My Son at 2 Years Old Is Refusing to Nap.. What Do We Do??

it's ENTIRELY possible he's outgrown naps...it happens..sometimes at 2 and later at 4...

I would tell him that he doesn't HAVE to sleep - but he has to BE QUIET and
"read" a book but whatever he does- he has to do it IN HIS ROOM and QUIETLY..

It is, indeed, a sad mommy day when the naps head south.

Replace it with an hour of Quiet Time in his room...books, blocks, 60 min DVD or such.

Mommies still need the naps after 2 years!

most toddlers go through nap strikes, but i'm a firm believer that they still desperately need the sleep. I would keep doing your nap routine every single day at the same time, and leave him in his room for an hour every day. Tell him he can read books quietly but that you are not coming to get him until his nap time is up. My son would 9 times out of 10 end up falling asleep while reading. He's closer to 3 now and still naps every day.

Well my kids have always napped since they were babies.
It was just the routine.

But, if your child is not tired, then have quiet time.
Meaning, quiet.
They can do things, but quiet things.

But if your child is tired or over-tired, you need to know his cues, and then transition him, to nap. Making things quiet, calming things down, NO horseplay or hyper activities before nap. You have to set the stage, so to speak.
ALLOW him to key down. Toddlers need to wind-down first, before nap.
Not just instantly going down.
It takes about 1 hour.... of winding down.
Have lunch. Then have wind-down time. Tell him this "it is wind-down time, then nap."
My son liked to watch "Little Bear" before naps. It calmed him down. Its a cartoon by Maurice Sendak. Nice show.

ALSO, for my son, I make the physical activity stuff, in the MORNINGS. Always. Boys need to release pent-up physical activity and RUN around. It makes them tired, too. Then have an early lunch, before noon. (my son also will not nap if he has to poop), so I wait for him to poop after lunch, and then it is nap. Winding-down, and having a sequence about it. The SAME sequence everyday.

Factor in the wind-down time, into the actual nap time. In other words, don't wind-him down AT nap time. Do it PRIOR to nap time. 1 hour beforehand. So that, the actual nap time, does not get later and later. Then too late.

I also tell my kids, that MOMMY is having nap time too. And we ALL make quiet. In the afternoon. They KNOW that. Because it is routine. The SAME routine, every darn day.

Once a kid is OVER-tired, they get 'hyper' and then cannot fall asleep, nor sleep well, and they wake more and don't get a good solid sleep.

If you keep up a routine of it, then it is easier.
Granted, tweaks may happen. But keep to the routine and if all else fails, have a QUIET time, and make sure he knows that too. That is the alternative. To not, napping.

Once, you stop naps (and if the child still needs it), then it is very hard... to get back to naps.

Unless, your child just does not need naps, anymore.
But, gauge him well.
Each day will be different and per the child's energy level or levels of tiredness.
SO, on days he IS tired/over-tired, you need to still have a nap, routine.

I have always also, taught my kids that 'naps' are not a 'bad' yucky thing. It is important for their body, and it helps them grow and get stronger. So I don't frame 'naps' as a 'negative' thing. I tell them it is OKAY to say they are tired. It is not a punishment, but them knowing their body and that even adults, nap.

My son is 4 almost 5 and he still naps everyday in the afternoon. As he has gotten older, naps could be later. Per his age.
My daughter is 8 and she will still nap, IF she is tired. She will tell me.
Naps are always in the afternoons. Now. For both of them.
No battles about it.
Because it is routine.
My kids will even tell me sometimes, if they are tired and want to nap.

Toddlers do not nap at the same times they did as a baby.
Maybe, your child's naps are too early????

Maybe you need to make his nap time a little later. I have two that just turned 2 in May as well and they started getting upset at nap time so I made their nap time an hour later and they were fine. (I think it worked for them because it gave them more playtime to burn off energy.) HTH :)

I agree with the other post that he needs to still have some 'quiet time' and he will more than likely either gain some energy from this or you will find him passed out in his room because he is infact tired. Personally I would think that 2 is a bit young to be done with naps but every kid is different so you just never know
Good Luck

My 3 year old still takes and needs a nap most days. On days he doesn't take a nap, he just has quiet time in his room which he enjoys after a usually active morning. He likes to lay in bed and look at his books or play with a few toys. It's good downtime for both him and me. I wouldn't assume he's done with naps just yet, maybe he just needs to nap a little later in the day?

Don't make a big deal about "naps". Put him in his bed with some books and other quiet activities and tell him he is going to have quiet time but he is not allowed to come out of his room. I let him know it was my quiet time too. My kids continued with quiet time for a loooong time...many times they would fall asleep after reading and quietly playing in bed.

Good luck. I know it is hard when little ones fight against that sacred nap time.

I guess every child is different and there was a time that my two boys didn't want to take a nap (I have twin boys that are 2 years old) or when one day one didn't want to take a nap and the other was OK with it.

Well, for me I just put them in their cribs and said that they had to take a nap, there was no fighting it. I knew I need that time to regroup and get some things done around the house as well as work that I do at home. So, I put them both in their cribs and then pick one up and rock him for a few minutes until I can tell they are getting tired. If the other one is complaining, I tell him to lay down for just a minute. Most of the time they will have a toy in their crib (one that doesn't make any noise) and I sometimes say, do you want me to take your toy away? They always say no, then I say, then you need to lay down and wait for me to rock your brother. I think only once I had to take their toy away, but gave it back when they balked and said then you need to lay down (which they did then). Then when I put the first boy in the crib, then I get the second one and rock him until he's pretty tired. The longest I had to rock one child was for 5 minutes.

There were two times that I remember that I still couldn't get one of them to nap and I left the room so that I wouldn't get angry and that one just played quietly until he fell asleep about 30 minutes later. So, now I figure as long as they are quiet in their crib for the two hours of nap time, then I'm OK with it.

I figure they will need to nap when they go to pre-school or kindergarden so I'm going to try to continue the naps for as long as possible. It sure helps me during the day!! lol! Good luck!

My oldest and middle were almost done with naps at that age. Try doing a nap every other day or every third day. He may still need a nap sometimes when his tiredness starts to accumulate.

Yeah, you just might need to grin and bear it. Both of my girls were done napping around age 2. I still did the quiet time thing for an hour or so every afternoon, possibly for my own sanity. Kids never did lay down and sleep like i thought might. Just think, now you don't have to rush home for nap time :)

When my son tried this, I told him "Good for you. I'M tired and I'm going to go lay down. Come keep me company but you don't have to sleep.".
He always hated to be alone anywhere in the house, so he'd come with me to keep me company, we'd lie down on our big bed and before you knew it - we'd both be napping.
He napped through kindergarten and on weekends through first grade.
He was growing really rapidly (at 4 and at 6, he shot up 4 inches both those years) and he really slept deeply for those naps.

Our daughter dropped her naps at age 2. Absolutely nothing we could do about it. Then some kids nap on to age 4. Lucky moms!!