When did your kids give up their naps?

My DS the last 2 days won't take a nap. He is 2 yrs 4 months old, I put him in bed and he just lays there and talks, plays, occasionally yells, but he won't sleep. He was up there for an hour today. Yesterday he fell asleep on my lap, which is way out of ordinary for him. He has skipped a nap before, about 1-2 a month the last few months, but never 2 days in a row. Then when we put him to bed he has a hard time going to sleep and he is up at the crack of down. I know some kids don't need as much sleep as others, but he is not getting near the amount he should have... Any ideas?

How many hours does he sleep at night?

Hayley gave up naps shortly after her 2nd birthday.

We put him to bed lastnight at 8, didn't fall asleep to maybe 9, but then is up at 6:30, plus I heard him squawk at 5:30. So who knows how well he was sleeping that last hour.

I have excellent sleepers.

DS#1: will be 3 in two weeks. He goes to bed at 7:45-8:15pm daily. He gets up at 8am. He takes a nap from 12-3.

DS#2, 13 months, goes to bed at 6:45pm gets up at 8-8:30am, takes a nap from 10-11:30 and from 1-3 Every day.

We have never done CIO (cry it out), i just have good sleepers! I wouldnt trade it for ANYTHING!!

You are lucky! My first, now 4 was that way, she went to sleep easy, got up after 7 and took a nap till about age 3, she started giving up her naps about 2 1/2, I think she would have taken them longer but with P here she didn't want to stop playing so they became harder. DS used to sleep decent, the only times he would get up early under the age of 18 months was his teeth and if he was sick, once he was over that he would sleep past 7, but now since he hit 2 it's more difficult. He is getting about 10 hours a night, and is now fighting his nap.

My DS gave up his naps at 22 months! It was a struggle to get him to go to sleep for a nap and then IF he did nap he would be up until 11pm or later. I decided it wasn't worth a struggle for a nap and then again at bedtime. He goes to be usually around 9 and gets up for the most part around 9. Occasionally he will nap but they are far and few between

Going to bed at 9ish and waking up at 6ish, he definitely does still need a nap. If you can somehow arrange his nighttime sleep so he gets 10+ hours of sleep (preferably 11-12 hours of sleep), no naps should be okay. It might just take him time to get "tired enough" from no naps to start sleeping longer. When Hayley quit taking naps it took a few months for her to get on a good sleep schedule.

If you find he wakes up at the same time every morning no matter what, bedtime might need to be earlier.

Mom2nj said:

My DS the last 2 days won't take a nap. He is 2 yrs 4 months old, I put him in bed and he just lays there and talks, plays, occasionally yells, but he won't sleep. He was up there for an hour today. Yesterday he fell asleep on my lap, which is way out of ordinary for him. He has skipped a nap before, about 1-2 a month the last few months, but never 2 days in a row. Then when we put him to bed he has a hard time going to sleep and he is up at the crack of down. I know some kids don't need as much sleep as others, but he is not getting near the amount he should have... Any ideas?

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Mine did the exact same thing for awhile. I think it has a lot to do with the "terrible twos." They test their limits, don't like being told to take a nap, resist bedtime, etc. We just became more strict with the naptime and bedtime routine. If he didn't want to take a nap, he still had to lay quietly on his bed and look at books,play with small toys, etc. That way he and I were at least getting some downtime. I don't know where you live, but I think it's harder during the winter months to keep them as active and stimulated. When it's warmer they burn off so much energy just playing around outside.

Other things that helped included:

1. Keeping the ritual consistent for both nap and bedtime - 2 stories and 1 song.

2. Black-out liners on his window which made his room darker at naptime and the crack of dawn.

3. Moving his naptime up from 1pm to closer to noon.

4. Only allowing him to nap 2 hours max and not letting him sleep later than 3pm regardless of what time he went down for his nap so that he would have enough time to burn off more energy before his 8pm bedtime.

5. Taking away activities he found pleasurable as a form of discipline, ie. no TV which isn't good for him anyway but instead a few shows, absolutely no TV. He went 3 days straight without TV for messing around in his room and getting out of bed at bedtime. After that he was much better about staying in bed.

6. Constantly reminding him the consequences of not going to bed/nap several times during the naptime/bedtime ritual.

So far so good. He is back to napping regularly and his resistance at bedtime has gotten a lot better. Although we did have an issue with a habitual night waking at 3am which I think I have solved. If anyone wants advice on that I have a somewhat crazy solution for that

Ritual/routine with something that expends energy before bedtime followed by something relaxing/soothing at bedtime often helps....

According to a couple of my textbooks, kids should ideally sleep about 10-12 hours total within a 24 hour period until about 4 years old -- it doesn't matter if the sleep is broken up by naps or if it's one big dose of sleep, but by 3 (years, not months) kids should be self soothing at least part of the time (& progressively more often) to help avoid sleep problems later in life.

