Eighteen Month Old Twice-A-Day Napper Struggling With Bedtime

“Hi Abby- hope you’ve been well! Wanted to reach out because there’s something we were looking into and didn't see it in on your blog. Rory is 18 months now and still doing two naps because that’s still what they’re doing at daycare, but lately he’s been fighting bedtime, stalling, taking awhile to fall asleep during naps, or crying when we leave him in his crib at night to go to sleep.”

Most toddlers move to one nap a day between 15-18 months old, with a few little ones transitioning as early as 12 months or as late as 21 months old.

In the case of this little guy, I suspect the issue is that he no longer really needed two naps a day.

It’s unusual to see a toddler continue to take two naps a day when they really only need one. In most cases, they simply stop taking one nap, usually the afternoon nap, so then they are awake from the end of the first nap until bedtime. This leads to crankiness and overtiredness at bedtime. For this child, instead, he was getting too much daytime sleep, which was making nighttime sleep more difficult. 

When there is an afternoon nap refusal, I suggest moving the first nap later by 15 minutes every day until a single nap time is happening at around noon. During the transition, you can continue to do an afternoon rest time, moving it progressively later as the morning nap moves later, but don’t be surprised if your little one doesn’t sleep during the second nap. That’s fine. Some quiet time in the crib is still restful. Plan for a very early bedtime during the transition.

If your toddler tends to skip the morning nap rather than the afternoon nap, this is an easier situation to remedy. Simply skip the morning nap – as your chld is already doing on their own – and move naptime earlier, to 12 pm. It’s important not to do it at 1 pm or later because that is a very long time awake for a young toddler.

However, in the case of this toddler, naptime was only available at 9 am and 1 pm at daycare. So I advised the parent to do nap at 1 pm at daycare and at 12 pm at home on weekends. As he gets older, a 1 pm naptime will get progressively easier. Even now, 1 pm is better than 9 am and 1 pm. Hopefully that will make bedtime a lot easier!

PS If your little one is struggling with nap transitions, you are not alone. Schedule a free consult so we can discuss how to get sleep back on track and make life a lot happier for the whole family.