when did your baby drop naps in the daytime?

[nappyaddict]

ds is 12 months and has stopped having a nap in the daytime. is this ok?

DD - 16 months
DS - still having most days and he's 2.5.
DD didn't have them after 16 months but still got grouchy so I gave her some quiet time in the afternoon after lunch.

not for you

I think 12 months is very early to stop naps although my DS did skip a couple at this age. Mostly people say 18m onwards but it varies from child to child. I do think it's good for dc to have a quiet time when they drop their nap. My friends ds stopped at 2 and my ds still naps at 2.5 i love that break after lunch!

With both mine, it just depends what activities they've been doing, how tired they are, whether they slept well the night before etc etc. Oh and if they are having a growth spurt. If they are not tired I don't put them for a nap, sometimes chill out time though. I don't see the point having a break after lunch if it meant them going to bed later or not sleeping well at night as my two are in bed conked out by 7.30 till 8am.

i still think he needs his nap cos he is very grouchy but he just won't have it. i have tried various times throughout the day and he is having none of it. just stands up in his cot and cries to get out. he is also not sleeping aswell at night. gone from about 16 hours to 8 hours

Contrary to that study last week, my observation of my children is that if they don't nap in the day they don't sleep as well at night either.

Dd and Ds1 both napped in the afternoon till they were well over 2, and slept well at night too. I need my sleep, so I guess I passed on that programming!

Your ds might be going through a phase - maybe checking out the boundaries - how long do I need to yell before I can get out of this cot? What does your instinct tell you?

I think its diffrent with each child. I think its time to stop when napping keeps them from sleeping at night

He is probably nor resting well at night because he's not sleeping well in the day.

Ds is 19 months and sleeps 3 hours everyday, then goes down at 8:15pm and wakes at 6:30 am

can you do an activity in the morning to wear him out? play gym, tumble tots etc.?

Ds is very busy when he's awake so I know he plays hard and then crashes hard!

my ds dropped his about a month ago at home and last week at nursery. He was 2 in march. Think 12 month is a bit early but all dcs are different. Things to try

1. doing something active in the morning, park, swimming etc but you are probably doing this.
2. He may need some downtime before he sleeps, have you tried putting him some books or soft toys in his cot. He may then be happy to play there by himself for a bit so even if he doesn't sleep, you will get a rest. My ds would often play for 20 minutes or so before going off to sleep.

My dd does tsill need downtime though, if you stop him napping then at least make sure he has a time that he is quiet, like reading to him or a dvd

have tried putting toys in there. he used to happily play in his cot whilst i got on and did things. he will still do that now but he will insist on standing up. if i go in to sit him back down he cries and just gets up again. apart from gaffa taping him down i've no idea what to do!

Does it matter if he stands up? He may be doing it in part cos it gets you back into the room (my ds did the same trick). After he falls asleep you can rearrange him and the toys so he is more comfy. Having said all this a sleeping bag may stop him jumpting etc.

he is already in a sleeping bag. somehow he still manages to get up after lots of thrashing around.

erm are you suggesting he is going to fall asleep standing up

I've seen it done!

will eventually get bored and sit down, or will fall asleep standing up. not sure what mine did but i used to peek through the door to see him standing up and 5 mins later he was asleep! I remember having the same puzzlement when he used to fall asleeep sat up as well

did yours fall asleep standing up then? really can't see him doing that at all!!

either that or when he realised that standing up didn't get mummy to come back in he would sit down. Never saw him fall asleep but one minute he would be stood up and then a few minutes later he would be curled up in a ball asleep.

nappyaddict - DS1 (2.8) still naps for 1-2hrs after lunch. I remember though that he went through a stage of doing what you describe. I thought about dropping th issue with him but he started to get very cranky in the afternoons and not sleeping well at night.

I'm afraid my solution wasn't very MN-correct but I just resorted to putting him in the cot, switching th lights off and leaving the room. He cried, screamed, whined, stood and rattled the bars etc etc - I just went in, put himdown and said quietly 'shh, sleep time'. Eventually he got bored/tired and went to sleep - only took a few days for the message to sink in. I have to stress though, I only did it because he wasn't coping with a full day without the nap - if he'd been fine I wouldn't have done it.

dd was around 14 months ds is trying desperately at 8 months but im still forcing the issue! the earlier they do it the worse it is coz they still need it but do not want it and they get sooooo grouchy! good luck!

teafortwo - how long would he be crying for?

Both of mine dropped their naps at around a year old. I can't say I was very happy about it but there was nothing I could do about it. They have both always slept well at night, though, so I guess that's some consolation. DS1 went through a phase of falling asleep after nursery when he first started and I fully expect the same when he starts full-time school in September but regular naps have long since been a distant memory.

were they grouchy though when they dropped it or was it that they really didn't need it anymore?

I think they really didn't need it as they weren't normally grouchy. We'd get the odd day where they'd been very active and it would be a struggle to stop them falling asleep at tea-time. On the whole, though, they just seemed not to need the nap.

I'm afraid I can't remember - I know that there was one occasion, probably the first time, when I put him down around 12 ish and was still going up when the news came on at 1pm, but he was definitely asleep by neighbours! He wasn't crying constantly - and more frustrated and p'd off than upset IYSWIM?

As I say, I only did it because felt it was necessary and I wouldnt have continued trying for any more than a week.

mummydoit how long did they sleep at night?