What age do they drop their nap?

[Han12345]

Hi everyone,

I just wondered at what age I should think about dropping the day time nap?

My LO won’t settle at bed/nap time for 30mins / an hour and a lot of us going to tell her it’s BT now and to go to sleep. She’s 2 yrs 2 months old.

Every day this week she’s been waking at 6am but crying straight away.. When she wakes crying it’s always been a sign that she’s still tired. We have the gro clock but she would just cry the whole time till it’s up.

Most of her naps have gone from 2 hours to 1hr /1.5 hrs. Should I ensure it is only 1 hour now? Or should we be looking to drop?

Yesterday this was her routine:

6am woke crying
12.45pm put down to nap
1.30 finally fell asleep after tears
2.45 woke
(Looked soo tired the rest of the day)
7pm went to sleep quick as so tired

Woke this am 5:30!! And crying

So even though she got a good BT last she woke even earlier.

TIA x

[Haribo2012]

Hi there, had she got any teeth coming in? My DS2 is 2 years 1 month and we are at a similar stage, I personally think it’s developmental for us as language is exploding.

[eva026]

Mine dropped her nap 2y9mo, about half the kids at her nursery school were still napping at that age though.

[creations]

My DS's sleep went off track at 2yr 1 month but it wasn't until 2yr 7 months that he dropped his nap.  He needed a long nap and a shorter night to keep him well rested. Although he had opportunity to sleep longer in the morning (therefore longer night) he just oculdn't do it, it didn't suit him.  We had, roughly, 2hr nap and 10hr night although the night got shorter than that.  Perhaps this is a possibility for your LO as she doesn't seem to be doing so well on the shorter nap? If you made her nap later do you think she'd go back to 2hrs nap, then move BT later??

[Palmira78]

Totally agree with the suggestions from Creations. Shorter night, perhaps delaying BT to 8:00 pm could help your daughter. Kids evolve fast, so whatever sleep amount was right in the past it, might be too much now.
 
My elder son started dropping the nap around 2 years old both at home and in the kindergarten. It was not every day, but ocasional. He just would not sleep, despite he spent 1 or 2 hours in the dark at midday. He tried to stay laying down, quiet, but it was impossible for him. He finally stopped naping around 3 years old. Some children need more sleep than others. My other son, however, he is now 2 years 2 months and always needs his nap for 2 hours, then he sleeps from 9:00pm to 7:30am.
 
My suggestion is to follow the hints of your child. Always offer your LO the chance of a nap. But if she is not sleeping afer 20 minutes, perhaps leave it for other day. Do not insist too much. It happens the same with food, if she feels a lot of preasure, or that you make a big deal of it, it can back fire.