Drop nap - slowly or cold turkey?

[mmommy]

My newly 3 yo DD1 has refused a nap everyday this week. I know I can't expect her to nap forever, but how do I know if she is really done?
For those of you with kids that have stopped napping - do you just stop trying, or do you offer/try/force quiet time each day?
This mama is greatly going to miss naps herself!

[rin]

DD stopped regularly taking naps when she was somewhere between 15 & 18 months old. :eek: She has instead been given a mandatory 1-2 hour "quiet time" in her crib with a bunch of stuffed animals, some board books, & a sippy cup of water. We dim the lights & put on her white noise machine. She falls asleep *maybe* once a month these days, but she gets her quiet time every day unless we're out & about. I can definitely tell the difference on days when she doesn't get it, so I think she still really benefits from that down time (as, of course, do I :)).

[swrc00]

There may still be hope. DS stopped taking naps shortly after he turned 3 for 3 months and then started taking them again.
During the time he was on a nap strike, as I like to call it, he had quiet time in his room with books.

[nfceagles]

I just finally gave up on my newly 4 year old. For a while it had been hit or miss wether she would sleep or just stay awake in bed. I now offer to "let her play instead of sleeping" in her room. She thinks she's getting a cool deal and I still get some down time. We do an hour. I set her clock to 1:00 and she can come out at 2.

[mmsmom]

My DS had 3 "nap strikes" before he quit for good. They were all a week or so... I would put him down as usual but he wouldn't sleep. I kept at it then after about a week he started sleeping again. This happened 3 times over about 6 months when he was 3-3.5 years old. At 3.5 he started having a hard time going to bed if he had a nap. I tried earlier naps & shorter naps but he still would be up for 2 hours past his usual bedtime. That's when I decided he was done with naps. I moved bedtime 30-45 minutes earlier for a while.

[AnnieW625]

DD1 didn't give up her nap until she was almost 4/1/2 and a preschool friend told her 4 yr. olds don't take naps. She still took the mandatory nap at daycare without too many complaints and even when she went to daycare at the beginning of the school year she often still napped. So don't let her give them up unless it is a last resort. DD1 is now six and DH and I try to get her to lay down and watch a movie and sometimes she will often nap for about 30 minutes or so.

[pastrygirl]

I gave up, because the daily fight was draining. My older son did great with quiet time, but my younger son won't stand for it. He sleeps in the car regularly, so now I usually plan to be out running errands in the afternoon so he can sleep.

[Smillow]

We only do naps if we want to do something together in the evening. If he does nap, they usually last 2+ hours, so he is up late. If he doesn't nap, we get a nice quiet evening - I am enjoying the flexibility now.

[wellyes]

My daughter had a few "nap strikes" at that age. Don't give up. We enforced quiet time - be in bed, books or quiet toys (like dolls) only.

[acmom]

We went through a similar stage with DD- the first time it happened (right before 3rd bday) was temporary and she went back to napping most days after a few weeks. The second time it happened (a few months after 3rd bday), it was a transition from a true naptime to quiet time. She will occasionally still fall asleep now if she is sick or really tired, but usually just rests and plays quietly in her room for an hr.

Regardless if it is going to be a nap "strike" or transition to not napping, I would decide what your daily plan will be- if you want to do quiet time, I would start right away rather than just not doing naps. We still went up to her room everyday regardless of whether or not she slept and talked about quiet things she could do if she wasn't tired. I think if you stop naps/quiet time altogether, it can be hard to go back to it- a couple of my friends have had that issue. Once their kids knew not napping was an option, they just wanted to be with mom/family and play, regardless of how tired they might be.

[brittone2]

I encouraged DS1 to stop napping a little after age 3 because he just was not tired at bedtime. We had a few rocky weeks but he adjusted fine, and it enabled us to bump up bedtime. He did have quiet time in his room, as DD was a newborn and that was my break time.

With DD, I also encouraged her to drop the nap around the same age. Her behavior would really deteriorate around 3 pm though. We still did quiet time. After a few months, she started falling asleep again and resumed naps until she was 4 I think.

Both DS1 and DD still have quiet time while DS2 naps. He doesn't want to go to bed before about 9:15, so I'm looking forward to him dropping the nap eventually. We'll still have quiet time, as we HS, and everyone needs a break mid-day ;)

[wellyes]

I encouraged DS1 to stop napping a little after age 3 because he just was not tired at bedtime.When is 'bedtime'? Just curious. I think expected bedtime (6:30? 8:30?) plays a lot into whether or not a nap is dropped or not. Which is fine, there is no wrong answer, of course.

I am pretty child-led in this area. But it's tough, because you have to recognize tired for what it is. It takes no time at all to go from 'tired' to 'frantic / overexcited / overtired".

[roseyloxs]

With DS I changed naptime into quiet time. Still took place in his bedroom and he was allowed to read books or something similar in his bed. I think we stopped around 3.5.

With DD I just stopped offering. If she looks tired then I'll ask if she wants a nap, surprising she says yes occasionally. If she says no we usually do something low key like read books or watch a movie.

[blondflava]

DD 3y2m has dropped nap almost every day during the last week. Before that, she'd occasionally skip one, usually if we were out and got home too late for one. But with her, she still fights bedtime at night, even though she starts yawning at 4-5 PM, bedtime it around 8.30, no later than 9 and she is wired up sometimes up to 10.30...The last few days, she was also waking up much earlier than normal, before 7 AM, and she's very tired, I can see, tripping over stuff, crankiness, today I forced a nap (after 30 minutes of tantruming), we also have something to do later on in the evening, but she was up half an hour later. I miss naptime!!

[crl]

Ds was hit or miss with his afternoon nap for about three months. We did quiet time regardless. On days he napped he would be up until 10 pm, on days he skipped he would be falling asleep at the dinner table at six. I was glad when he dropped it all together and things became more predictable.

Catherine

[brittone2]

When is 'bedtime'? Just curious. I think expected bedtime (6:30? 8:30?) plays a lot into whether or not a nap is dropped or not. Which is fine, there is no wrong answer, of course.

I am pretty child-led in this area. But it's tough, because you have to recognize tired for what it is. It takes no time at all to go from 'tired' to 'frantic / overexcited / overtired".
He was really happy to nap, but then was up until 10 pm. It would take him 10 mins to fall asleep for his nap, but forever to fall asleep at night. 10 pm was too late for me. I needed time to myself at night at that point :)

I rolled with it for a while but it just kept creeping later and later. In some ways it was fun because we could go out and about and do things well into the evening. DS1 and DD were both really pleasant and happy at that time of night. They just weren't tired. At all. We tried earlier, later, shorter nap, etc. but we just couldn't get them to sleep at a sane hour.