J.B. asks from Aurora, IL on June 23, 2009
10 Month Old Refusing Morning Nap
My son is almost 10 months old and he will sometimes not go down for morning nap. This is usually is "good" nap, so he really isn't getting much sleep during the day when he only takes his afternoon nap. Isn't this too soon for him to go down to one nap? Any suggestions on how to get him to fall asleep without a huge fight??? or do I need to give it up?
1 mom found this helpful
So What Happened?™
Today I fed my son an earlier Lunch and put him down for nap at noon. He only slept for 45 minutes! Now what? He was really fussy by 2pm.
More Answers
S.E. answers from Chicago on June 24, 2009
Just a thought maybe he is starting to not need the nap. My son was total done with naps be the age of 2 year old. He cut back on his napping by age one. Some children do not need the extra sleep if they are getting a good night sleep. My son would easily sleep 10 - 12 hours every night so why would he need a lot of sleep during the day. Our son will be 19 years old in a month and he still could sleep 10 hours at night if he gets the chance. Don't get that many chances while in college or working.
Unless he is really crabby all day long, let him skip the nap. I have picture of my son 1/2 standing and 1/2 laying on the couch and sound asleep. He just played til he could not go anymore and fell asleep 1/2 standing up. Kids sometimes know their bodies better than we do. We let our son make his own choice from a very early age and this was one of those choices. Sleep more at night or naps during the day. He chose sleep at night.
Good Luck
S.
A.A. answers from Chicago on June 23, 2009
Personally I don't think its too soon. I watch five kids under the age of three and they all went to one long afternoon nap a day (typically about 2.5 hours between 12p-3p) around this age. By a year they had all completely lost the morning nap. I would bring his afternoon nap down to 11a-12p to start so you aren't trying to get him to make it so long until afternoon. Cut out the morning nap completely. So a routine would be something like this:
7-8am Wake up
8am breakfast
11am lunch
11:30a-2:30p Naptime
3pm snack time
5:30p dinner
6-7p bath/playtime
7pm in bed
Hope this helps!
J.V. answers from Chicago on June 24, 2009
My daughter dropped her morning nap around 10 months. I just moved her afternoon nap up to 12:15.
M.R. answers from Chicago on June 23, 2009
My son is 10 months old and for the last 3 weeks has also just refused to go to sleep in the morning. So I pretty much just gave up. I now feed him his lunch a little earlier and put him down by 12noon and he sleeps for 21/2-3hrs. When before he would only nap for maybe an hour in the afternoon. He also now goes down to bed at 7pm and sleeps until 7-7.30am. So he is getting plenty of sleep. I have been taking care of kids for 14 years now and I think it is pretty typical. Some kids will nap twice a day until 18 months but most will give up the morning nap between 10-12months.
Good luck and i hope you find a solution that works for you.
N.Y. answers from Chicago on June 23, 2009
I agree with Anne A's post. Although most books you read say most kids take 2 naps until 15-18 mos, some kids just don't. When my daughter was about 10-11 months she began resisting her naps. I tried to fight the switch to one for a couple months and finally realized maybe she was just ready at about 12 months. Once she was down to one nap, it was GREAT. She falls asleep right away no problem and sleeps for 2.5 to 3.5 hours! I wished I had done it right away when she started showing the signs. I agree with the schedule proposed by Anne - start early (around 11:00) and gradually move it back to more like between noon and 1pm.
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