Hi
My 23 month old son has been sleeping in a toddler bed for 2 weeks (climbed out of crib). The 1.5 weeks was great he loved his bed and stayed in it and the times that he did come out, I would put him right back in without saying anything or without emotion. He is now coming out all the time and wont stay in at all and will play in his room and not take his nap. Will he eventually return to taking his nap if I let him play? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Yes, he will probably start taking naps agin.. As long as you tell him to stay in his room. And that he can only play quietly or look at books, but he must stay in his bed.
Try playing quiet music (or white noise), cooling down his room and maybe darkening the windows..
He is just exploring his new freedom.
Hi R., if you really want him to stay in his bed, you need to show him some disatisfaction for not staying in his bed. If he is playing quietly in his room that does not have to be a bad thing, but if naps are a must then you have to enforce them and be firm. Sometimes my kids would fall asleep while playing. Some kids at 2 don't nap as much as they used to. J.
We simply did not keep toys in my son's room. That way, if he didn't want to stay in his bed he really didn't have anything to do. We also but the childproof door handle thing on the inside of his door so he could not come out by himself (we would open it after he went to sleep in case of fire or something though). He eventually figured out there was nothing to do and that he couldn't get out and he just napped and went to bed when he was supposed to. There were a few nights of banging on the door though and having to pick him up from sleeping on the floor and putting him back in bed before he gave up. Good luck!
My son also accepted his big boy bed, and then refused to nap after a few weeks. I thought he was done with his naps, and really was distraught, since he's the kind of kid who is full throttle all day long and NEEDS his naps. I really just stood my ground for about a month and he finally relented. He's now back to taking 2-2.5 hour naps every day (except on Sundays when my hubby's home during naptime and he doesn't want to miss out on precious daddy time.)
It was rough...there were a few times he would sit in his room and scream at me, and kick the doors. VERY frustrating since he'd do this at the same time as the baby was napping. I truly think he was just testing me to try to find my breaking point, but he never found it and I won. The no emotion, no talk approach is the best. Keep at it, mama!
take him outside and make him play HARD before naps..i had the same issue for about a year...repetition honey repetition. eventually he'll learn that when mommy says its bed time it's bed time.
