Napping Stopped at What Age? Poll

[OMama]

I am trying to figure out if DD is needing to give up her naps. She'll be 3 in May. She still seems very tired if she doesn't get a nap, but if often takes her 1.5 to 2 hours to fall asleep. Then she sleeps for about the same amount of time. Getting her to go to sleep at night takes a really long time as well. And it is very unpleasant. If she doesn't nap however she is literally putting her head on the counter at dinnertime and is an absolute wreck from 4pm onwards. What to do? How many hours of sleep in a 24 hour period is a 3YO suppoused to have? At what age did your DD/DS give up naps?

[thriftyqueen]

My 5 year old still naps a couple of times a week. I have noticed that the days he doesn't take one, he is easier to get to sleep at night. He is cranky in the evening too though. I think that I am going to try to just get him to have a 30 min- 1 hour "quiet time" in his room from now on. I think that will help to keep him from being too cranky. It is so hard when they are in between needing the nap and not needing one at all because you just don't know if they are getting enough sleep. I think they say 3-5 year olds should get between 10-12 hours of sleep a day.

[veganf]

#1 - 3
#2 - 2.5
#3 - still napping

[sbgrace]

I voted 2.5 but that isn't exactly it so I'll explain. One of my guys started having nap issues at 18 months. But he still clearly needed a nap and did go through nap and no nap phases. He wasn't done with naps but just was having resistance and trouble settling. So if I had just stopped he would have stopped naps at 18 months but I put him down every day and we might have a week or even several weeks with no naps (and a zombie kid) and then napping for a while.

At 2.5 or a bit past things with both boys suddenly started dramatically changing. We had more no nap days than nap days. My super consisten napper suddenly skipped naps. Over time as they adjusted to not napping I noticed that there were no differences or limited ones in the evenings on no nap days. (night sleep did suffer a bit and I do think they were slightly over-tired during the transition time for quite a while; it still suffers when we are on days 5, 6, 7 without naps) They also didn't seem tired at nap time.
We just turned three and we are at the point now where on the few days they do nap they seem to automatically subtract the nap time from their night sleep (in our case, they get up that much earlier even though bedtime only shifts by maybe 1/2 an hour). Seems like we are really pretty much done. I still think they would do better with a nap one to three naps a week and I know I would but reasoning somehow doesn't work! (I do put them down for a nap every day but they generally play/talk/sing).

So our naps went out between 2.5 and 3.

I thought you might find this interesting--a study on sleep patterns. http://pediatrics.aappublications.or...full/111/2/302 Seems to be well conducted and their study showed that about 80-90% of kids are napping at age two. Only 50% at age three. Wish mine were in the 50% who were still napping. But that was interesting to me because it really changed between ages 2 and 3 for us. I hope you get a lot of replies because I'm interested in what others here experience. The link also shows total sleep duration at age three. 50% is about 12.5. I think my guys need about that but without naps they don't sleep that long at night. My guys sleep between 10.5 and 12 hours....if they go long periods of time without napping they sleep closer to the 10.5 hours and if they have napped a day or so they are closer to the 12 hour mark even on no nap days. So I think we are still in that yucky time frame where we kind of need the daytime sleep but just can't get it.

[LynnS6]

Ds napped sporadically from 18 mos to 2 1/2. At 2 1/2 he was no longer napping.

Dd is 2 1/2 now, and we need to give up her naps! if she doesn't have a nap, she goes to bed at 8 or 8:30 and sleeps until 8 am (well, OK, she gets up and comes into our bed and nurses at least twice). If she has a nap, she doesn't go to sleep until 10 or 11.

Yes, she's tired and cranky if she doesn't get a nap, but if we can get through the 4-6 period, she perks up after dinner and is fine. With ds, we simply cut back to simple meals that could be prepared a head of time. After about 3 weeks things were much better.

Now, if I can just talk daycare into not letting dd nap the 3 days a week she's there. Right now she's got 4 days where we're trying to not let her nap, and 3 days where she does nap and her bedtime is fluctuating wildly. I don't know if she needs it, but I need some consistency!

[beckyand3littlemonsters]

I think chloe was about 2 1/2 , cameron has mostly refused to go for naps since he started sleeping in his bed (about 26mths) but will often just fall asleep wherever he is eg. in front of room door, lieing on his toys, with his head on the dvd player or scales etc....

