My LO is about 19 mo and seems to be going through a nap/sleep regression lately. He's refusing his nap completely, taking an absurdly long time to go down (over an hour today) or taking a short nap. He currently sleeps with about 67 stuffed animals, 2 board books and his small blanket. He also has a baby Einstein aquarium in his crib rail. The stuffed animals don't impact his sleep but when he's not napping he's looking at his books and/or his aquarium. They've never been an issue in the past but I'm wondering if they're becoming more of a distraction these days. I'm happy he has something to keep him busy instead of just whining or crying the whole time but I'm not sure if they're doing more harm then good. Zero issues with night sleep.
Would you leave the books and aquarium or take them out?
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I think the books and toys prevent my little guy from sleeping. My son though goes through phases of ripping books. We didn't let him have books for a long while then started it again and subsequently started ripping them again.
He is much better with the stuffed animals. -
I would definitely take them out. As he gets older, more aware, less sleepy, those distractions don't help.
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We were having that issue with our 19 month old too, for a few weeks. She's gotten better at napping again, and we didn't change anything.
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How long has the nap resistance been going on? If it's been only a few weeks, it could just be a phase. I'd let him keep the books/aquarium and be glad that they're keeping him quiet, and hope that he gets it together and gets back to sleeping soon. I'm a fan of giving kids options within an appropriate range of behavior, and to me, resting in bed while reading is better than screaming or fighting the entire nap time.
If you've given it some time and you think it's the toys that are causing him to stay awake, I've also tried playing an audio story on the ipad during nap time and telling kiddo she has to stay in bed and listen. Since there's nothing to physically do, it's a lot harder for the kid to keep themselves awake, but there's still something to occupy or distract them from yelling/crying/trying to get up. -
DD has started resisting naps the past few months (she just turned 2.5) and the days we removed her books/animals from her bed she actually slept. We now manage to get her to nap most days just threatening to take the animals away
She was napping dependably at daycare so we knew it wasn't that she really didn't need the nap anymore.
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