When do children generally stop napping?

[HelenOn]

My DS is still constantly napping, he's back up to 3 naps a day after briefly going down to just 2 naps for a month or so.

I feel like I'll rarely see him if this carries on (I work part time but studying soon too).

When do they generally just stop sleeping in the day? Or when did you notice a decline in their naps?

Thank you!

I don't have any other concerns. I just think his sleeping is quite odd. He's like a sloth!

Both my sons have been big sleepers/nappers. There was a long transition though between having a nap, not really needing it but if not having it being horrible all afternoon but if having them up and down until 8pm after being put down about 7. DS1 dropped it just after 3 and DS2 still going and was 3 last month. He probably would drop it now but I love the naps and will keep them going until September when he goes to pre school 5 mornings a week.

I would try and consolidate your boys sleep a bit to a one hour morning nap and a 1.5-2 hour after lunch nap. He will probably drop the morning nap or could be encouraged to in a couple of months time. Some kids are just very routine driven and will go to sleep if put down because that’s what they’ve always done and will need to be actively managed out of it. I would just start doing the day as you want it to look..... up at x time, don’t let him sleep in, nap and food when you want and see how it goes for a week.

My dd is 4 in may and still takes herself for a nap on none nursery days and sleeps 7-7 at night she can manage without one most days

I actually think that's not alot of sleep for a 12 week old @soy so it just goes to show that all kids are different. My little boy is 2.5 and still sleeps a couple of hours in the day and a good 12 at night but he absolutely needs it. It doesn't mean there's something wrong with them!!! Same way some 2 year olds don't need a nap at all.

That's an awful lot of sleep for his age. I know some children sleep more than others but he shouldn't really need that much. I mean it sounds like he's only active for 7 or 8 hours in total a day. I think I would speak to your health nurse or even gp if I were you just to rule out any vitamin deficiency. Does he eat a healthy diet? Could he be lacking iron?

Yes that’s exactly what I said kmammamalto in my earlier post, some children need more sleep than others .

According to the NHS website 16 hours is within the realms of normal for 12 weeks.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/how-much-sleep-do-kids-need/#3-months

Both of mine were 2.5 years, and it coincided with when they both started sleeping though.

In fact according to that 16 hours is the upper end of normal at 12 weeks, and 13 hours is more ‘normal’ at a year old, which coincides with my experiences with my 3 children. But they’re all different.

Mine had a three-hour nap every afternoon until just after 2. You could set your watch by it - wherever we were, whatever we were doing, he'd be out like a light from 1 until 4. He stopped for a bit around his 2nd birthday, but when he started doing a couple of mornings a week at nursery he started again (whether he'd been to nursery that day or not) and carried on until he was about 3. He was a complete pain to get to bed in the evenings after these mega-naps, but they were absolutely set in stone and nothing we tried could shift them earlier or shorten them without him being a hideous mess.

Two naps from about 14 months, one from about 22 months, stopped around 30 months (dd1) but dd2 napped after school until she was 7 or 8 and still likes a pm nap at 18!

Around 2 for bpth my DC (not that DS2 napped very much anyway right from birth!). By that point even a half hour nap would lead to them still being wide awake at 10.30pm. For the first few weeks it was a bit of a challenge keeping them going until bedtime, but it meant they were asleep early and slept well.

All children are different though. MY DC's 3.5yo half sister still naps for a good hour at least every afternoon and is tired by bedtime, so she clearly needs it.

I think I can count on one hand the number of times either of my DC ever slept for an hour in the daytime . They weren't big on sleeping though, and still aren't.

OP, how do you ever get anything done if your LO is sleeping for over an hour 3 times during the day?? Don't you ever go anywhere? It seems a shame that he's spending so much of each day sleeping but as others have said all children are different and I know mine were at the other end of the scale.

As someone else suggested, could you consolidate his 2 afternoon naps into 1, just by making him wait a bit longer for the earlier afternoon nap and putting him to bed slightly earlier if he really needs it?

Is he full of energy when he's awake?

my eldest son stopped his naps at around 18 months, but my youngest son is 5 and in reception but still naps twice a day on the weekends and holidays. i think he must get that from me, i’ve always been a napper!

I nannied twins and they got up at 8, nap from 9.30-12. Back down for a nap 1.30-3. Then again 4.30-5.30 then bed around 6.30. Needless to say my DS doesn’t nap anything like that much! They still sometimes have an afternoon nap at 3 and a half

First child was 3, second child was 18 months!

First one slept all through the night and still had a 3 hr nap. Second one slept badly so dropping nap was best thing.

At 17months my ds had 2 naps a day totalling 3 hours. Around 18 months he started to drop down to 1 2-3hour nap.
He's 2.8 now and still has 1 nap 1-2hour most days.

For the pp comparing to a 12wo, they can't be compared. My ds napped better at 17 months than he did at 12weeks

I wasn’t comparing naps, just comparing amount of sleep in 24 hours. The NHS suggests that the amount of sleep they need in 24 hours reduces as they get older.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/how-much-sleep-do-kids-need/#3-months

And he’s my third so I’m talking from my experience with my children, too.

My DS stopped napping at 2yo, however I do remember when he was aged 5-7 months and he would only be awake for 6 hours a day. Most of that time he was eating and just lying/sitting down and relaxing. It was like he was completely sick of life and just couldn't be arsed

At 1.5 he was still having a long 3-4 hour nap mid day as well as sleeping 7-7. I think we just have lazy babies OP.

Mine stopped with a regular nap - although we cut down to 3 naps a week first- at 4.5 for DD1 and 2.5 for DD2 and DD3.

They still have a very occasional nap now at 7, 5 and 3, and will nearly always nod off on a long car journey. Some kids just need more sleep than others.

However I did encourage them down to just one long afternoon nap a day from about 10 or 12 months old as this suited our routine.

Mine were all between 2 and 3 years old when they stopped napping.

That's a lot of sleep. I'd ask the GP to check. He sounds fairly lethargic.