To think this is far too early to drop nap?

[nappp]

Dd is 20 months (yesterday). Since last Thursday she’s refused her daytime nap of around an hour. I’ve read the earliest is usually age two to drop a nap. Does this mean something bad? Is she neurodivergant? She’s still sleeping roughly 7pm to 7am. Though she is a bit trickier to settle at night and does seem very tired by 6pm

I research sleep in this age group and you have nothing to worry about. It is perfectly normal to nap or not at this age. You might find she goes back to napping, takes a shorter nap, needs to nap some days but not all, or she may settle into a new no napping pattern. It doesn’t mean she is neurodivergent, or anything other than that her sleep has developed in line with normal developmental trends.

My DD is 4 now and stopped napping at 18 months (bar the odd one or two in the car after a day out) but she has always slept badly, never napped longer than 30 minutes anyway and nightmare to get to sleep. I don't think she's neurodivergent and seems pretty well developed, meeting milestones etc but she has always been very busy and finds it hard to switch off at the end of the day. I think if they don't want to nap there's nothing to be gained from trying to make them but I did used to do quiet things in the afternoons so she wasnt a screaming wreck by bedtime.

I’ve never had a child still regularly nap at that age unless it been a long journey in the car.

DS dropped his at 19 months, I was horrified as I loved the downtime. These things aren't set in stone, and every child is different.

Dd stopped at 20 months. She's always struggled to switch off at night and sleeps for the lower end of the time scale for her age but i'm not sure it's an indication of anything, she's 9 now.

Mine dropped a daily nap at that age. They benefitted from a nap every 2-3 days, mostly in the car so I timed journeys to send them to sleep!

My DD1 dropped her naps (bar the odd cat nap) by 15 months and slept terribly at night (still does). Some are just lower sleep needs than others!

My 3 dcs napped until age 4. They always had very active days with lots of stimulation and needed the downtime. I always made sure they had a chance to rest after lunch, usually on a buggy walk with a good lie-flat buggy and a Snoozeshade.

dc1 napped for 2 hours a day until he was 4, always was an amazing sleeper.

dc2- dropped naps at 22 months (still hasn’t started again at nearly 3 but we do offer the chance) also still wakes up at night and isn’t a great sleeper in general (used to be a horrific sleeper!)

both dc were/are high energy boys, needed to be out and about and running around all day so very similar in that respect. Except dc2 just has never liked sleep (has cow milk and soy allergy- which I think made a negative sleep association as a baby because sleep was painful and that has just stuck despite being aware of his allergies now!)
Both meet all milestones and very typical boys.

I’m another whose kids only cat napped by about 19/20 months.
They never went to bed in the day anyway just slept in the pram in the living room until they out grew it then would have 40 minutes or so on the sofa before moving to a quick snooze in the pushchair before they were two.

Mine all dropped their naps at about 18 months. They just never seemed to be babies/kids that needed loads of sleep. One does have ADHD but honestly they are all absolutely fine

I have 3 kids - 1 dropped their nap at 15 months and the others were napping until they were over 3. 2 years old may be average but it would include 1 and 3 years olds by definition of average.

My child who dropped her nap at 15 months isn’t neurodivergent. (She’s now an adult so I’m pretty confident about that statement ?

My ds dropped his after lunch nap much sooner than I was prepared for. I found that every other day worked well. So every other day I would put on some sort of not too interesting TV show for him to watch, settle him down on the sofa with a blanket over, wait til he started to go quiet and then say "I'm just going to the kitchen to get a drink, back in a minute". He'd usually be asleep when I returned!

Announcing it was nap time and trying to force him to go in his cot just wasn't going to work.

You might find that she starts napping in the car etc further down the line if she’s having a growth spurt or if she stops sleeping so well at night.

DD dropped her nap at 15 months. I was devastated as DS had a nap until
He was nearly 3 and I loved the peace.

Two here who dropped nap at around age one. But they always were great sleepers 12+hours so I reckoned it was their internal setting.