Do naps always encourage better nighttime sleeping for babies?

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DS2 is 9 months and generally a happy little chap. I've recently managed to get him into a nap routine in the afternoons, for up to 2 hours. All the advice seems to recommend this and many people have said that a nap is essential to good nighttime sleep.

Unfortunately the little monkey wakes frequently during the night, most nights and not always because of teething or other complaints. I think it's just habit. Before I start investigating sleep training methods I wanted to ask if anyone, from experience, disagrees with the advice that naps encourage better nighttime sleeping.

Each child is different

My DD is 2.8 years - hasn't had a daytime nap in a year and sleeps thought the night

DS had a nap until he was 3.5 years and still slept through

I think some babies are just wakeful - they go through all sorts of developmental stages and this can disrupt sleep a lot

I wouldn't necessarily sleep train

No. IME skipping /cutting out naps before a child is ready leads to severe overtiredness & frequent night wakings.

Can I ask, is your child an independent sleeper? I.e. does he fall asleep by himself at bedtime & naptime or does he need your help eg cuddling him to sleep, rocking him, feeding him? And how do you respond to him at night?

Also, what time does he wake, nap & go to bed? He is quite a young age to have just one daytime nap (although some kids do drop to just 1 nap early, for most it happens between 15-18 months). It may be he is a bit overtired.

What time does he nap, and is it the only nap of the day. I think 9mo is a bit young for one nap a day only?

In my experience with my almost 1yr old DTs, too much napping - won't go down at bedtime and not enough either wakeful night, or wake up ridiculously early so yes, I think they need naps and to not be over tired to get a decent night.

Every child is different but I would have thought 9 months is really too young to go without daytime naps.

My dcs didn't sleep through until at least two years of age, regardless of what I did with their naps!

Their being wakeful really really hard work!

Also if mine didn't nap in day, they were much harder to settle at night in general. Have found nap sleep begets some sleep!