Naps for 17 Month Old

Is it just a recent thing? If so, Im thinking maybe he's teething or having a growth spurt?
If it's not a new thing, maybe just let him stay up and move his bedtime to earlier so that he's getting a little bit more sleep at night (albeit, 12 hours is plenty, but you gotta figure nap hours too).
It may just very well be a phase. My daughter did this quite a few times. If you are set on him having a nap (I would be), then just keep trying. If not, just let it go. Every kid is different. He might just not need that much sleep. Good luck hun! Toddlers are tough!

I know EXACTLY how you feel. My daughter was only 13 months old when we HAD to stop her naps. Yes it sounds early and NO it's not for every kid, but she would hav ethe hardest time going down at night if she even got 30 minutes during the day. Some kids are just like that, they have more energy nothing is wrong with that at all. I also know what you mean about the time alone with your husband and NO don't give that up. you both NEED that. We dropped the nap and after dinner did a bath a book and then to bed between 7 and 7:30. It worked great. She too slept for 12 or more hours at night, it was just better for her that way. My two boys that came after her are both great sleepers. they love their naps and they are 2 1/2 and 14 months. They sleep for like 2 to 2 and a half hours in the early afternoon and then go to bed a t 7 and sleep all night til 7 the next morning. It just whatever workd best for your child. As long as hes getting such great sleep at night I wouldn't worry a bit about him not having a nap. Good Luck

Our kids have went in streaks where they didn't nap for awhile and then started again. (Seemingly to go with growth spurts......) Just give it up for a little while and see how he does!

Go for it. Give up the nap. He will go through phases, and if/when he goes to preschool, they usually lie down in the afternoon when he may or may not fall asleep. That will be a whole 'nother adjustment for your family. If he can make it through the day and sleep at night just fine, do it. Enjoy the time with your man.

My oldest son (now 18 - just graduated high school!) was the same way. It drove me crazy because he was a great baby, but just hated the naps. So, at about 18 months I just cut out the naps and let him go to bed earlier. Otherwise when it was naptime, he would lay in bed with his eyes open and never sleep. He always slept long and hard all night long. I'm not sure how many hours of sleep the typical 17 month old needs, but you can look it up. If he is getting the recommended hours, then you don't need to stress over it. He just likes getting them all at the same time. BTW - My second child was completely different and napped regularly until she was 4. Go figure. (They are all their own unique, individual little people!)

Oh sweety, no worries. It sounds like you know what to do. If he is that tired, he will take a nap. Obviously he doesn't feel the need to. My oldest stopped napping at a year...no joke. I tried making him take naps concerned he wasn't getting enough sleep, but nothing worked for him either. Even now at almost 10, he will go to his room to go to bed at 8:30-9:00 but he won't actually fall asleep until after 10 most nights. Funny thing is, HE is the first one up most mornings even on the weekends!! He just doesn't need anymore sleep than what he gets I guess. And trust me, my son is a smart, TALL, happy boy so it hasn't hurt him one bit.

Good luck.

Another way to gauge whether he still needs a nap is how quickly he falls asleep in the car. If it is very quick, then I think he probably still needs a nap. If you have to drive for 30min or so before he falls asleep it might be forcing the nap.
My son was a terrible sleeper (night and nap), and we did A LOT of car naps. Around 18mo he finally started sleeping well in his crib, I could set him down and walk out, and he'd sleep for 2hours, but it was a very gradual process.
1. Car nap while driving
2. Car nap to fall asleep, sit in driveway with the car running (I could at least read or take a nap myself!)
3. Car nap to fall asleep, sit in driveway with car off
4. Car to fall asleep, carry him inside and hold him in rocking chair (mine had to be FAST asleep, other friends could only transfer in the first five minutes of sleep so you can figure out what works for you)
5. Car to fall asleep, rock a bit, into bed
After this, he would sometimes wake a bit and go back to sleep and learned to like his crib. I think he just "grew" into a better sleeper.

Something to at least give a try!

