3.3 yr old and naps

[1sttimemamma]

Hi all. I need a bit of advice about naps. ds is 3 and I know he is dropping naps. What is the normal amount of sleep a 3 yr old needs? Without a nap he goes to bed sometimes as early as 6pm. He will wake about 12 hours later. He yawns a lot, etc. I lay him down for quiet time and he almost never naps anymore, so I don't know what else to do. I know I can't force him to sleep so I figure he would sleep if he wanted to. Does he need more than 12 hrs?

[Mum-of-Two]

My daughter gets 10-12 hours a day and it is not enough for her, she seems constantly tired lately and I'm not really sure what to do about it.  I am thinking if she got 12 hours every day rather than the day or two of early waking or accidental late night (all due to her having a younger sibling) she would probably be better.

[momtonb&ab]

at 3.5 our guys needed 12 hours with a bit longer wind down at the end of the day.

[elf]

At 3 years old my DD needed 12 hours - but we ended up doing a 10 hour night and a 2 hour nap, as that created a happier child.  Things got a bit mucky during the 'no nap' transition but now that we seem to have completely stopped naps at 3.5 years, she seems to do fine on an 11 hour/11.5 hour if we are lucky night.  I'm not sure if we'll get 12 hours back, but I'll cross my fingers!

[coopers_mommy]

DS is 3.5 and takes about an 1.5 hr 5 days a week (2 days out of the week he is at "school" so he does not sleep there).  He then get about 10.5 hrs at night.  When we have consecutive days of no naps, the house and everyone in it turns crazy.  I would rather have 10.5 hr nights and then a nap vs no nap. 

Could you try putting him down for a nap 6-7 hrs after wake up?  Then you limit the amount of nap time?   

*On a side note....you all are worrying me about losing my naptime.....I think we will have "rest time" for as long as I can push it!

[1sttimemamma]

I have put him down 6 hours after wake up and up to 9 hours after wake - no nap. I really think he's dropped it. There are days when I am sure he will sleep (yawning, etc), but just talks and plays in his room. He only has stuffed animals and he stays in his bed, so he doesn't have anything that gets him too crazy.

Right now we are doing a 6pm bedtime - but we generally get a 6am wakeup - but sometimes it's a 7am wake up. I think I might need to push his bedtime later to try to get a more consistent later wake up time.

It's nice to hear that 12 hours is about all we can expect. He does really well (for the most part) on no nap.

[1sttimemamma]

Well, things have gotten worse. He's been doing about 9 hours a night now. It's getting crazy. His quiet time is filled with banging on the walls, etc. The main difference is that he's got a cold and he can't breathe thru his nose and he's a thumb sucker, so he can't suck on his thumb and still breathe. He's always slept less when he's sick - but this is way less than ever before.

Anybody have a kid that sleeps less when sick? DH tried to put him down for a nap today after sleeping only 9 hours last night and NO nap.

He's getting cranky. Any thoughts?

[imaayafa]

kids always wake a lot when they have colds. make sure you put tissues and a bottle of water next to the bed and try to teach him how to use them, just in case. saline drops several times a day have been proven to help kill bacteria in and clear the sinus passages; maybe that will also help clear him up. about general number of hours to sleep, my 3 year old has never slept 12 hours in his whole life. he used to sleep about 8.5 at night with a 1 hour nap or so...we dropped the nap right around his birthday. at first he needed tiny afternoon naps, about 20 minutes, to keep him going til bedtime. now he generally doesn't nap if he sleeps about 9.5 at night. 10 if we are realllly lucky. most kids need more but practitioners say 10-12 hours a day at this age is normative.

[1sttimemamma]

Thanks! I'm hoping that once he's feeling better, he'll sleep better. My DS won't let me do anything to his nose - no saline, nothing. I might bribe him . Also - he dosen't know how to blow his nose. I try and try to teach him - but he won't/can't do it. That's a good idea to have tissue for him.

[imaayafa]

saline is just salt water and they make drops especially for babies. all pediatricians recommend and studies back it up. my 3-yr-old only just learned to blow his nose, after many lessons but we left the tissues anyway for wiping bc he used to wake us up, shouting "my nose is running". good luck!

[elf]

Well we are re-introducing a 1 hour nap as it just makes for a nicer day and a nicer DD!!!  I'm not sure if I need to do this everyday and am generally going on her behavior.  So at the moment we are doing:

6am - she wakes
1.30pm - 2.30pm Nap - wake her
7.30pm Bedtime stories etc and she's asleep by 8pm...

A 10 hour night and a 1 hour nap definitely makes for a happier girl, and I think if she doesn't nap I need to be super efficient for bedtime and have her 'asleep' by 7pm.  It seems that even at 3.5 years, overtiredness creeps in...

[Mum-of-Two]

With a 6 a.m. wake time, I think you're right on target.  How did she take having to nap again?

[elf]

I also have a 16 month so now that he is on 1 nap I have a bit of time to dedicate to getting her back into bed.  I generally let her watch some TV after lunch while I get DS to bed.  At around 12.45pm I give the warning that the TV will be going off and she kind of 'melts down', so I say she needs to lye down in her room and I have found that she has been falling asleep.  I wake her after an hour though.  I am not sure if she will do it every day, or need it every day.  I also tell her what plans we have for the afternoon and that she can't go to the park or whatever we have planned unless she has a nap.  If she doesn't fall asleep, then I am going to make sure that there is an actual lye down in the bed at this time as I have found that she needs a break from all stimulation if she is not going to nap...    I think if she consistently pulled out an 11 hour or 11.5 hour night then she wouldn't need the nap but it's hard to get her into bed before 7pm as I also have to put our son down, so for now we need to keep offering some form of nap so her bedtime can be more between 7.30pm - 8pm...

[irish3680]

DD1 went through many phases of not napping for a while. We kept putting her down and eventually she went back to sleeping. She is almost 4.5 and just recently we had to stop letting her nap everyday because after a few days in a row of a nap her nights start getting too short. She also isn't compltely ready for no nap because a few days in a row of no nap also cut her nights short. Shortening her naps didn't work for us, just resulted in OT. SO we do a nap every other day.

Nap days:

6-7 am: awake
12:30ish: nap (sleep 1.5-2 hours)
6:30/7: bed (asleep 8/8:30 - always takes ages to fall asleep on nap days regardless of nap length or bedtime)


No nap days:
6-7 am: awake
12:30-2: rest time in ned with books and a baby doll, she often plays "school"
5:30/5:45: bed (asleep by 6pm the latest)

So on naps days she sleeps 1.5-2 hours in the day and 10-10.5 hours at night. No nap days she sleeps 12-13 hours at night.