babyshrink.com

It happens to the best of us. We work so hard to establish nice, regular nap schedules for our babies. Finally, we’ve gotten used to a more predictable nap schedule for our toddler. And boy, do we need it: Running around after a toddler all day is HARD WORK. We need that couple of hours to clean up, get stuff done, pay attention to a neglected sibling, and sometimes — gasp! JUST RELAX!

Then, it happens. One day, your toddler decides that, hey, why not just STAY AWAKE, instead of go to sleep? There’s so much to do, let’s just keep the party going ALL DAY LONG! And the frustrating thing is that, usually, she’ll nap perfectly well at daycare. This makes us feel like WE’RE doing something wrong.

UGH. A non-napping toddler triggers desperate measures. We lie down with the offending 2 (or 3)-year old, we pretend WE are sleeping (and sometimes, we don’t have to pretend!). We bribe. We cajole. We threaten. Sometimes it works — and sometimes it doesn’t. And on the days it doesn’t work, our toddler is a fussy, tantrumming mess by dinner time. Or worse: she falls asleep in the car at 4pm, meaning she’ll then stay up till 10 or 11 pm! Yikes!

Reader Ilima worries that her 2-year-old still needs a nap, but has starting refusing to sleep. What to do, she asks?

Dear Dr. Heather,

Ilima

Dear Ilima,

I’ve been there. All morning long, you’re talking yourself through the frustrations of dealing with a toddler by planning what you’ll finally be able to do, once she goes down for her nap. If I can just make it until 12:30, I can eat a nice, peaceful lunch, straighten up this mess, and catch up with a friend on the phone. But your toddler’s got other plans.

What Not To Do
You can’t force anyone to sleep, especially a toddler. It’s similar to feeding and potty-training issues. Trying to force a toddler to eat, poop, or sleep is a setup for disaster. You don’t want to trigger a power struggle — one that you’ll lose — by trying to MAKE her follow her nap routine.

You also can’t allow yourself to get desperate and miserable about this new turn of events. I know it’s really easy to get comfortable with a nap routine, and it feels impossible to get through the day without it. But don’t panic. Here’s why:

Your Baby is Growing Up!
Babies NEED to sleep during the day. Their brains can’t handle all that stimulation without shutting down after a few hours. But your toddler’s brain is growing past that stage — and isn’t that an amazing thing? She can handle more now. And despite what other “experts” may say, most children automatically get the amount of sleep they need, more or less. They require your direction and support, but they don’t need you to closely control their need for sleep. As my mentor (an infant development expert) said, while scolding me for putting too much emphasis on my own toddler’s nap schedule, “If she’s tired, eventually, she’ll sleep! You don’t need to make a federal case out of it!”

But She Still Seems Tired!
I know. this development thing isn’t perfect. She’ll still have crabby, tired days as she transitions from daily napping to no naps. Some days, she’ll absolutely NEED to nap. And on those days, feel free to insist that she does. But on days that she resists — let her stay up. If she falls asleep on the couch or in the car later, wake her so that she doesn’t stay up to an ungodly hour. Eventually, her boody will adjust, and she’ll sleep in later in the mornings, or allow you to put her down at night a bit earlier, or nap once in awhile.

Then Why Does She Nap at Daycare?
Take it as a compliment — daycare isn’t as fun as home. Your toddler would MUCH rather be up and having fun with her family. Unfortunately, she also saves her worst toddler moments for you as well. That’s why this “Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde” sort of dual-personality thing is so common at this age. All her very best — and very worst — moments are reserved for you!

Tricks for the Toddler in the Napping Gray Zone
If you know she needs a nap but she’s been resistant, use these tips that I learned from our kids’ expert babysitter. Say, “Today, you don’t nap. But you need to lie down in your bed with your book for 30 minutes. But whatever you do, DON’T GO TO SLEEP!” Often, your oppositional toddler will resist your suggestion to NOT SLEEP — by sleeping. (Hey, I never said they were RATIONAL as toddlers, just OPPOSITIONAL!)

Decide in advance that she won’t nap on a certain day, and make a big deal out of it. Say, “Hey! Today is a NON-NAP DAY! You get to be a big kid and NOT NAP! And on non-nap days, bedtime later is at 6:30, because you’re SUCH A BIG GIRL!”

Plan your life differently. From now on, you won’t be able to count on mid-day time for yourself. But you CAN plan for more evening time. You can also plan your toddler’s day accordingly. Set aside “quiet time”, “free play time”, and other set blocks of time when you encourage her to entertain herself. Reward her with praise or little rewards for playing nicely and quietly for increasingly longer blocks of time. As she gets older, you’ll be able to count on her more and more, so that you get little “mini-breaks” throughout the day, instead of one long nap period.

Remember, your toddler is becoming a KID, and kids don’t need daily naps. Kids go to school, go to sleepovers with their friends, and in general gain more independence every day. (Sigh! I know it’s a cliche, but now that our oldest is 8, I see how truly fast they do grow up!) This is just another phase in the amazing process that guides the development of your child. Hang in there!

