Giving up nap

[TerrifiedMothertobe]

Son is 4 in September and shows no slowing at desire for nap during the day. He needs it as wakes early, and with no nap, wakes earlier.

What if he can't cope at school without a nap?

My son was having his afternoon nap right through until he was 4 and a half. His nighttime sleep was never adversely affected by his lunchtime nap.

From being 4 years old we started to try and get him to cope without it. We started not putting him up in his cot for his sleep. He was still able to go to sleep on the sofa if he wanted to, but stopped 'putting him to bed' at lunchtime. Over time, he started sleeping for less time and then some days not at all. We did it all very gradually and he's more-or-less totally dropped the nap by 4 and a half.

You do want to make sure he has dropped his nap by the time your son goes to school. But you've got over a year, so it is easily doable.

If he's not four until September, you've got more than a year to worry about this, I've read that keeping them having a daytime nap is beneficial until they go to school, as the sleep helps solidify learning. I think you'll probably find he reasonably suddenly doesn't need it, but until then I'd keep him napping.