"I have not yet read your book, but plan on picking up a copy asap! I heard you on 104.7 The Fish Atlanta this morning! I have a 26 month old who does not take naps unless it is on his schedule. He goes down great, if I tell him it is time,he tells me he is ready to go to bed at his normal bed time and has no problem napping on his own. When I put him down however he will lay in his bed for up to 3 hours and sing and talk and play with his hands and feet, he does not fuss or cry! What would you suggest in this situation? Does he need those naps, or should I like you say follow his natural rhythm? Or is this just him being to excited at the time to nap, since he will go down on his own when he is tired?"

- Crystal, Atlanta

Ah, . . . .you must be referring to my NEXT book.

The one I haven't written yet.

Just kidding! There are probably other books out there that have advice like mine, which I'll summarize my advice quickly here, and is touched upon in my book.

And actually this came up in a chatroom discussion I had last month at centraljerseymoms.com

It might be accessible still from that website.

Strategies are a little different with toddlers and naps. Your son is right on schedule---around two and a half years is when a little one comes to realize that s/he can exert some will over whether or not they sleep during naptime.

And I do remember when my own kids went through this! Those were tough days! My toddlers could stay awake, all right, but for the rest of the day, they were just a mess: temperamental, klutzy, moody, or of short attention span. From these signs, it was pretty clear that in fact the naps were still needed. (It's great that you recognize this also, that when your toddler's able to maintain wakefulness during naptime does NOT mean the toddler's outgrown the nap. People make this mistake often, in my opinion.)

Do you know what a sticker board is? A calendar posted somewhere your son can reach, with a place on each day to put a sticker? Using one of these, telling your son why it's still important for him to nap in the afternoons, and having him put a sticker on the board each time he gets up from a nap is usually extremely effective. He should get something special as a reward after a week or so of consistent naps (which doesn't necessarily have to be expensive or high in calories). The trick is to motivate him to want to nap.