when did your child stop taking naps?

[LVMYBOYS]

When did your child stop taking naps?  My 3 1/2 year old has all of a sudden been fighting naps with a vengeance.  And, even when I force him to have "rest time" in his bed, he doesn't ever fall asleep, and the very few times he has, he doesn't zonk out until LATE in the day, and then he's a bear to get down at night time.  Advice?   And, when your child did stop naps completely, how did you SURVIVE?   

[imsmum]

We stopped my older dd's nap when she was 4 1/4.  before then we had to restrict them to 1 hour or they would interfere with bedtime.  She was a bit tired when we cut out the nap but we put her to bed 1/2 hour earlier and she was soon sleeping about 11 hours at night.

[*Nicola*]

No advice as Ciara is just 3 and still napping like clockwork.  I'm DREADING my (I mean her) nap time stopping!!

Will be interesting to see what everyone has to say

[Lana]

when his brother came 2 years 9 months

[Jaime]

i think jaina is pretty close... she just turned 3 last month 

[Tamara]

4 1/4???  Wow, you're lucky, am very envious.

DD stopped napping in Jan this year, so that would make her 31 months

She will still sleep in the car if we're in it any lenght in the afternoon, but I try and stop that.  The other day she slept all of 7-8 mins in the car at 16:30 and didin't settle in bed that night until 21:45!!!!!!  When, usually she's in bed at 18:30-19:00, it's just SO not worth it for us. 

[Shdef]

BIL stopped at 7 months and I stopped at 7years! In East Germany the primary 1s (7years) still had to take a nap at lunchtime. In horrible papermache beds (we had papermache cars as well...)

That is when I started to fight it. My dads foster child (7) still has a one hour nap after school (ends at 12.30) and goes to her bed at 7 still.

[UNCMomma]

At age 2 my daughter started skipping naps once in a blue moon.  Then as she got closer to 2 1/2, she started skipping them about every other day.  When we moved her to a 'big girl bed' at age 2 years 8 months in January, she stopped napping altogether.  BUT, we still have 'rest time' that includes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours in her room playing quietly (I say quietly, some times this includes her singing every Barney song she knows at the top of her lungs!  ).  This rest time is CRUCIAL for me, and for her.  I can tell on the days we're on the go and she skips rest time, she is much more tired.  So even though she doesn't sleep, she rests.  The rule is she can't come out of her room and she doesn't (as opposed to bedtime when the rule is she can't come out of her bed!) 

On the occassional day she DOES sleep, it messes bedtime up BADLY. 

I have a friend who is so desperate to keep her 3 year old son napping that she  has pushed bedtime back to about 9:00 and so he still takes a nap.  I'm not that desperate, I like the 7:30 bedtime! 

HTH, Amanda

[cadensmum]

My DS is 2yr3mos and for the last few months he has been taking ages to fall asleep at night. Reading these posts, he seems awfully young to cut out a daytime nap but he is going to sleep at 9/9:30 every night! I have tried limiting his nap to one hour but he still screws around in his cot for over an hour. Anyone else experience this? Should I limit his nap to 45minutes?  Thanks in advance! Alicia

[UNCMomma]

What time does he nap?  Could you move nap time earlier?  My DD does the same thing (although she's a little older, 3 yrs)... if she's had a nap it takes her up to TWO hours to finally stop singing and talking to fall asleep!  No nap, she's asleep within 15-20 min. 

Amanda

[cadensmum]

Forgot that vital info! He wakes between 7-8am. He naps at 12:30 for 1-1.5 hours. Bedtime is 7-7:30 but he doesn't fall asleep until 9pm, sometimes later  . He is so active( I am talking non-stop) I am amazed he doesn't pass out the minute his head hits the pillow. I feel like he would be in melt down mode if he didn't have a nap but I guess they have to adjust at some point. Thanks!

[Pigeon]

Hi, I've posted about my DD's sleep routine changing recently too. She's 25 months and also takes up to an hour to go to sleep in the evening - a couple of months ago it was asleep as soon as head hit the pillow. I think its just something they all go through around about this age, from what I can gather. Sounds like your LO is still getting 11-11.5 hours sleep in a 24 hour period (which somebody told me is about what you can expect at this age), so I'd say that's good.....
As a friend of mine said, we might read in bed or something to wind down, I guess they need to have some time in their cots before they sleep too....

[UNCMomma]

I think Megansmummy is right, it must be a stage (like everything else!)  Maybe try winding down a little longer in the evening before bedtime, we sometimes watch a 30 minute video if my 3 year old is really keyed up before we go to her room and read a couple of books.  At least he's happy and not crying in there!   

Amanda

[jbepko]

Ella will be 4 in Sept and hasn't napped at home for about a year. She still naps at school though! She does have one hour of quiet time after lunch on the weekends- usually DVD time. We all need her quiet time!

[sacmommy]

I'm debating dropping my dd's nap as well. She's nearly 2 1/2, and it's just taking her so long at night to go to sleep! I always wake her from her nap, usually after about 2 hours. But she's taking 1 1/2 hours to go to sleep at night now; where she used to be out by 7:30, it's now later than 9!! I've also thought about naps every other day or so. I'm not sure. I'm fine with quiet times in her room but I don't want her to get confused so I'm trying to mostly be consistent about naps right now.

My older child dropped naps by 3, but he still naps once in a blue moon - when sick, or after a few late nights.