Won't Nap

ave1012

My soon to be 18 month old is refusing to nap. It is clearly evident that she is tired but she refuses. The other day she spent time in her crib playing and fussing but no sleeping. She is not even napping for the girl that watches my daughter during the day, which she usually does not have issues getting her to sleep because I have come home early from work with DD napping. Anyone have any ideas on what could be going on or what else I can do. She sleeps through the night without any issues and I know that it is way too young to not be napping. Thanks.

mommymegan831

DD wasn't much older than that when she gave me a really hard time napping.  Most days I'd have to take her for a ride or walk and carry her in sleeping.  If I have a hard time getting DS (17 months) to sleep I let him cry for a little while and then I'll let him lay down with a bottle

laurn321

There's a huge sleep regression at that age. For us it lasted months 16ish to 19ish and it was basically lots of days of little to no napping and staying up past bedtime. The best I would suggest would be to ride it out. My little guy was back to napping like clockwork at about month 20.

beth2882

My mom watches DD 3 days a week and was having this problem.  She started putting DD down for her nap about 1 hour earlier and it seemed to help.

vrj0522

This is so good to read about. LO just turned 17 months on Sunday and the whole week he's been a different baby for naps and bedtime. It's been a little shocking because for over a year, he's been going down easily and this whole week just out of nowhere he's been refusing to go down and tries to cling to me when I put him down. I do so anyway, talk to him for a minute or two, give him his blanket and bear, and walk away. The first two naps of the week, he screamed his head off and wouldn't go down so I kept checking on him and this just made things worse. He skipped those 2 naps completely. The last 3 naps, he's screamed but only for 3-5 minutes and then he goes down. Bedtime is slightly better in that the crying is a bit shorter but yeah, it's been mind-boggling. 

I agree that you might want to try a different time for naps, maybe that would help. Otherwise just keep being consistent and I'm sure at some point she's going to realize she really is tired and needs to sleep. I plan on just continuing to do with DS what we've been doing. Hopefully he adjusts back to his routine quickly.