What to do during nap strike - 20 mo

[jkitiara]

Hello all! My son hasn't taken a nap in his crib in a week, and it was only about half the time for the week before that. He is 20 months (almost 21) and I'm pretty sure this is developmental--he's learning a new word almost every day. I put him down in the crib after our usual routine and he just plays happily for 30-40 min then yells to get out.

So I really hope this is a temporary nap strike (although he dropped all his other naps super early no matter what I did). My question is, what do I do in the meantime? Let him deal with being exhausted from no nap? Take him for a drive every day to preserve the nap time? I'm sick of taking the car and weather makes stroller difficult. Plus the car doesn't even always work.
 
Sometimes he's ok, but the other night he fell asleep during dinner. The day before he fell asleep on the way home from the store--a ten minute drive--at 5pm and I had to drag him out of the car.

He sleeps great at night: 7:30pm to 6:30am. We do tons of physical activity to try to wear him out. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not.

[creations]

Hi
You didn't say what time nap was at, do you think he'd be more likely to nap if you put him down 30 min later or even 60 min later but for a shorter nap so that you can keep BT?
If he doesn't nap at all I'd move BT much earlier, an hour or even more and then hopefully he would make up for the lost nap time and still sleep to his usual wake up time in the morning.

I think you are spot on about it being developmental, 21 months is prime time for a language leap so you could well see him settle back into a more consistent nap routine when it passes.

[jkitiara]

I've usually been shooting for 1pm as nap time. Later doesn't seem to help, unless it is way later, like 4pm, which then interferes with bed time.

Since he is staying in his crib, it's probably best to just maintain that "rest time" until he hopefully settles.