My daughter refuses to take a nap!!

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Permalink Reply by Kinderbloom on September 9, 2008 at 10:38am

My daughter is the same way. She is 2 years old and and wakes up around 6:30 and we do all our daily activities. She used to take a nap around 12 pm but then it suddenly changed. She does not want to take a nap at all. I have to run after her. So, i know what you are going true. Hopefully it will change.

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Permalink Reply by Renee Concolino on September 9, 2008 at 2:56pm

My son now 8 used to have trouble with waking up at 6 am everyday and he stopped taking naps right about when your daughter did. After much trial and error we determined with him sounds were waking him up. We bought a fan to create some white noise and now he uses his alarm to wake him up at 7 am and sometimes actually sleeps in to 8 on the weekends. When he was younger, he used to get supercranky, it was usually around 3 or 4 in the afternoon; I often referred to it as "the Golden hour", I would try to time my longer car trips around that time as the white noise of the car used to knock him out. Every child is a bit different, hopefully these might be helpful.

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Permalink Reply by Crystal on September 9, 2008 at 4:39pm

my son will be 3 next month and he gets the same way sometimes but will usually take a nap for me and his dad. what we do is we lay him on the couch with a pillow and blanket and tell him its "quiet time" and put in a movie and have him lay down and watch it he cant talk or get up and he usually falls alseep but if he doesnt fall asleep threw the whole movie or most then you know they dont need a nap and then I let him get up and play. it also helps if you make it around the same time everyday we try to go around 2 ish and hes gotten use to it where sometime I put in the movie and he falls alseep before the opening credits are done. well good luck and hope this has helped.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa Barlow on September 9, 2008 at 8:24pm

Hey, it's me again. Olivia stopped taking naps in January of this year. She would get so tired and ill but refused to take one. She would fall asleep on the couch while watching tv or a movie instead. It is all about not missing what is going on in the house. She has stopped falling asleep now, but still will lie down to rest in the afternoon.

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Permalink Reply by Christina on September 9, 2008 at 8:45pm

my daughter is five and she doesn't like naps, however I have quiet time for her. in the afternoon She can play or "pretend" to read in her room. about 50% of the time she falls asleep. I only let her sleep about an hour so it doesn't get in the way of bedtime. and boy when she does get tired she gets cranky and starts to cry, that's when I ask her to sit in her room to calm down, then she falls asleep. Good luck Chris

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Nixon on September 10, 2008 at 7:40am

Hi - I remember when my dds stopped taking those precious (to me) afternoon naps. Like you, we also were "punished" with crankiness when my younger daughter didn't get enough sleep. LOL

While you cannot make a child sleep, you can insist she lays down for a quiet time as her "nap." In the mornings, tell her to stay in bed until she "sees mommy and daddy get up." That gives her a visual clue of when it's appropriate for her to get out of bed. Tell her if she wakes up early and mommy and daddy are still asleep, she must remain quietly in her bed. She can look at books or play quietly in her own bed. This is setting some boundaries that both of you can live with.

I don't think she's waking early as a nuisance to you. It's related to her neurological system and development . . . just think when she's a teenager ALL she'll want to do is sleep in! LOL

~ Brenda Nixon
speaker, author, mom

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Permalink Reply by Amber Craddock on September 10, 2008 at 10:05am

When my daughter was little & we needed to run errands- when I could, I would work them out around her sleepy time. First, we'd hit the gym, shopping, etc. When I figured she'd get cranky/sleepy, that's when I'd go through the drive through carwash, make bank visits at drivethru (usually there were long lines- that's a good thing-) Ya know- any errands that did not require getting out of the car. If she was still asleep and we had nowhere else we had to be, I'd just take the long way home, or drive slow, sometimes I'd just pull over & sleep, too. Once she's slept long enough or wakes up we finish errands or go feed the ducks

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