Nap time

[Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain]

My SIL and DB send their 2 and a half year old to nursery. He’s never been a great sleeper, co sleeps with his mum and wakes her a lot during the night (she tells me how many times but is used to this). I They want to maybe get him to share a room with his older brother, this year if possible, that room is being decorated now. I asked my mum if he still has an afternoon nap at nursery (about 2pm) and she said yes he does and she thinks (not sure) this is to make life easier for the staff. He still does nap at weekends.

I just googled and saw that nurseries try to get children to drop naps earlier, sometimes 18 months, although 3 is a good age.

Opinions/views?

No, I’ve worked in nursery and now a childminder. It really depends on the child. If a child wants to sleep we are legally not allowed to keep them awake and equally we can’t force them to sleep. We are very active at my setting, outside most of the day so my 2-2.5 year olds would generally sleep 1.5 hours. I’ll try to cut naps shorter if parents ask from 2 y o but not before. They are too little and need sleep. I find some parents are trying to put their kids down painfully early in the evenings like 6 or 630….

I think this is up to the parents. My kids dropped their naps around 2 and were still crap sleepers.

Huh? If he's still napping at weekends then how have you deduced its to make life easier for the staff?

Many children still nap at 2.5. Not surprising at all if he's not sleeping well at night.

A 2 and a half year old in nursery should and would usually be offered a nap. This would usually be after lunch and for up to 2 hours e.g. 12-2 or 1-3 depending on what time they eat. Sure some kids are low sleep needs, drop their naps early and can’t be forced to sleep but I have never heard of an 18MO not being encouraged to sleep at nursery. Most would be a disaster without a nap! IME they stop offering naps in the preschool/school nursery year so 3 years old, turning 4 that academic year. Night sleep is a whole different beast and not necessarily connected.

Not me my mum said that!

Our setting will offer a nap at 12.30. They sleep as long as they like, although at that age it averages 1-2hrs. if parents ask to cap the nap they will not do this for babies but did for my toddler. They did say if he wanted to fall back asleep they had to let him though. He's in the preschool room now at age 3, he still gets asked if he wants a nap but the majority don't nap as it's too much fomo. In formal pre schools they don't offer. He still naps at weekends if he's very tired

Night sleep can absolutely be impacted by day sleep, particularly past the age of 2. Too much day sleep can steal from the night sleep and parents often want their child to do a 2hr+ nap and still sleep 7-7, which isnt often realistic. Bedtime can be adjusted to compensate if the nursery wouldn't cap the nap.

It's definitely worth looking at how much total sleep is being 'expected' of him and trying to work out how much he actually needs. Average sleep needs at 2.5 would be about 12 hours, but some children need a bit more or a bit less (mine were both firmly in the 'less' category!).

As @Petrie999 said, a lot of people accidentally try for too much sleep, a big nap and 12 hours overnight, and so bedtime is a fight, or the child wakes up a lot, or mornings are very early – because the little one just isn't that tired. For an average sleeper, a 1.5 hour nap means 10.5 hours overnight, so something like bed at 8 pm, up at 6.30 am.

Too long a nap can still be a problem at this age, even if the total sleep should be 'right' or they can be poor sleepers for other reasons, but I'd look at total sleep first.

Most 2 years old in nursery will have a nap but not all, won't make a difference either way to the staff.

I think nursery naps go one way or the other. Some kids really need the nap at nursery because the days are very busy, stimulating etc, other children (like mine😂) are so caught up in the fun of nursery that she just absolutely does not nap there now at nearly 2 because she’s so busy having fun!

I've more commonly heard of toddlers still napping at nursery, but not at home. I don't think our nursery would ever prevent a child napping? They will follow parent's requests on nap length and/or cut off time. I'm not sure the staff care either way as long as the child can cope until the end of the day if they don't nap. If he's waking a lot at night, that suggests his nap needs to be shorter and end earlier in the day. I see so many 2 year olds are having these long day naps then refusing to go to bed or waking lots at night - we never let our 18 month nap more than an hour for this reason!

Our nursery had nap time in the room that had children up to three and no naps in preschool, although if there was a child who was falling asleep they would often lie them on a little mat in the corner so they could nap.

In the toddler room if they woke up before the others or did not sleep at all they would do quiet activities in a little side room. It felt very led by the child, not what fitted the staff.

All kids are different. Some nap later than others. If he naps at weekends then clearly he still needs a nap! Not sure how your mum came to the conclusion if was for the sake of the staff. My 2 girls dropped naps at 2 but my friend's son still needs his nap at 3.5.

Both my kids dropped their nap at around 3 years old. I'd have cut the nap down to about 30mins by 2.5 years old.