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...s/02308A7F.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../june06001.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ember06027.jpg

[4evermom]

My ds napped until he was past 5. For a while, they were late afternoon naps which resulted in his being up a little later but was well worth it, IMO.

[the_lissa]

That was when my daughter phased out of naps. At first, she seemed like she still needed them, but would take hours to fall asleep at night if she had a nap, no matter how tired she was.

[bobica]

dd will be 4 next month & naps once a week or so. this week she napped a few times & then got sick today so she must have been fighting something earlier.

[bobica]

Originally Posted by beckyand3littlemonsters

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...s/02308A7F.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../june06001.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ember06027.jpg

those pictures are a riot!!!

[eclipse]

DS1-about 20 months
DD- about 24 months
DS2-still napping at 16 months

[artgoddess]

Mine just turned three, and he hasn't given them up yet. But he is down to taking a nap about two, maybe three days a week if I'm lucky. Usually skips napping 5 days a week.

He makes up for it at night. He gets about 10 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. So if he naps for an hour he sleeps only 9 hours that night, if he naps for two hours he sleeps only 8 hours that night. If he skips his nap he sleeps 10 hours that night.

[CarrieMF]

My oldest and youngest stopped napping at 15months, my middle dd at 18months. From what you've posted those are definite signs. It took about a week of adjustment for them to not be so tired at 6pm. They go to bed at 8pm

[jaidymama]

I guess I would like to revise the poll to include those of us who still have napping kids... My ds is 2.5 yrs. and he has been difficult to get to nap for about a year now, but we've really worked hard to keep them. And within the last few weeks ds has become even more stubborn about not napping even though he's obviously exhausted. I feel like I can drag a horse to water but I can't make him drink kwim?? Granted I"m not done trying for naps, I plan to make the room darker and try to set a better routine for him. Also, it seems like he's trying to assert his independence by not napping. So I'm trying to think of ways to approach that.

Cheers and happy napping!

[hottmama]

I voted 3 yrs. but really, he started phasing them out after 2 and still occasionally naps (once every couple of weeks) at 4.
My 14 mo. old still takes 3 naps a day most of the time, so I think he'll be napping for a long time!

[mom2jack]

ds stopped naps when he was just over 3 but for over a year would go through phases when he would nap for several weeks than give them up again. Last fall he started napping again but than his night time sleep lasted from 8 to 5:30 - which is WAY too early for me so he is now done with naps for good.

[katallen]

I didn't vote because dd naps at school, but she stopped needing a nap when she was about three. She can't fall asleep until 10:30 to 11:00 if she has even a small nap during the day much less the hour and a half she gets at school. On the weekend she doesn't nap and she is asleep by about 8:30 and often earlier if we have had an active day.

[MelKnee]

Ds took naps until he was 4ish. He cut down gradually. Some weeks he would nap one day, some weeks every day. It depended on how busy we were.

[chrissy]

my eldest stopped napping regularly at 3.5 or so.
my youngest stopped at 2

[bratmobile]

I voted 2.5, we were in between that and 3. I gave up on naps when he resisted SO hard one day that I almost LOST IT. I needed the nap more than him, my then 10 week old and he and I had all been napping together every day and it was lovely. But after that bad day, and he had been resisting for a while, I let him go and he did get tired in the afternoon and still does. I was on pins and needles waiting for him to breakdown, but it was ok. Now he goes to bed at 7 most days and is asleep within minutes. With a nap he'd go to bed later and just keep getting up.

I try to schedule some down time for him in the afternoons, like midday and sometimes he lays down and listens to stories or even sucks on a water bottle. (don't know if yours ever had a bottle but mine still loves a water bottle) If he's really tired he will fall asleep this way. I just offer it if he seems to need some quiet time and sometimes he wants to rest sometimes he doesn't.

And I don't go on any long car rides in the afternoon hours either . The quiet rest time with books or a book on tape seems to help sometimes if he gets real cranky. And we go outside to a park (or somewhere) in the afternoon and he gets a second burst of energy. Now he is a little over 3 and there are days where he still naps here and there but overall I think we are all happier without a nap and an early easy bedtime. You could try it for a couple days and see how she adjusts.