Toddlers: how do you get a 2-year old to nap?

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Does anyone have any tips for getting a two-year-old to take a nap? It's amazing how many excuses a child that age can come up with for not taking one.

-- Mary N. Macdonald (mnmacd@his.com), June 12, 2000

Answers

Response to Toddlers

Here's what has worked for me.

Don't focus on the nap; instead, work on engaging in very physical activities. With Max and Sara, I used to chase them around parks, take them swimming, take them camping, go to outdoor festivals and dances, have races with them, practice rolling, and other such stuff. Then when it came time for the nap, they were usually the one that asked for it.

I even sometimes tried to resist them napping (only half seriously). I might say, "Can't we play one more game?" That way, they were initiating nap time, rather than me trying to force it.

And when all else failed -- like the days when I didn't have the energy to do those things -- I resorted to taking a drive in the car, with the hopes that they would fall asleep so that I could carry them upstairs to bed.

-- Michael Berney (mlberney@aol.com), June 13, 2000.


I found that naps were easier when it was clear that this is what happens every day, no deviation. You can develop your own routine: a story or two, drink of water, then it's time to lie down. You clearly can't make a kid sleep, but you can enforce a rest time. For lots of parents, nap time becomes a sacred time slot because you really do need to have a formal routine that is consistently enforced. You can add some carrots to the nap routine by incorporating favorite activities before or after the nap.

Good luck!

-- Eileen Schlichting (ekentlands@msn.com), June 14, 2000.


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