When to drop the afternoon nap

[lambo88]

My little boy is 2.5yo and is still having his afternoon nap fine...he doesn't fight it and we give him no more than 2 hours from 12.30/1pm...if he's at his childminder he doesn't nap as well as he does at home and has 1hr30...for the last 3 weeks he's become a nightmare to go to bed/fall asleep and won't go to sleep till 9pm...he's also started waking in the night and sometimes before 6pm in a morning...is this due to over tiredness or would you say I need to drop his nap or maybe reduce it?? Thanks

Yes, I would cut the nap to an hour and see how it goes?

@FudgeSundae thank u...the thing is he goes down fine for his nap and we have to wake him after 1hr30/1hr45 and sometimes it's really hard to wake him which worry's me and my husband about dropping it even till an hour xxx

For both my kids, once they were awake until 9pm or later, I knew it was time to start dropping the nap. They were both about 2.5. They also started resisting it too, so that did help.

And yes they hated being woken up after an hour, but the alternative was a vicious circle of them up really late and then napping the next day because they were so tired and then up late again. I do have friends that didn’t mind the later bedtimes and preferred nap time, but for me I was done by the end of the day. I needed my evenings.

We moved bedtime earlier to compensate on no nap days and they’d probably sleep a couple of times a week or if we went out in the car in the afternoon. Took a few months to fully transition

We're been going through this exact thing the last 2 months with DS!! He is 2 year 4 months, and used to nap really well, around 11am, and We'd wake him by 1pm at the latest. He'd fall asleep for the nap quickly too. But about 8 weeks ago he started taking longer and longer to go to sleep at night, one night it was 2 hours! He wasn't upset, just rolling around in his cot singing and playing with his soother. We checked in every 15 min.

So we started limiting the nap shorter and shorter, but it didn't make any difference, he'd still the a really long time to fall asleep. So now we're stopping him napping at all and he falls asleep max 10 min.

However, we're now stuck in this limbo where he gets really grumpy late afternoon, but if I let him sleep, he then takes double that length of time to fall asleep at night, but he sometimes wakes up really early too. Today was 5am, so I let him nap for 30 min, and he took over an hour to get to sleep after we put him to bed at 7pm. We're just taking each day as it comes.

So, sorry I don't have any answers, just sharing what we've been through!

No hard and fast rule. When they struggle to or resist naps during the day and can make it to their bed time without a meltdown then its nearly time.

@Caterina99 maybe I need to drop the nap...ye it's hard as he isn't resisting his nap and even if I wake him after 1hr30 he struggles to wake as still tired...this was even before this all started with playing up at bedtime xx

@TheLovleyChebbyMcGee omg this is exactly the same as us hun...it's been about 3 weeks for us and I just don't no what to do as he doesn't resist his nap and goes down fine...we don't let him have no longer than 2 hours...he had 1hr30 at his childminder yesterday and woke at 2.20 and still played up going to bed and didn't settle off till 9pm but then woke at 5am so this is when I'm thinking he's over tired but he managed to settle back off for another hour...I'm in limbo what to do xx

@JellyBabiesFan this is the problem he's not resisting his naps at all and goes down fine for them xx

I think the next stage is not a nap every day. I’m a childminder and find children find it hard to go cold turkey without becoming overtired. So generally we take it one dah at a time. If I take the children out for an activity/outing in the morning they can easily need a nap after lunch vs a quieter day in the house when they can probably make it through without.

This morning it was 5.45! I thought hd might go back, but he'd done a poo, so no luck! Its nursery today, that tires him out so god knows what it will be tomorrow!!

We're very much playing it day by day, but yes I have to wake him from day naps if we let him nap. I feel so bad as he's clearly tired, but then not ready for sleep at night.

Every time when I think I've got the slightest grip on the handle on this parenting thing, DS goes and changes!!

[quote lambo88]@FudgeSundae thank u...the thing is he goes down fine for his nap and we have to wake him after 1hr30/1hr45 and sometimes it's really hard to wake him which worry's me and my husband about dropping it even till an hour xxx[/quote]
I would just wake him - if I have a nap I also struggle to wake after an hour but if I sleep any longer I won’t sleep well at night!

Sounds like my DS. He was happy to go for a nap and would sleep for a couple of hours, but was taking 45-60 mins to get to sleep at night, and would wake at 5.30/6 ish and wake the whole house with his singing.

He was 2yr5mo and one day just wouldn't fall asleep for his nap. He'd played quietly in his bed for an hour, looking at a book and talking to his teddies. I brought him downstairs and we watched some TV together. To my great surprise he was fine at bedtime. So the next day we did the same, we just had quiet time at his usual nap time. The third day he was very upset by lunchtime, so I took him up for a nap. He was miserable all afternoon and took ages to get to sleep at bedtime.

I was reluctant to cut out the naps completely but since we did he has managed fine, fallen asleep quickly at bedtime and sleeps till 7 or even later some days. His mood is much improved. On the odd days he has a little snooze on the sofa we really notice a difference in his night time sleep for 2 or 3 days afterwards.

I think you need to experiment with a much shorter nap of 1 hour, or just skip it one day and see how you all get on.

I started dropping it around 2.5 when exactly the same happened for her. I brought bedtime forward from 7.30 to 6.30 when we dropped it. It was a bit off and on for a couple of weeks but she was definitely ready. If she nodded off I would limit it to 20 mins rather than let her have the 1.5 hours and keep bedtime earlier. I was happier once we dropped it because I got a decent evening to relax (I was pregnant at the time) which made up for losing the break in the middle of the day.

@PeacefulInTheDeep that sounds just like our little boy...so we're capping it to no more than 1hr15 and seeing how he goes xxxx

@YukoandHiro thank u for ur advice xxx

@lambo88 that's exactly what we did, 1hr15 max. I think it helped for a while, and it certainly helped to not be going from a 2hr nap to nothing at all.

@PeacefulInTheDeep so today he has 1hr20 at the childminders and was up at 1.50...so we managed to have an early tea so we could take him up to bed earlier...we put him down at 7pm and he's been shouting us and crying until 8pm...last night he was better...will try again tomoz as I don't think he's ready to drop it below 1hr xx

Speaking of afternoon naps. I am dreading it if work needs people to go back into the office after Covid. What about MY afternoon nap?

seriously.