Aloha,

Dr. Heather
The BabyShrink

One of my pet peeves is the tremendous pressure that schools have been putting on our young children to “perform”. Over the past several years, schools have been ratcheting up their demands for the performance of academic tasks on younger and younger children. But the developmental realities of young children don’t change just because No Child Left Behind wants “results”.

Young children aren’t yet capable, cognitively or psychologically, to tackle heavy-duty academic work — without paying a price. And I worry about those children, like Linda’s daughter below, who may be unfairly flagged as having “problems with focus”, or even labeled ADD/ADHD, at such a young age.

Read on for Linda’s question, and my answer below:

Hi Dr Heather,

Linda

Hi Linda,

In general, I do agree with you that our educators are expecting WAY too much of our children these days, when it comes to “performance” at an early age.

First grade is an interesting age. Teachers will tell you that they typically witness a huge change in children as the year progresses. Most kids will make the transition from what I see as more of a “preschool” sort of mentality, to more of a “grade school kid” sort of mentality. It’s a big step that’s made sometime during the year, and many issues of the kind you describe are sorted out in the process. That’s why standardized tests are viewed (at least by testing specialists) as being NOT super-valid until SECOND grade. There are too many variables up through the first grade. That’s also why we typically don’t diagnose a child with ADD/ADHD until at least age 7.

Our own daughter was “flagged” in first grade for variable performance on standardized tests that year. It made me crazy that they made the first graders sit for standardized tests at all — they’re worthless at that age! By the time they had a specialist test her (at the END of the year), all the issues they were concerned about had “vanished”. She is now doing beautifully in third grade.

Now of course I can’t directly evaluate your daughter, but I do think the questions you are asking are valid, developmentally. Asking a 6-year-old to focus for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, is pretty unrealistic. But of course you want to make sure to take any legitimate concerns seriously.

You might consider asking the teacher to reinforce “on task” behavior, instead of simply worry about “off-task” behavior. You and she can collaboratively set up a plan whereby your daughter is rewarded (with something simple, like stickers or checkmarks, to trade in for small prizes) on a chart for demonstrating a few minutes at a time of “on-task” behavior. You want to set it up so that the goals are ACHIEVABLE — not something diffuse like “having a good day”. You will get much farther with rewarding her for focusing, than by making a federal case out of her being “off-task”. You also want to avoid giving her undue attention for NEGATIVE behavior, especially at this age. Kids have a way of absorbing the negative attention directed at them, and can internalize the idea that they “have a problem”. You’re much better off by reinforcing — and praising her — for doing what you’d like her to do more of. You can also tie her performance at school to things you want her to do at home — listen, complete chores, etc. If reinforcement and praise are coordinated between home and school, you have a better chance of improving things in both places.

See where this gets you, and let us know how it goes.

Aloha,

Dr. Heather
The BabyShrink

Having a new baby throws all semblance of a household schedule into chaos. Your little interloper has demands around the clock, and as YOUR ability to sleep decreases, your feelings of insanity increase! Sleep deprivation is really one of the most difficult parts of being a new parent. You can’t really blame the baby; he’s obeying his internal needs and commands, which don’t yet follow a nice, predictable pattern. Or do they?

Believe it or not, you CAN make some sense of your baby’s sleep/wake/activity cycle. Most babies generally cycle through the following phases:

1) Sleep
2) Hunger/awakening
3) Feeding
4) Alertness
5) Fussiness
6) Sleep

Very young babies may be in each phase for only a few minutes each, gradually lengthening the time spent in each phase as they get older. And of course there are variations on the above cycle; for instance, some babies like to feed again, for comfort, before they go to sleep. But most babies WILL have even some very basic, cyclical pattern that they follow around the clock, even from the earliest age. And as your baby gets older, his tendency to develop a more predictable pattern will become more obvious to you (as long as you look carefully for clues to his own unique cycle). Become a parental detective, and you’ll learn a lot about your new little one.

It helps to know where your baby is in the cycle at any given time, so that you can know what to expect from him now, and in the near future. For instance, if your baby is at the tail end of a nap, it might not be a good idea to plunk him in his carseat for a long ride; he’ll likely awaken with a powerful hunger, and you won’t be able to feed him easily. It makes more sense to let him awaken and then feed him before you leave. Understanding where he is in the cycle also helps you know when you can expect to interact with him most productively (and have the most fun with him!) I know our new baby will awaken from her longest stretch of sleep in the morning, feeling good and ready to “play”. I try to schedule my day so that I can linger with her while she coos and smiles at me from her favorite perch; the changing table, in the morning. We have fun, sweet little “conversations” that are both fun AND important to the development of her little brain. But at the tail end of her period of alertness always comes the fussiness, and I know we can wind down our playtime, as I start to rotate among her favorite soothing techniques. (At 7 weeks of age, it’s anyone’s guess what will soothe her at any particular moment; sometimes it’s her Daddy’s “Heismann Hold”, sometimes it’s her binky and bouncy seat, her swing, or a ride in the stroller).

Getting to know your child starts at even this very earliest of ages. You’ll find, over time, that the general patterns you observe about her sleep/wake cycle eventually extend into her personality tendencies and temperament. This will help you over time to meet your child’s unique parenting needs. Have fun — and try to get some sleep!

Aloha,

Dr. Heather
The BabyShrink