When to go from 2 naps down to 1 nap?

[BlueWolf]

How do you know that it's time to downgrade to 1 nap instead of 2?

What age did your child start taking one nap?

Do they sleep better at night with only one nap?

[Beauchamp]

Mine dropped to one nap around 10 1/2 months. It actually works better for us, because now she goes to bed earlier ~8-8:45pm, rather than taking that second nap and not going to bed until 11pm. Now, as for sleeping BETTER at night...umm, no. She's still waking a lot.

[chocolatefish]

Ditto the above response - though it was probably 12 months before things really settled down to 1 regular nap a day, we had a horrible transition between 1O and 12 months where 1 wasn't enough but 2 was too much / too late.

Exactly the same effect on bedtimes / sleep though!

[carrie a.]

it's a tricky transition but i suggest trying to stick with two naps for as long as possible. i think i rushed it a little (12 months) and my dd's sleep has never been the same. she did much better (and still does) when she has two naps a day.

[aikigypsy]

10-12 months here, too. I remember that at 9 months we hardly ever made it to the morning playgroups because DD was napping then, but by 12 months we were almost always able to go.

[sarah1122]

My son is 20 months and just dropped his morning nap for good about 2 months ago. I just started to notice that I was putting him down later and later in the morning....and then later and later into the afternoon (he was starting to do down in the afternoon around 3:30 or 4pm, which is when I realized something needed to change).

There were a few weeks when he sometimes took two naps and sometimes took only one. Eventually he just starting going down for his morning nap between 11am and noon so he just naturally dropped the afternoon nap. I let him lead the way and it was a very easy transition.

That said, my son has always been a champion napper (1.5-3 hour naps have been the standard since he was born) and a terrible night sleeper. And yes, his night-time sleep improved greatly once he switched to one nap...but I think that had more to do with night weaning, which we did at roughly the same time.

[Louisep]

We dropped to one nap at 12 months and I think it helped with night wakings a tiny bit. We went from waking every 1-2 hours to every 2-3. He started sleeping well once all his teeth came through.

[penstamon]

At 11 mo we still are taking up to 3-4 naps a day, but he definitely needs at least two. I have tried to keep him up for the morning nap but he won't have it...

[dachshund mom]

We dropped at around 13mo, but it took a while. It made her go to sleep easier at night, but not necessarily sleep better. I actually charted it all out and she got more sleep without the nap because a 30 min evening nap would make her stay up 3 hours later at night.

[kalamos23]

DD was down to one nap by 8 months but seriously, the kid didn't sleep much at all until 18m, so don't go by us!