Stopping naps at 16MO?

[Brieminewine]

DD (nearly) 16MO has been a nightmare on a night to settle for the last few weeks, not upset or crying but seemingly wide awake wanting to play. We’ve put back bedtime but this has no effect, it’s still taking two hours on average for her to give in and go to sleep. She currently naps 1-3pm and has done since she was 10MO.

My question is has anyone found they’ve had to cut daytime naps to get an earlier bedtime at this kind of age? We refused a nap the other day and went to bed at 730 and slept til 8am? I’ve read online naps don’t usually stop til around 3 so I’m unsure what to do for the best! Any ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated!

[kateybeth79]

Both of mine dropped their naps at 12 months, they just weren't interested anymore!

[Brieminewine]

Yeah I think that’s going to be the way forward!

[Caspianberg]

It’s a long day for a small child without a nap IMO.
Maybe just try decreasing length of nap first? 1-2pm instead.

[Seeline]

Both mine stopped at 18 months.

The one that was a bad sleeper still woke at the crack of dawn, the good sleeper continued to sleep through the night.

They may be ready to stop napping, but it may not have any impact on night time.

[burritofan]

Could be a phase? DD still needs a massive nap at 18m but it has to be stopped by 2.15pm otherwise she parties hard at bedtime. But I dimly recall around 15m she was a complete bedtime clown for a while, then calmed down again. I think it was the discovery that she could clown around, so why not? She’s also gone through sneaky “dropping the nap” phases, but it’s a trick. Keep the nap for as long as possible imo, for the tea break.

[OverTheRainbow88]

I wouldn’t cut out a nap totally, it’s good for their development. Can you try a nap from
12ish-1.39 at the latest!

[ForTheLoveOfDoughtnuts]

My little ones 15 months and only has a 40min nap (she won't sleep any longer). Sleeps 6:45-7/7:30. Maybe try a shorter nap?

[Thatwentbadly]

I would try a shorter nap first.

[Brieminewine]

Do you physically go and wake them up? I thought you never wake a sleeping baby! She’s just fell asleep now after fighting a nap all day

[Harrysmummy246]

She's a toddler now! And We limited DS naps by that age to an hour max. He needed some but bedtime was a sodding nightmare until he dropped them entirely just after 2.

My sister and I didn't nap after 10 mo....

[olderthanyouthink]

Mine was 17 months at the start of lockdown and was a nightmare to get to nap, eventually we gave up. She ended up needed a nap every few days and then it goes further and further apart, she annoyingly napped really late in the day when she couldn't fight it any longer. She's 22 months now and in some kind of developmental leap and she's started napping again, she'd gone 3 weeks without going near a nap and all of a sudden she needs a midday nap who knows how long it will go on for

[olderthanyouthink]

If I wake her or if she wakes before she's had her fill it's not nice for anyone

[MJMG2015]

@Brieminewine

Do you physically go and wake them up? I thought you never wake a sleeping baby! She’s just fell asleep now after fighting a nap all day

She's no longer 'a baby' she's a toddler!!

Different 'rules'.

I HATE waking them, but I hate them taking hours to settle at night even more!

Thing is, they're all different, but I would make her nap earlier & unlimited. It'll take a little bit of effort/time to get her to nap earlier, but it's worth it.

Dropping a nap can have the opposite effect of making them over tired and difficult to settle at night.

Goid Luck!

[Seaswims]

She is still very young to cut out naps completely!! I'd let her nap but wake her by 2pm and see if that makes a difference.

[Rubyroost]

@Brieminewine I think it's too young to drop a nap. Agree with pp who said shorten it to an hour, odd be tempted to try 1.5 hours at first. My 2.5 year old decided to drop his nap and we tried to keep it, but he was having none of it. He's 2 years and 9 months and personally I think he still needs a nap!
Also, regarding never wake a sleeping baby. It's a saying!! I've been waking my 7 month old for a good few weeks now. If he naps past 2 hours, otherwise he doesn't fir his second nap in and then ends up overtired.

[Brieminewine]

I had tried a shorter nap of just an hour but that didn’t have any effect. Ah well hopefully it’s just a phase, she’s only had 30minutes today so we’ll see how we go tonight.

[Cait73]

My 22 month old would sleep 3 hours a day if I let him, I get him up after an hour otherwise he's bouncing off the walls at bedtime

[Willow4987]

We had this.

I changed his naps to 12-2 and then started the Ferber method with bedtime as DS was just buggering around for 2 hours for literally no reason. It took a few days but fixed everything

[NandosPeriometer]

My dad cut her nap at that age. Her brothers liked the occasional cheeky nap at 4 so I guess that it was my turn to have an alert one