naps for 18mo

[Convex]

hi,

i have given away all of my baby books and just wanted to find out how long your 18mo-2yo sleeps in the day / what is recommended?

we do 1 nap and are pretty flexible about when and how long. but he takes ages to go to sleep at night now and am thinking about cutting it a bit shorter.

any thoughts would be welcome!

thanks

[hellosailor]

Hi Convex,

Recommended is about 2.5 hours but you could shorten if he's taking ages to go to sleep at night?

Does he wake up by 3pm? I reckon after 3 makes it trickier at bedtime, so 12:30 - 3:00 or 1:00-3:00 generally good timings I've found xx

[Specklemum]

Like hellosailor, we found 1-3 worked well (and still does now he's 2 and a bit). It also seemed fairly typical amongst his friends. If we left it much later than that, then he'd get overtired and it was difficult to get him down for his nap - with knock-on consequences come bedtime! He's become more flexible as he's got older & we can get away with a later nap now. Good luck!

[midivydale]

Hello,

We had to have earlier naps so maybe 11.-11.30 to 12.30-13.00 worked best.

I still naps now at 3 1/2 on his nursery days.

[Specklemum]

Also, I'm sure others will be much more helpful! But we've been through periods where our son took ages to nod off at night, and nothing we tried really had much impact. Thankfully they were passing phases. So if nothing else works, reassure yourself that it will most likely work its way out in time!

[astrid83]

We've had go get rid of the naps completely for my 2 year old as he wont go to bed in the evening if he naps in the day. If he is really tir d I let him sleep for 30 min but not longer than that. Without nap he goes to bed at about 8 pm, IF he naps he is up til 10-10.30 pm :(

[Convex]

thanks everyone

i might give it a week and see if he sorts himself out - nursery tried to limit his nap to 2 hours today and he basically refused to wake up!!!

i feel reassured his nap is semi normal though so thanks very much x

[cn150]

I just let my three kids sleep when they wanted when my wife wasn't there to get stressed about it - they always seemed to still sleep in the evening after I gave them some gripe water.

[Curmudgeon]

My children slept as long as they slept ...never wake a sleeping child is my motto

It never affected bedtime

[hellosailor]

Curmudgeon Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> My children slept as long as they slept ...never

> wake a sleeping child is my motto

>

> It never affected bedtime

Classic Curmudgeon. ?..How does your good luck help the OP, who is describing the opposite?

[yummers]

Think that Elizabeth Pantley recommends that at 18 months a child should have around 13-14 hours sleep total, decreasing to 13 hours by 2 - other "sleep experts" seem to recommend similar from my memory. Think how this is spread over naps and night time really depends on your LO.

My 21month old has a single nap of 1.5-2 hours. She goes down for her nap sometime between 11.30 and 12.30 depending on how her day is going. She then goes to bed between 18.30 and 19.00 and wakes up sometime between 06.00 and 07.00. I always let her sleep as long as she wants.

We had a little bit of difficulty going to sleep last month, but seemed to sort itself out with a bit of perseverance, as most baby/toddler sleep things seem to!

Hope this helps.

[Convex]

thanks again,

after a bit of trial and error,

we think he is waiting for his brother to come up. but the long naps are definitely a factor, we are going to give it a week of keeping naps under 2 hours and just see if it improves.

weve had a good few months of him sleeping through whatever happens in the day, im really not used to protracted bedtimes, with this one anyway!

[alieh]

Mine have never needed the total amounts the books say - at 21 months, I'd say she needs 12-12.5 in 24 hours. Unlike my sons, she seems to do better with an earlier nap. If I wake her up by 1:30, she'll still go to sleep by 7:15 or 7:30. I try to put her down around 11:30 or 12:00.

[lisaloulou84]

My son is pretty solid 2hrs 11-1. If he starts to head towards 2.5 hrs I wake him, if not, it starts nearing 9 till he'll go to sleep (and he'll be grumpy about it), otherwise he'll happily go to bed at 7.30-7.45 and sleep till 6.30-7am.