Try to have quiet time in her room. Get her to lie down, read her a story... say nite nites. If she starts screaming, go in and try to calm her down again, keep trying for maybe 30-45 mins and then it's probably time to give up, it ain't happening.



Unfortunately, like eating, a 2 year old has all the power over what she puts in her mouth and when she sleeps. It's just something you can't force, only encourage. If you turn it into a battle of wills, you vs your toddler... you will surely lose. So you have to do your best to make it seem to her like it's something she's deciding to do. Treat it very nonchalant and don't make a fuss over it.



It's very possible, once you do, she'll start napping on her own again. That's what I found with my son. Around 2.5 he would typically nap 50% of time one month, 20% of the time the next month and 80% of the time the month after that. It was a lot of hit and miss.



I weaned him off of naps by 3.5 to prepare him for school and by that age he was napping most of the time (battle of the wills phase was over). He's four now and will still occasionally stop what he's doing during his old nap time, lay on the couch and fall asleep. And this was a kid who was extremely resilient to taking naps between 18-24 months.