Leila was NEVER a napper: never. The 1st couple weeks she was hardly ever awake, but then after that she just never napped. She rarely got very crankey either. She just preferred to fall asleep by 7:00pm & stay knocked out till 7:00am I was kinda worried about it (preconceived notion that every kid was required to nap) & was pretty relieved to read the cross cultural studies showing otherwise

I wish mine was a sleeper -- I really do. Mysillyboys, I am very jealous!
We mutually agreed a year ago (almost to the day) to no longer have a scheduled nap. DD was 2 years 7 months old.
It would take about 2 hours prep & recovery time around a 45 minute nap that left her cranky, moody, & unable to go to bed when she wanted to at night. Every other mother I know LOVED the freedom of when their child slept. I had to creep around and make no noise. Heck, it was easier when dd was awake and still is for us

At 12 months, I was relieved when she went from needing 2 to 1 naps in a day Getting her enough rest was an all day project that left us both wrung out. And every blessed noise woke her despite having a fan on in her room.

Last year, we just had enough of the fights, fusses, feelings of failure, and frustration, so other than special circumstances -- no naps. It's worked out pretty well ever since. It is nice having the freedom to be out & about all day without having to keep an eye on the clock to HAVE to get back home.

When situations are ideal she sleeps from 7-7:15pm to 6:30-6:45am, then cuddles with me for a doze until around 7:15. And she's great all day long.

Unfortunately,things have not been ideal ever since the time change She's whiny, argumentative, and exhausted. She's not falling asleep until 7:30 and waking up at 5:30. She gets into her cot to sleep about 15 or 20 minutes more with a lot of argument because she's tired, but it's not enough.

She actually lay down & took a half hour nap last week, but that made everything worse. She couldn't fall asleep until 8:40 and she was up at 5am, poor thing She's not fighting going to bed, she just lays there & stares forever. It's pathetic when she asks, "Momma, why can't I dream?"

I don't know what to do to get her back to normal. Neither of us are happy about it. I think some of it has to do with it warming up. I HATE sleeping in a warm room and we're having to use the A/C to cool off at night. 76 degrees last night outside at 9pm I"m only sleeping from midnight to 5:15am, so how can I blame her for something I'm not able to do either

Thankfully, she just ceased her latest round of miserable brat whining as I'm writing this. I confined her to daddy's chair until it passed. She started playing pretend with one of her dolls and used her normal voice. Yes, I praised & hugged & paid attn to her then. Nice to see my darling daughter back to normal again Right now she's happily eating a frozen home made biscuit which she loves.
I'm crossing my fingers that the whining tired brat vanishes into her hole again.

To the OP, when your son does take a nap, try to make it a little earlier than usual, plus cut the time in half. Wake him if you have to. If he's cranky -- feed him a small bite to eat. DD ALWAYS wakes up from a nap needing food before becoming human. That should help on being able to go to sleep at a regular time. I also never call it a 'nap' (that's for babies). We use "Rest" or "Ruhe" (ruwa) which equivilent in German to resting quiet time. It's no longer a trigger word for her.
good luck

Both of mine gave up naps somewhere between 18-24 months, although if they were in the car(and Ian still does this) around 2:00 they would fall asleep. But my younger one(almost 3) goes to bed by 7:30 pm and usually gets up between 6:30 and 7:30 am. The older one (6 yrs.)is in bed by 8:00 and has to be up by 6:30 to go to school. Right now the bedtime is a bit funky on some days because of tee ball practice and games, but we are very consistent, even on weekends and the summer.

Our youngest DS just gave up napping this fall - at 4 years...we had tried and tried to wean him off the naps over the summer, thinking that he was too old for napping but he just couldn't do without, he would start to nod off at the dinner table, or worse while I was cooking dinner and didn't notice - and once he was asleep there was no waking him (and as I'm sure you all know nap after 4pm =wide awake boy at midnight ) He usually took an hour a day right at noon, and then was ready for bed at 8 or 8:30 and woke up at 7-8. Now since he started school in the fall, and really since Christmas I notice a big difference. He stopped napping in September, but was still really sleepy in the late afternoon. Now he is fine with no nap - unless we are driving in the afternoon, which still makes him nod off - and goes to bed at 8-8:30, wakes at 7:30. Sigh - last baby, all grown up

He seems to be doing fine so far with out a nap today. Although he refused a cookie, what kid refuses a cookie! He is off for what ever reason. Very Gassy, so I wonder if something is up, that isn't showing other signs than sleeplessness. We will be doing an early bed time tonight. We have is room dark, quiet and comfy, he just isn't giving in for whatever reason.

