Soooo.....how do you make a kid nap??? :)

adri77

UGH, my 3.5 year old sometimes still naps, like maybe 3/7 days a week or so......today was a day he needed a nap.  No nap yesterday, and he went to bed a bit later last night, up at 6am this morning.  He had his first day of "camp" today, from9-12 and he was exhausted when he was done.  Fed them lunch, and tried to put them both down, but he refused.  I can't really push it b/c he FREAKS OUT (I'm NOT exaggerating) if I try to get him to nap when he doesn't want to, and I don't want him waking DS2.....so I just let him lay in my bed and watch 2 Caillou episodes for his downtime.  Well....at 5:30, he became a complete and utter spaz.  Tantruming like crazy, belligerant towards his brother and me, too physically aggressive with his brother, etc. so I ended up putting him to bed at 6:30!!!!!  The kid CLEARLY still needs a nap!!!  What the heck do I do????  It's always a matter of waking his brother.....other than putting DS2 down after the freak outs, what else can I do to encourage napping?  Or encourage him to do ANYTHING I think is best for him, while we are at it????!!!!  Help!!!! 3 is soooooo haaaarrrd!!!!!!

JOEBunny

We try to discourage the nap because it breeds the nap the next day.  I take DD outside when she is behaving that way.  Then about 30 minutes before bed time, I take her for a walk to calm her down (she goes in the stroller) and she usually falls asleep, if not, I will read her a few stories. 

ccm1203

I had a set days that he napped.    He had school on Tues/Thursday morning and didn't nap those days because he would want to play at home or at the grandparents after being at school, some how the stuff seemed new.   So my suggestion is have set days that he naps for a while and you can say you have to take a nap today because you didn't yesterday (it worked for DS).

adri77

JOEBunny:

We try to discourage the nap because it breeds the nap the next day.  I take DD outside when she is behaving that way.  Then about 30 minutes before bed time, I take her for a walk to calm her down (she goes in the stroller) and she usually falls asleep, if not, I will read her a few stories. 

We went outside......that was when sh!t really hit the fan....b/c I wasn't playing with him exactly the way he wanted me to.....then we went inside, bath and bed at 6:30!

I may try naps on certain days.....like tomorrow!  Thanks!

adri77

JOEBunny:

We try to discourage the nap because it breeds the nap the next day.  I take DD outside when she is behaving that way.  Then about 30 minutes before bed time, I take her for a walk to calm her down (she goes in the stroller) and she usually falls asleep, if not, I will read her a few stories. 

We went outside......that was when sh!t really hit the fan....b/c I wasn't playing with him exactly the way he wanted me to.....then we went inside, bath and bed at 6:30!

I may try naps on certain days.....like tomorrow!  Thanks!

adri77

JOEBunny:

We try to discourage the nap because it breeds the nap the next day.  I take DD outside when she is behaving that way.  Then about 30 minutes before bed time, I take her for a walk to calm her down (she goes in the stroller) and she usually falls asleep, if not, I will read her a few stories. 

We went outside......that was when sh!t really hit the fan....b/c I wasn't playing with him exactly the way he wanted me to.....then we went inside, bath and bed at 6:30!

I may try naps on certain days.....like tomorrow!  Thanks!

kertybird

Try a reward if he does lay down. If I know we are going to have a big day and set the rules and rewards in the morning. I tell her what we have to do and how mommy needs her to nap so I can get some things done. If she can be a good girl and take her nap she can have sprinkles on her apple sauce (cinnamon). Normally that works!