3 year-olds and napping?

[abqbabylove]

Confession: up until about a month ago, we still drove our 3yo daughter around to get her to take a nap (I know, I know!) It's terrible. I finally decided enough was enough, and now we do "quiet time" (I talk about it a little on my blog here - Got Sleep?). Still, I feel like she really needs the sleep. We're in that weird phase where some days she naps and others she doesn't, and so bedtime is at a different time every day depending on that. How long will this last? If your 3yo still naps, how do you do it? Help!

Sara

[tbone_kneegrabber]

ds stopped napping at 3.  It took maybe 6-8 weeks to get him settled into the new non-napping routine.  Summertime is harder for us with bedtime anyway, it is light later, there are more fun things to do outside etc so bedtime is all messed up anyway.

[ednkirstin]

My littlest one is 4, but we're still in that phase where sometimes she sleeps and sometimes she doesn't.  I know she still needs the rest. When I lay her down for a nap, I set a timer (usually around 1 1/2 hours) and tell her she has to stay in bed until the timer goes off.  I make sure to tell her she doesn't have to go to sleep, she just needs to lay still in bed.  If she's not tired enough to sleep, she'll still get some good rest.  There are many days she does fall asleep, in which case she can get up as soon as she wakes up.  Her actual naps will usually exceed the time on the timer.  If I don't set a timer, she'll get up every 2 seconds to see if NOW she can get out of bed   By the way, I do the same thing with my 6 year old once or twice a week.  Especially if she's getting really whiny.  Most of the time she'll fall asleep too.

[Aufilia]

My DD is nearly 5.5 and still naps 90% of the time.  She has gone through phases where she just couldn't nap or refused to nap, in which case she had quiet time in her room with some books for the duration of her normal naptime.  That happened a lot last summer, when our schedule was all wonky because she wasn't in preschool and her baby brother wasn't on a schedule yet.  When the school year started again and the baby finally got onto a reliable nap schedule she stated to nap again, too.  I really think that it's important for kids to have at least a loose schedule, which helps them know when it's time to wind down and relax.  We tuck DD in at the same time every night regardless of whether she's napped, and always have.  For the last year or so our bedtime routine has been to get her into PJs and let her enjoy books by herself from about 7:30-7:45, and tuck her in by 8:30. If she's really, really tired she'll fall asleep on a book before we tuck her in.

[MomtoDandJ]

My 4yo still naps.  I just follow the same routine each day... lunch, wash hands, immediately to his room (which is dark thanks to black-out shades).  I sing one song then leave the room.  Initially he'd pop out a lot, but once he realized that was the drill, he got used to staying in his bed.  I think it's totally different for each child though, since lots of his 4yo friends don't nap and haven't napped in over a year.

[Anandamama]

My 4.5 yo still naps regularly from 1 - 2.5hr a day.  I do something similar to ednkirsten.  DD watches a short video (less than 10min) then gets in bed and I tell her she has to be still, with eyes closed and no talking, for 5 minutes. If she follows those directions and then is still awake she is allowed to get up. 90% of the time she falls asleep.  If she doesn't listen about the 5 min. then she gets no dessert that night.  I still feel weird about this because this is pretty much the only thing in our house that we use a threat/reward strategy for. Of course if she gets up after the 5min. she still gets her dessert, as long as she followed direction.  I just feel like the nap is still important, she still needs it (mostly) and our days go a lot smoother with it.  The fact that she often naps for 2+ hours during the day and still sleeps well at night tells me that she still benefits from the nap.  It helps that our DD gets very few sweets and so what she does get has a high premium!

[swd12422]

DS (3.5) stopped napping and then started again a couple of months later. Now he has "quiet time" immediately after lunch. We go into my room and he can watch a few minutes of TV to unwind a bit, then we turn it off and he has to be quiet and still for 30 minutes. I usually fall asleep, and the majority of the time he does, too. If he doesn't QT is over after 30 minutes. The trick is getting him to stop moving! Once he does, he's out like a light.