My 27 Month Old Refuses to Nap for Me Only

You can let him cry, but only 5 minutes before you go in the first time. (If you let him work himself up to the blood-curdling level, he can't settle himself back down.) After 5 minutes, go in, lay him down, shush him or tell him "time to go to sleep", rub his back a little, and walk out. When he fusses, give him 10 minutes, then repeat the process. Then go to 15 minutes. You want to teach him that you haven't abandoned him, but you're not letting him get up until he sleeps. If he's used to napping in the morning, maybe try an early lunch, and nap right after. Since this began with taking the side off his crib, you may want to rethink that for a little longer, or move him to the toddler bed with a rail. Maybe he doesn't feel safe.

We also went through this recently when we changed my daughter to a big girl bed, and I posted the same question! Basically we just kept at it and after another week or so she started taking naps again. So my advice is to just keep trying. Also, almost all kids at this age take an afternoon nap, so you might want to switch to afternoons, stick to the same time each day, and put him in his room with a few books and toys that he can play with until he falls asleep.

My daughter has always been tall so we had to get her out of the crib earlier than some people do. She was 26 months. She went through a phase right after we got the "big girl bed" of not wanting to nap even though she clearly still needed them as she was literally falling asleep at the dinner table on the days she didn't nap. We also had no problem at night. I think, for her, it was just the novelty of being able to get out of the bed and explore other things. We put a baby gate at the door to her room so she had to stay in her room during nap time even if she wasn't sleeping. If she wasn't asleep within 30-45 minutes I took the gate down and gave up on the nap for that day. The first couple days were hard because she was not only playing with toys but pulling all of her clothes out of her dresser drawers! Even if she didn't sleep, the quiet down time/alone time seemed to be good for her and I knew she was safe in her room. I can't remember how many days it took but she eventually would play for a few minutes and then get in bed and take a nap. Once the novelty wore off, she did realize that she was tired. Her naps were in the afternoon so that may have helped. She never did the crying though and I know that can be hard to listen to and you won't want that keeping the new baby awake either. Hopefully if you try not to force him to nap, he might stop crying & will discover on his own that he needs to sleep. Good Luck to you with your son & the new baby!