Day sleeps are essential for toddlers, as they burn so much energy in the day. Without enough sleep during the day, your toddler will likely get grizzly and difficult, have more tantrums and often lose the plot as the day wears on.
However it's not always plain sailing with getting your toddler to sleep during the day. Just as you get it sorted, the timing of her sleeps may change or you start to get huge resistance to having a sleep at all.
Changes to Toddler Day Sleeps
Dropping from 2 to 1 sleep
The timing of this major change varies enormously, and generally occurs somewhere between 12 and 18 months.
The main sign that your toddler is ready to drop to one sleep is that the morning sleep has got so close to lunch time that there is not really time in the afternoon left for a sleep!
If your toddler still has 2 sleeps but is really resistant to one of them, this would be another indicator to try moving to just one sleep. Often the morning sleep gets later and longer, and the toddler resists having an afternoon sleep.
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Gradually move the morning sleep later, so you are putting your toddler down somewhere between 11am to noon.
On some days you will find your toddler still needs a short nap later afternoon, as they get used to just one sleep. This may be a short nap in the car when you are out or try popping them into the cot if they start to get grumpy and over-tired around 3-4pm. Just make this a short nap though, otherwise you will have a battle at bedtime.