Question about napping

[Anonymous]

I notice quite a few posts on here about getting kids on a napping schedule, doing the crying out thing, etc. My son is in daycare during the week and on weekends I pretty much let him nap when ever he wants - daycare lets him nap when he wants as well. He still goes to bed at the same time every night. He'll me moving to the toddler class next month and I believe he will have a more structured nap schedule, which I assume I'll adopt on the weekends as well. I haven't read any of the sleep books that are often quoted here, so my question is is there a reason there are so many posts about CIO and napping? Is it a SAHM necessity in order to keep sanity or is there a benefit to having a structured nap schedule?

[Anonymous]

No clue. I also followed a child-led approach in this, when my son was under a year old. He was hungry? I fed him. He was sleepy? He napped. He naturally fell into a sleep/nap/eat routine by about a year old. We only have one child, so it's not so necessary to get them into some routine quickly for parental sanity.

[Anonymous]

I'm the "It's been 14 minutes...I think *I'm* going to cry. " poster.

We've had a pretty consistent schedule/routine since DD was about 2-3 months. 2-3 naps a day plus regular bedtime. The only reason we decided to start nap/sleep training was because she only goes to sleep if we hold her first. At night it's not so bad, 10-15 mins and she's out. For naps it was getting a little crazy, sometimes we'd hold her for the same amount of time she ended up sleeping for. It also frees us up to be able to get SOMETHING done around the house instead of having to hold her the whole time.

As you can see, first day of CIO the only thing I can do is mindless internet surfing to keep me busy. Can't seem to get any real work done (I'm a WAHM).

[Anonymous]

I think all the focus on a nap schedule comes into play when a child is having trouble napping. If your son sleeps well at night and is able to nap well in the day without a structured schedule, that's awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think all the focus on a nap schedule comes into play when a child is having trouble napping. If your son sleeps well at night and is able to nap well in the day without a structured schedule, that's awesome.

I totally agree with this. It's usually when a child is having trouble napping or going to sleep. In those situations, having a regular routine or schedule really helps with getting them to nap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think all the focus on a nap schedule comes into play when a child is having trouble napping. If your son sleeps well at night and is able to nap well in the day without a structured schedule, that's awesome.

That makes sense. Thanks for the clarity.