Day sleeps. Does an 18 month still need one?

[mbear]

My Sam is just 10 days younger than your little one and there is no way she could go without a day sleep....shes up at 7am. Sleep at 1230pm. In bed for the night by
715pm.....
Well done for feeding her this far along..... What does she do when you do leave her ? Cry, play, whinge ???
How much sleep is she getting in a 24 hr period ?

If you b/f her in her room, maybe feed her in another room, bright, curtains open, etc, let her have her feed, then take her to her cot/bed and explain that its sleep time. My DD takes a stuffed dog to bed, and has a bottle, so she knows those cues are for sleep. Your DD's cues are the breast. So maybe introduce something else (blankie, a book, a stuffed toy) that will prompt her little mind to suggest 'its sleep time'.....

I dunno if thats any help....but 18 months does seem young to have no sleeps at all (and no break for you during the day either....).

Good luck.

[Floweryfields]

All of our toddlers in this age group sleep at my work, in fact the majority of children in all age groups sleep for some length of time after lunch. In my opinion, children need a day time sleep up until they start school.

[Pandora]

i think its normal for an 18month old not to want to have one. some kids go through stages where they wont have them and then go back to them later. DS was never a fantastic day sleeper, but will generally have one as long as DH or I arent the ones asking him to, so daycare or people babysitting hes fine with.
I think at that age its still impotant that they get some sort of rest in the day even if they wont sleep.

[~Kate~]

Thanks Curly for the support and understanding. Nice to know I'm not the only one. lol

MBear - When I pop her in her cot for a day sleep she cracks a tanty and just yells, howls, screams, squeals and everything in between but without tears or really working herself up. She sleeps from 7pm until at least 5am so 10 hours per day if not until 6am. I'm definately going to try something 'sleep' related like a snuggly or teddy. A GP told me to give her a dummy again (spat it out when she was 6months and never wanted it again) which i think is more regressing than anything. So a snuggly I am more than fine with. Especially seeing as my 28 year old DH still has a special pillowcase that he needs to sleep with. He'll actually take his pillow if we go anywhere or when we went overseas for our honeymoon, he just brought the pillowcase.

ausgirl - any advice on how to get her to sleep then? what tricks do you guys use?

Rayray - She has a rest period where she sits on the couch with her bottle of moo milk and watches tv for a bit. Thats her downtime...so as long as she gets that I'm happy I guess.

Thanks for all your help

[Floweryfields]

Mmmm, tricks of the trade hey? Well it definitely is alot easier when everyone is doing the same thing to begin with - so I have a bit of an advantage there!
I think the key is routine, same time everyday, we do the same thing, children eat, have nappies changed/checked/toileting - the room is darkened, relaxing quiet music put on, staff go into super calm mode - no loud conversations, calm quiet demeanour.
We pat about half of the younger children to sleep, back pats or rubs are great, also the old eye brow stroke works wonders. The older children have usually learned to sleep on their own by the time they move up to the older groups. The routine remains the same for all the ages though.

My suggestions, set up a routine, do the same thing every day (especially while establishing the pattern), put away toys and distractions - maybe you might like to read a short book every day as a part of the routine. Darken your child's room, put on some relaxing music. Pat, stroke, rub to calm and soothe. Be firm, let your child know that it is rest time not play time, don't give in and hopefully you will have success!

I would say any sleep, whether only 30 mins or an hour is better than none at all.

[Patooties]

Hi Kate
Hannah still has one - usually goes for between 2 - 3 hours. Have you tried exhausting her? Let her run around alot, go to the park etc? If you laid down on the floor beside her, would she lay down then? I reckon she still needs a sleep so that you can get a break lol. I really look forward to my 'me time'. Sounds terrible doesn't it?