When did your toddler drop their nap?

[ZenKaleidoscope]

My son is going to bed later and later since the clocks went forward, I just thought it was that but now I'm wondering if it's because he doesn't need his nap anymore.

I have him in bed by 7/7:30pm but he doesn't fall asleep until about 8:15pm.

He takes a while to fall asleep for his nap but then sleeps for about 2 or even 2.5 hours. I normally put him down at 12 or 1pm. If he's not up by 3pm I wake him.

He's 20 months.

If bedtime is a battle then try and tweak the nap. Around that age we used to cap the jap at one hour otherwise we had a 9pm bedtime - my kids are quite low sleep need, so yours might need a bit more. Remember it takes a few days/week to see effects so don't get discouraged if you don't get back to normal bedtimes straight away!

Just before turning 3. 20 months is early to drop their nap. They need the sleep for brain development. Have you tried cutting it down?

DC1 was 2yrs 6m
DC2 was 4yrs 3m!!!
DC3 was 2yrs 0m

So I would say that 20 months is a little young. They're all different though.

Well I feel like I already cut it down since I wake him at 3pm. Maybe I need to wake him at 2pm instead. Do you think the length of the nap needs tweaking or time of the nap?

I agree that 20 months is young to stop completely, but I’d cut it down to an hour and see how that works after a couple of weeks. My 2 were about 2.5 I think though hard to remember exactly.

I would say slightly young but it's not unheard of for some.
If bedtime is getting later/harder you need to play around with the timings of his nap.
I had to bring mine forward to half 11, if he woke after half 2 bed time went to pot.
Whatever you do, it takes a couple of days to see any improvement

DC1 was nearly 3
DC2 18 months if put down for a nap wouldn’t sleep, but would fall asleep in the car or randomly on the sofa.

My 23 month old has been doing similar - sleep in the evening takes til 8:30/9 sometimes. Nap was already only an hour - he didn't sleep longer.
Today I tried no nap. He went to sleep like a light switched, but has just woken up now. So not sure this is THE solution, but will see where it takes us.

Hi @ZenKaleidoscope, my DD is 22mo and still has her afternoon nap, I don’t think she’ll be right to drop it at any point soon. I usually work with awake windows rather than certain times. From waking to the first nap the gap is 5hr15mins and then her nap is 1hr30mins and her bedtime will then be 5hr45mins from awake time. After doing some research it seems to be the right amount of wake time for the age of our LO

Trial and error isn't it @barneymcgroo

@WellBrewedNoSugar ah yes I hate the random sleeps in car! They can mess everything up.

I'm not sure weather to shorten the nap or bring it earlier or both.

Both mine stopped at 18 months.

Tweak the nap to 1.5hrs

My DS was 3. 8pm is a normal toddler bedtime IMO - they only need to go to bed at 7 when they drop the nap.

I think at 20 months DS was up at 7, napped 1-2.30, bed at 8.

@seeline that's brutal!

I normally do the cooking when he naps so it will really take some rearranging to make it work if he really needs to drop it.

I'm hoping about 11 year old for mine . Not very helpful but I'm dreading losing the nap!

13 months!!!

At 23 months we had to cut the nap right down to 30 mins (and awake by 1:30) just to get a decent bed time.

We clung on to that 30 minute nap until she was 2.5 years and then dropped it completely. She is now asleep by 7pm and takes about 5 mins to drop off - heaven!

None of this sounds like a toddler ready to drop their nap completely. 20:15 is a completely normal bedtime, especially after sleeping at least 2 hours and waking up at 15:00. I’m surprised bedtime isn’t later to be honest. Your expectation of him falling asleep at 19:00-19:30 (after only 4-4.5 hours of awake time) is the bit I don’t think is correct. At this age you either have a shorter nap or a later night - not many nearly 2 year olds can have both.

What time does he wake or do you wake him in the morning?

Assuming it’s roughly 7, id try for a 1.5h nap starting between 12:30 and 13:00 and ending between 14:00 and 14:30. You might find you can bring bedtime forward with a shorter nap that ends earlier.

DD8 was 2yrs 3mo precisely. I'd read that was the average time to give up the nap, and she must've absorbed that information somehow because that was when she stopped. The day before she'd done a two hour solid nap and gone to bed like an angel! She was fine after dropping it though, unlike her brother...

DS3 was about 2yrs 2mo, but he'd been battling it for ages. The first day of lockdown he decided he didnt want to nap (20mo), and from March-Sept he either napped, had a good afternoon and was hideous at bedtime, or didn't nap and was hideous in the day, but went to sleep in seconds at bedtime. It was the one of the saddest days of my parenting life when I finally gave up and didn't take him upstairs at 11:30am. All fine now, but I still miss it!

Dc 1: 2.6 (conveniently right in time for my 3rd trimester of pregnancy with dc2 when I really needed a nap.)
Dc2: 2.4 (although is in that awkward stage of being overtired at 3/4pm and having to push through grumpily). Thankfully this too shall pass...

As a previous poster has said, the wake window between nap and bedtime is too short. Also you don't mention what time he gets up.

For my oldest I had to introduce a set time to get up every day from 14 months until she was 4 in order to get her to sleep at night. She dropped her final nap at 2.5.

For my youngest who is 2 years 3 months, he has a consistent bedtime of 6.30 but it can take him up to 20 minutes to fall asleep. He wakes anytime between 5.30 and 7. If he wakes early, he goes down around 12 otherwise it's 12.30/12.45 for no more than 1.5-2 hours depending on his health. If he wakes closer to 7 we skip the nap completely as he won't have been awake long enough in the day to go to sleep at bedtime.

Ds is 23 months. He has the last month or so started dropping nap some days. He naps maybe 4 in 7 days. I aim for 1pm nap, but some days he’s still wide awake in bed after 1hr+ faffing at nap times.

He wakes 6.30/7am, bed 8.30/9pm. Nap 60-90mins if he has one.

He actually never seems tired. Even if he wakes at 6am, he can stay awake all day until 9pm easily, even if we try and get him to nap in bed or pram or trip in car.

2 years 9months. A couple of weeks after we potty trained. It seemed like he had a massive growth spurt and developmental week all in one go.

@AliceW89 yeah I think he needs his sleep it's just too late isn't it! I normally wake him at 7:30am as 2 days a week he has to be out the house at 8am.

So I'm going to try the nap at 12pm until 2pm or even 11:45 until 1:45pm.

8.15 is fine as a bedtime, mine has always gone to sleep around that time and sleeps for 11-12 hours. He dropped his nap around 2yrs 9 months, 20 months is too young.