Toddler barely sleeps. Melatonin???

Question

Two year old goes to bed at 11 and wake up at 5. In the day he doesn’t nap unless I drive around in the car and he takes a cat nap for about 20 minutes. I’ve tried everything and nothing works. I also make sure his days are fulfilled and busy but that doesn’t seem to work. So in order to get a damn break should I hire a nanny for a couple hours? Put him in front of screen? Or try melatonin? I just want to be alone once in a while. Everyone we know works a full time job and don’t have time to help with babysitting. Is 6.5 hours of sleep enough for a two year old boy? Besides “me time” I’m worried not sleeping would affect his development somehow also. I know most kids around that age take a nap in the day or just go to bed early and wake up late like 8pm bedtime and wake up at 8am totaling the 12 hours they need in a 24 hour day.

Answer

Try getting him to bed earlier. He might be OVER tired and OVER stimulated so he can’t sleep. 
If he’s skipping a nap, then he might not need one but 11pm is very late for a little dude to be going to bed. 
From experience, the later my 5 yr old goes to bed, the earlier he rises. Once he got on a routine (around 1.5/2) of bedtime at 730/8p every night, he started sleeping better.

Answer

I would definitely make bedtime earlier. He sounds overtired. You could also do quiet time in his room instead of nap time. In my experience, the earlier a kid goes to bed the later they sleep.

Answer

He’s definitely overtired causing him to sleep less . He needs to go down earlier . Even if he doesn’t want to . Not sure how you do bedtime or how he goes down but it needs to be earlier

Answer

Definitely an earlier bed time! 
Aim for 8pm. It’ll take some time. Move bed time up 30 min at a time until you reach the desired bed time. 
Make sure you have a consistent bed time routine. 
1mg of melatonin can be an aid. I wouldn’t start this until you’ve moved bedtime up! Just know that long time use of melatonin can hinder a child from producing it on their own and they can become dependent on supplementing. 
My 3 year old nephew takes 1mg at 7:30pm and is out by 8pm. My husband has to take melatonin every night to get any sleep.

Answer

Sounds like he is incredibly over tired. A solid bed time routine and sleep training should fix the issue. We have been using melatonin with my 2 year old for about a month and it has made a huge difference but we had to strictly sleep train with it.

Answer

This ever resolve itself? I’m dealing with the same problem. 2yr goes to bed at 8:30 but doesn’t actually fall asleep until 10:30/11. She’s then up at 5/6, maybe takes a 2-3 he nap during the day, sometimes she’ll skip though. I can’t imagine this all is enough sleep!

Answer

My now 3 year old doesn’t take naps very often anymore. It started decreasing once baby number two got here when he was 2. He’ll take one about 2-3 (if we’re lucky) times a week. BUT we do incorporate quiet time every single day. So I usually put him in his room between 12-1 pm and tell him to go to sleep, but I don’t force it. Sometimes he’ll get so tired he’ll put himself to sleep and sometimes he’ll just quietly play. Both are benefits because either he sleeps (yay) or he’s learning to independently play and use his imagination. The best benefit of all is that mama gets her quiet time too!

Answer

Don’t do melatonin. Have you consulted his Dr yet?

Answer

Can you have silent play in his room? It may help him nap and you’d get a break. If not hire a nanny or maybe put him in a preschool that could give you a break

Toddler barely sleeps. Melatonin???

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