My older sister's two children (now 7 and 10) both stopped taking naps completely when they turned ONE year old. This happened on their own, with no help or encouragement or resistance from my sister, the kids just didn't want to sleep during the day anymore. They, too, slept a full night and were fine staying up during the day. They DID need some quiet time in lieu of a nap, whether it be playing in their room with soft toys, blocks, puzzles, listening to soothing music in the crib with her in earshot distance, etc... She told me to be grateful my 17 month old still takes one nap a day, because she didn't get much downtime from then until they began school.
I think you MUST trust your gut and come to terms with the fact that everyone else's advice is still for everyone else's child and everyone else's experience. Your child is going to do what is best for him, and you and your husband need to be okay with having a child who doesn't fit the typical "milestone" stage of nap ending. Please don't beat yourselves up for the fact that you cannot force your child to sleep or control his own tiredness schedule. Leave his bedtime alone if you can cope with him being up all day. :) Good luck and take some deep breaths, because you and your husband are doing a fabulous job, and your child clearly enjoys being awake to spend time with you both.
J. in Burlingame, CA

My older daughter ( who is now 5) didn't nap well at daycare until about 2yrs old. She would maybe take a 20 or 30 minute nap, so what my pediatrician said at the time was to make sure she got at least 12 hours of sleep at night, if I could more, but with a work schedule and commute time it was hard to get her ready for bed earlier than 7 and up at 7am. So that is what she did. She was similar to your son, very easy going child and really didn't see a change in attitude or behavior when she didn't nap well.

She moved into a toddler room (around 16 months old) where everyone was put to nap everyday at 12pm, with lights lowered and classical music on...that was the first time that she finally got into a groove of napping. It increased to about 45 minutes of sleep at first, after about 6 months she would take an hour and a half.

On the weekend I kept the routine the same, she was put down for her nap at 12 with classical music, read the same story to her everyday for nap and bedtime, told her we were going to read a book, not going to bed, because she would would resist otherwise. When she was around 2 or 2 1/2 she started to "catch up" on her sleep on the weekends and would take a several hour nap. That was what we did and as her naps increased at school, which was over the next 2 years, her naps on the weekend evened out with during the week. Her nighttime sleep stayed the same during all of this.

So for us the consistency and the "peer pressure" of everyone sleeping was what got her to nap, but before that just making sure the nighttime covered the need was what worked for us.

Good luck.
E.

HI there,
I have a wonderful on line book I can forward to you. It's called "Sleep Sense Program". This book really opened my eyes to all of the bad habits that I actually formed which caused my daughter to create bad habits as well. I see that you tried everything under the sun to get your baby boy to go to sleep, but it sounds like nothing was consistant and that is what this book showed me was sooo important. Doing something for a few days in a row will not work. I even went as far as reading the same 3 books to her for weeks in a row. That way, when the last book was read, she knew exactly what was coming next...sleep. I know you said you we not interested in the CIO method, but that is the only thing that worked for my daughter. I never let her cry for a very long time. I would go into her room every 5-7 minutes and say the same thing to her. "go to sleep, sweetdreams, I love you", and then walk out. Yes, she cried, but every night the crying got shorter and shorter until one night, after I said my good nights to her, she said I love you too, and rolled over and feel asleep. It took a little over 2 weeks. Can you say MIRACLE????? I had been dealing with trying to put my child down to sleep for almost 2 years and all I had to do is take 2 weeks out of our lives to make these changes and she'll sleep fall asleep on her own???? I was so mad at myself for not doing it sooner.
The book does cover other ways to sleep train, so there are other options.
Consistancy is the key to sleep training. I realized, after reading portions of the book, that I never taught my daughter how to fall asleep on her own. Once I figured out how to do it, it was so easy to put her down to bed.
Please email me at ____@____.com and I'll send it to you (and anyone else who might need it) It has been at least a half a year since I sleep trained my daughter and she still sleeps through the night.
Good luck to you and I hope to hear from you soon.