Any experience of nap dropping really early (20 months)?

[Bex09]

Hi we are back again! I posted a few weeks ago about my DS who is 20 mo and the need to cap his nap. After advice we capped at 1 hour with a longer catch-up nap every few days and that has been great... until now. So the past two days he has completely refused his nap and ended up having NNDs!! Already at this age? I can't believe it. He isn't, or hasn't ever been before a LSN child so I am really surprised. The problem is he isn't extending his nights so is getting nowhere near enough sleep. He is perfectly happy without a nap although I can tell by about 4.30 he is very tired but, obviously that is way too early for BT!

So our days have gone:  WU 8am, BT 7.30pm and then today WU 6.50am and BT 7pm. I'm just worried that under 12 hours sleep in 24 is just not enough for his young age is it? I did wonder about trying for a short 30 min nap later in the day, but then I think his BT would be about 9pm which is way too late and his day would be too long. Any BTDT experience please, I'm a bit lost.

[lauradj]

20 months is quite young to drop the nap entirely, however my kids are not LSN so I'm not speaking from BTDT experience.  Would he nap in the stroller if you took him out for a walk?  Is he playing hard during the day?  If he's expending lots of energy with activity, he'll likely need at least some kind of recharge mid-day. I'm sorry I can't offer greater advice, but I do agree that 12hrs of sleep in 24 seems a little low.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

My youngest is very lsn, but she has always been that way - went to one nap at 7.5 months and dropped her nap at 21 months I think so it is possible - but since you say he has never been lsn before that makes me wonder. 11/12 hours sleep in 24 has been her normal since she went to one nap, but yes that is on the very low end of things. I would for sure try to apop a catnap any way you can. Some kids go through blips of no naps and then go right back to napping.

[Emami]

Some kids go through blips of no naps and then go right back to napping.

This. My DD1 started skipping naps around the same age and she is HSN, there is no way she was done for good. But it was the start of the 1-0. At first it was the occasional day that she didn't sleep, and then over the months it increased to a couple of days a week, then she was skipping it more than she was taking it until eventually she was done a couple of months before her 3rd birthday. So the whole process took about a year!
What worked for us when she really did still need to nap was SEBT. Like 5:30, occasionally I went as early as 5pm. I know that doesn't work for everyone (it would backfire spectacularly with my DD2), but might be what he needs to extend his nights until he can cope better with NNDs, or goes back to sleeping normally.