27 Month Old Son Fighting Naps

When we put the kids down for nap it's our job to get them down and to sleep. We work with them and stay in there until they are asleep, I have lots of years of child care and I don't sit by them and rub or pat their backs but I do stay in the room and might sit next to them and quietly read or something. Then we go about our business.

If he's only decided against this nap just now because of the freedom of a toddler bed, then yes - let him cry and bang for 45 minutes to an hour. If you go in there to "restate your intent" as you described it, you may just make it worse by having him think that his fighting you has an effect. If he's tired, he will eventually sleep and learn that he still has to nap (which at his age YES he needs to.) Don't feel badly because you should remember that you are doing this for his own benefit - he needs naps and he needs to know how to take one on his own again. Good luck to you!

My son resisted naps twice around this age.
He was only down to one 2 hr nap.
Some days he skipped it.
Some days I am so beside myself I have to opt for quiet time for only 30 mins.
Sometimes I've gone in there w/him to sit & quietly look at a magazine or
lay down myself.
Sometimes this worked.
Sometimes I went for a drive (I could drop off drive through dry cleaning,
take photos for my project, get a mocha @ a drive through Starbucks.
Sometimes he fell asleep in the car. I'd be sure not to be far from home &
could SOMETIMES transition him inside for the rest of his nap.
Some days he would just not nap.
I take care of my aging mom so the days w/no nap are so very trying for
me.
I have been told he will "cycle" through things like this.
Maybe if you don't lock the door so he doesn't feel like he's "stuck" in there and just keep walking him back in quietly (like the show Nanny).
I know that is maddening.
I have to make sure my son gets TONS of activity to tire him out.
Hard to do when I have my mom or in inclement weather. When I don't
have my mom, I can take him to the mall when it rains & have him walk
around. That usually tires him out.
He's most likely not done with naps yet (encouraging I know, right?). So
keep working "with" it and trying different things tiring him out physically.

Have physical activity in the mornings. So the child gets out their yah-yah's.
Come home.
Wind-down.
Eat lunch. I mean like before noon.
Keep things quiet and calm. No horse-play. Otherwise the child will be too keyed up to wind-down and nap.
Kids this age NEED to wind-down first... before naps or bedtime.
Verbally prompt him. Tell him: after lunch, it is nap time.
After lunch wind-down. Make everything quiet and boring. Read a book. Make things dark.
The child needs to 'transition' to naps.

At this age, sleep tweaks happen. It is common.

Being over-tired also makes it harder for a child to sleep. And some kids actually get more 'hyper' when they are over-tired. My son is like that.
But he is napping NOW in fact.
It is a daily routine.
My son knows the routine.
It is the same everyday.
My son is 5.
He has always napped. We've always had the same routine, every afternoon.

A kid, needs to segue to naps and wind-down first.
Also, my son will not nap, if he still hadn't pooped. So after eating, I wait for him to poop. Then I know he can nap.

If you know your son still needs naps, which at this age many still do... then you keep to a routine. But, for me at least, it takes about 1 hour to wind-down my kids, before nap. It is a process.
A kid doesn't nod off as soon as they hit the pillow.
And you NEED to verbally cue the child, tell them what is coming up.
AND when my kids were younger, I told them that it is ALSO MOMMY'S nap time too. We ALL do that or have quiet time.

I sit in my son's room. Read a magazine. I do not interact with him. I don't even look at him. He lays down and lolls about. I verbally cue him in a monotonous boring voice. And once he starts to yawn, I know he will fall asleep. Then I leave.
I never lock my kids in their room to nap or at bedtime.

Kids at 2 years old, DO NOT HAVE, self-management. They do not have, total self-regulation.
You need to help them.

I wouldn't let him just bang on the door. Go in there once and say it is nap time and put him in the bed. When he gets up again, go into the room and put him back into the bed and do not say anything. You will have to do this over and over again but eventually he will figure it out that he does not get attention by getting up and his energy isn't up by having to bang on the door.

Well, I have no idea what time it for the nap, or if he is still taking two naps a day. What time does he go to bed at night and wake-up? If he his getting tons of sleep at night, maybe try putting his bedtime back an hour and see if that helps. Both my boys refused to take naps early on ,so I had to play with their schedule a bit to make it work.

I too, resorted to a locked door for quiet time, and they got used to it so I didn't have to lock the door for too long. Sometimes, I would add in a few crackers or string cheese to make the transition easier in the beginning.

Hello M.,
I'm not a fan of "locking" a child in room. I think that if I was locked in a room, I would be really scared. For a child who doesn't understand, I don't blame him for pounding on the door. I think it is cruel. First of all, he shouldn't be aloud to pound on the door in the first place. When my daughter was in time out, she started hitting her door. After telling her to stop or she will have to sit on her bed and not get off until the time out was over, she wouldn't stop. I picked her up and put her on the bed......a few times until she stayed put.
If you continually place your son back into his bed over and over again without words (or say the same thing every time, like, "it's nap time, good night, I love you") and walk out. That should do the trick. Obviously, it may take a few days for it to sink in, but it will work.
It's not safe to lock your child in a room. I couldn't, in a million years, LOCK my daughter in a room. My daughter stopped napping around the age of 2 1/2, nothing I could do, she just didn't need it anymore and I was done fighting about it. Today, she goes to bed at 7:30 and wakes at 6:30.
Good luck to you and your family!