Thanks for all the good tips. I will put them to use if he continues after today. The time change could be some of his problem, that's the only thing that has changed. I did take the kids out for a walk around the block to burn extra energy to see if that helps him going to bed, since it was rainy they didn't get to play outside much today. He burns a lot of energy because he refuses to use his pedals on his bike and pushes with his feet all around the block. Now DD and DS are chasing each other, DD on the inside trike and DS pushing his HUGH tonka truck So he should be tuckered out. I hope...

I just am not ready for him to give up his naps, although it is good to know that it's not out of the norm. My peds office seems to think 28 months is too soon and push naps till at least 3. If he does give them up, we will have to do quiet time with him though.

Mom2nj said:

My DS the last 2 days won't take a nap. He is 2 yrs 4 months old, I put him in bed and he just lays there and talks, plays, occasionally yells, but he won't sleep. He was up there for an hour today. Yesterday he fell asleep on my lap, which is way out of ordinary for him. He has skipped a nap before, about 1-2 a month the last few months, but never 2 days in a row. Then when we put him to bed he has a hard time going to sleep and he is up at the crack of down. I know some kids don't need as much sleep as others, but he is not getting near the amount he should have... Any ideas?

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Age 2...that's when both of mine (the older ones) quit, except for afternoon car rides, which was sometimes the only sanity saver I had with my dd. I never tried to implement 'quiet time' instead, but I think that's what I'll do with Leah when she hits two (as it is, she's been asleep on me today for going on three hours! i'm getting a leeeeetle bit bored, but figure she needs the sleep, lol)

Another thing that I wanted to add--with my oldest, we did have a "quiet time" in his room for about an hour. He didn't have to sleep, but he needed to stay in his room and play quietly or look at books. You can't force him to go to sleep, and when he moved to a twin bed, we had the same rule at night. I kept a monitor in there, and he knew I could hear him if he needed me, but he had to stay in his room. We had a gate in front of his door, because his room was upstairs and our stairs were quite steep--I didn't want him to wander out and fall. *shrug* There were a few nights in the beginning that I would hear him at 9 or 10 playing, and I would sometimes come in and find him asleep on the floor! Now that he's 6, he goes to bed at 8--sometimes he reads or plays for a bit, but usually by 8:30 he's back in bed asleep. We tried to make it a non-negotiable thing--the routine was the same, but at the same time tried not to make it a power struggle. You can't force them to eat, sleep or poop in the potty! :lol I learned all of those things the hard way......

my godson is 4 and most the time still naps. Some days he just lays in bed but most the time he will sleep. I love it

Katie stopped napping about 6 months ago (around the time she turned 3).
We gave up the nap in favor of an earlier bedtime because with the nap she was staying up later than we liked. Now she is in bed at 7 pm (as well as the baby) and they both wake up around 7-7:30 am.
An early bedtime is what keeps us sane !

If we're out and about in the afternoon she will fall asleep in the car but if I ever try to put her down for a nap (like if we're going to be home late) she just sits on her bed and talks or plays with her toys so we also starting doing
"quiet time" and that works pretty well..............
most of the time .

super_grape said:

If we're out and about in the afternoon she will fall asleep in the car but if I ever try to put her down for a nap (like if we're going to be home late) she just sits on her bed and talks or plays with her toys so we also starting doing
"quiet time" and that works pretty well..............
most of the time .

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Best thing I found to get dd to fall asleep if we're all having a late night (Halloween, Pooh's Christmas play) is to sit in her room & read a book (my own book, silently ) while she's settling down. Once she's asleep, I leave. If I'm outside of her room, she can't fall asleep even though she wants too.

There was one time that she lay in bed for over 45 minutes while I stitchwitched a hem quietly next door to her. She was happy knowing where I was, but just couldn't relax enough. When I went into her room and started reading, she was out in less than 5 minutes. I guess it's as relaxing to her as it is to me

Morganthe said:

Best thing I found to get dd to fall asleep if we're all having a late night (Halloween, Pooh's Christmas play) is to sit in her room & read a book (my own book, silently ) while she's settling down. Once she's asleep, I leave. If I'm outside of her room, she can't fall asleep even though she wants too.

There was one time that she lay in bed for over 45 minutes while I stitchwitched a hem quietly next door to her. She was happy knowing where I was, but just couldn't relax enough. When I went into her room and started reading, she was out in less than 5 minutes. I guess it's as relaxing to her as it is to me

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That's a good idea, I'll have to try that!
Except I think I'll actually have to go out and BUY A BOOK (sad, I know),
since we started having babies the only things I read other than my Bible
are parenting magazines !
I've been wanting to read James Harriot's books (my Mom used to read them to me when I was little) for the longest time....