We had this issue about a month or two back. My 18 month old DS would become resistant to naps. Then it must have been illness related because it passed (helped by a couple of doses of Calpol).
Well now it's back again and the thing is, he doesn't seem ill. He does seem tired though so I don't know if I've got into some kind of OT cycle? I'll give you a 'typical' day (he's still in a cotbed btw with the sides up):
Wake anything between 5:30 (normally) and 6 (5:30 onwards is when we allow him to leave his room if he does wake earlier. Months of trying has not got him any later.) He's fairly consistent on this but this morning he woke at 5:20.
Milk - 6/6:30ish (when he starts whinging for it)
Breakfast 6:45ish
Lunch 11:30
Nap (refusing as of the past 3 days) noon
Snack 2:30 / 3ish
Tea 4:45ish
Bath 6:30
Reading with stories and milk 6:45
Bed 7, normally asleep by 7:15 / 7:20, normally will chatter to himself for a bit.
He used to be a nightmare to put down for naps when he was younger. Today I took him out for a walk in the end.
Our nap routine is like this. He eats lunch, then has some stories on our bed with me (like the bedtime routine), then we have a cuddle and I put him in his cotbed. It used to be that he'd then go to sleep, sometimes I'd have to lie him back down again once or twice. Now, I put him down today, he sounded like he was calming down and then he was crying out
"Sock, sock, oops!" which means he's taken off his socks and thrown them across the room. So I did what I have always done before (he's fond of doing this), pick them up, no eye contact, lie him back down again, walk out. Problem is, he then gets really upset and starts crying on his back (so I can't lie him down again like the PUPD for his age group would suggest). I try picking him up, he calms down immediately but if I put him down, it gets way worse.
So, seeing as he sleeps on a mat at nursery, I tried lying down with him on the floor on a thick furry blanket. He was really happy but just wanted to crawl off and play
So I end up taking him on a three mile walk where he falls asleep in less than 2 mins but I was determined he would have a decent nap. So he has an hour.
He is eating loads at the moment and has had huge developmental leaps in the past few days, today for example, he has learned the words for milk, cheese, poo (he's told me he's pooed the two times he's done it today) and has learned how to do simple 2 or 3 piece jigsaws! So it could be a growth spurt.
It's just he always
looks tired. People always comment on it. He always has dark circles but there is no convincing him; at least at home. At nursery he regularly has 90 min naps.
