Letting toddler sleep in

Is it better to let a toddler sleep as late as they want or keep them on a
schedule and have them up by a certain time in the morning? My 28 MO DD has
been sleeping longer than usual in the mornings. Of course this has been

L....

She may be going through a growth spurt. My general rule is, if he
wants to sleep, let him.

interferring w/ her PM nap which is she isn't taking one. She just plays in
her bed until I go get her. Thoughts?

Ericka Kammerer...

Are you okay with no afternoon nap and late rising?
I don't think there's any magic in "early to bed, early to
rise" or any general prescription for when to sleep, but I
do think there's value to a reasonable degree of consistency.
So, if her late rising means that you're frequently going
to have to haul her out early to get stuff done, or if
no afternoon nap doesn't work for your schedule, or whatever,
then I would discourage a late waking time. If it's fine for
you if she gets her sleep by skipping naps and sleeping later
in the morning, then I don't see anything inherently wrong
with that.

Best wishes,
Ericka

bizby40...

What's "better" is what works for you both. If her lack of an
afternoon nap is causing a problem for either of you, for example if
she get's cranky and tired by dinnertime, it might be something you
need to address. However, if she's happy and getting enough overall
sleep, and if her schedule works with yours, there's no reason to feel
that you need to artificially move it around to be more typical.

Donna Metler...

My DD is doing this at 20 months. She's started sleeping until about 9:00 in
the mornings, going to bed about 9:00 at night, and not napping at all
during the day (although I'm putting her in her crib for a "Rest time" in
the afternoon, she sits, looks at books, and talks to her dragon-she does
the same the two days a week she's at MDO). Maybe once or twice a week,
she'll actually fall asleep during rest time. If I wake her up earlier, I
don't get a baby who naps, I get a cranky, tired child all day. So, I'm kind
of resigned to having a non-napping toddler who seems to do fine on 12 hours
straight of sleep. And, since most toddler activities, playgroups and the
like don't seem to start before 10:00, it's really not an issue.

dragonlady...

Personally, I'd let a toddler sleep until they woke up, unless I had to
get them up for some reason, as long as they were still going to bed at
night at a reasonable time. If she's able to give up her afternoon
sleep (and she's young for it, but it's not unheard of) without problems
and is going to bed well, and her sleeping later doesn't interfer with
other things that need to happen, I'd let her body set it's own schedule
by letting her sleep.