My babysitters (both old and new) used to tell me that because my boy doesn’t sleep much, he doesn’t seem to be putting on weight. To them, healthy eating and sleeping habits are sure ways for the boy to grow. I tend to agree.
He’s a very happy and active boy who stops at nothing. He wouldn’t voluntarily go to bed in the nights or take a nap in the daytime even when he is feeling tired and sleepy. He would continue to play or walk and run about. Before, he used to sleep in the sarong at night and during nap time. It is quite easy to gently rock him to sleep in it, provided you manage to get him into the sarong without much fuss.
But now, he’s been trained to sleep on the bed and he is refusing to go into the sarong. In the nights, through some effort, we can still manage to make him go to sleep. But in the daytime, it does prove a bit more difficult as he wouldn’t stay in bed for long at all, much less to fall asleep.
So I do wonder whether he’s getting enough sleep just counting his night time sleeping hours, because he doesn’t get much sleep in the day. At most, maybe he’ll nap for 2 hours or so in the day time. In the night, he gets about 9 hours, 10 hours at maximum.
I did a search and found that toddlers between the age of 1 and 2 need between 10 to 13 hours of sleep throughout the day. So my boy is just about making the mark for healthy sleeping habits. What about your kids? Are they getting enough sleep?
How do you make them to go bed if they are resisting it? Or are you the lucky parents whose kids would voluntarily climb up the bed and snooze?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hayley is exactly the same as your boy. She gets about 2 – 3 hours in the day and 9 – 10 hours at night. Day time nap is by force where I have to pin her down onto the bed and night time she has no choice as we place her in the cot. She will sleep within 30 mins on her own. Cannot imagine what will happen when we transfer her to a bed which is going to happen fairly soon as she has outgrown the cot.
I have read various websites too saying that toddlers will need to sleep more to grow. I have a colleague whose daughter only naps for 30 mins twice a day and sleep for about 10 hours at night and she is big. At 13 months, she is already at 10kg! And we exchange notes all the time on what we feed our babies and we feed more or less the same amount. So I think our babies are fine, they are just over active
Wow, you pin Hayley down?! And she doesn’t fuss? We tried that with the boy, he will fuss and cry! So we have to use softer approach and “trick” him to lie still and listen to stories. I guess as long as they are healthy and active, we should be happy parents already huh
Yeah I pin her down and of course she will fuss
. She will protest as she knows it means nap time but after a while she will give up and give in 
. Persistence pays. How I wish there is an easier way with her. I tried reading but she’s not into them. She loves books but she enjoys tearing them more than reading them now.