giving up daytime naps - when?

[Welshmum]

When did yours drop their daytime sleep and what were the signs they were ready?
DD is 2 and a quarter and it's getting harder to get her down for her afternoon sleep. She lies in her buggy chatting and laughing and getting annoyed - it can take 30mins plus to get her off now. When she does fall asleep it's so late in the day I have to wake her up an hour later so that she sleeps at night. She gets so upset when I do it - I really don't like it.
She used to go off to sleep so nicely at night now again it's an hour of chatting to herself with the odd bit of yelling that needs a visit from me. (she goes to bed at 7pm and is awake pretty early, her daytime can be as late at 3-4pm - it used to be 1-2)
Do you think she's ready to drop her daytime sleep?

any thoughts?

Hi Welshmum, this sound very familiar to me. DS gave up sleeping during the day at about the same age and like your DD, if he did it was late in the day and I had to wake him up or he didn't sleep at night. I found the best way for DS was to miss his nap on a daily basis but he needed a short one every three days or so and that soon wore off too! If she is sleeping well at night I wouldn't worry too much about stopping the daytime nap except of course that you will miss out on some 'me' time.

I found with my son that when I dropped his early evening nap he slept more at night. (my son is only seven months old and now only has a couple of hours sleep during the day) When he starts to get grumpy around his old early evening nap time I give him a bath and let him stay in a little longer to occupy him, then I give him his supper and let him wind down in front of the television. When he goes to bed he is really tired and after about fifteen minutes of making a noise he goes to sleep.

Because he was not getting that extra nap he now sleeps until about 6.30am/7am instead of 5am.
hope this helps.

My dd is just 3 and still has a nap in her bed most days. If she doesn't sleep, she sings to herself and I'm ok with that! If she does sleep, it's only for an hour (I wake her), but even then she'll usually sing for up to an hour after she goes to bed, but as she doesn't need my attention, I'm ok with that too. I know she can get through the day without a nap, and I think she'll be ready to give it up soon,but I'm not as I'm pg and tired!!

She only ever goes for her nap between 1pm and 2pm so the problem of a late nap never arises. If she doesn't sleep between 1pm and 2pm, tough.

You say your dd has her nap in her buggy. Will she not nap in bed? She'd be far more likely to sleep if there weren't so many distractions around. You could make a routine of going up to bed after lunch, few stories then down. Darken room if you can. This has always worked for us. If after persisting at this for a while, she still won't sleep, I'd say just give up the nap, but make sure you don't have any car or pushchair journeys late in the afternoon, or she'll fall asleep and then won't go to bed!

Good luck!

My ds who is 2yrs 3months has just dropped his nap. I let him watch TV in the afternoon to give him a rest but he doesnt sleep. Gets a bit cranky at around 5pm but goes down at 7pm til 8am so I cant complain.

Hi Welshmum, ds1 now 4 yrs dropped his daytime nap at around 2 and a half. I didn't make him, he just payed no interest in going to sleep. About a month later he began pre-school and began to fall asleep from exhaustion in the afternoon. To begin with I would let him have an hour and a half but gradually began to cut it down as the weeks passed. When he was 3 he began to stay awake all day and fall asleep like your dd at 7pm. Some days he still needed a nap(even had one about 2 months ago) especially if he woke really early in the morning. So if it was just after lunch, I would let him have an hour if it was about 3.30p.m. and sometimes it was, I would let him have a cat nap of 15-30 mins that way he would still go to bed between 7 and 7.30p.m. He would be really grumpy for about 10mins then he got all his energy and spark back. All children are different, Is she at a pre-school? That can really exhaust them especially if they go in the mornings. I still think that toddlers do need that extra energy sleep, if she is sleeping later in the afternoon try going from an hour to waking her at 50 mins then 40mins keep cutting back so that she only has 30 mins in the late afternoon. Only if you think it is really affecting her night time sleeping and waking.

My dd was 2 in April, she did drop her sleep around Christmas time as she wasnt going down well and by the time she fell asleep it was so late I knew she would never go down at night. But by February she had gone back to a lunchtime sleep I think because we were outside more. I find now if we do something active in the morning she will sleep 1-2pm during the day. If we dont get up to much I dont put her down unless for some reason she shows signs. My HV told me never let them sleep after 3.00 as you wont get them to sleep at night. I think this advice is a good guide to work on. A sleep in the day every other day works well too. My dd is asleep right now, the peace is lovely and I have to say when she didnt sleep during the day for a couple of months I really felt exhausted come bedtime.

Thank you for all your replies - I think I'm going to have to go with her for the next few weeks.......

welshmum - dd (3 in Sept) still has an afternoon nap for about 90 minutes. She still needs this and goes to bed quite well between 7:30 and 8 most nights. I wake her up if it's any longer. If she isn't sleeping (your dd), try a quiet time in her room on her own - this gives you some quiet time too.

This thread is really interesting to read. Sorry to hi jack it, but I'm interested to know if my dd (25 months) still needs her nap in the day time. I am having the same trouble, she is sleeping later in the day, and even though I try and keep it short she isn't falling asleep in her bed until 9pm every night. It is very frustrating. The annoying thing is that there is no right or wrong with this situation and that they are all different!

My ds is 23 months and I have always put him down for a sleep at 11am - if I didn't wake him he would sleep for 3 hours but this kind of messes up our day sometimes. At weekends and days when we go out he misses this sleep but it really notices later in the day when he gets grumpy so I still feel he needs a sleep. He's always been a great sleeper though and goes down at night at 8pm and goes through to 8am.