Naps and starting pre-school

[Usernamqwerty]

Hi all,

My 19 month old son will be starting pre-school next January when he'll be 2 years and 4 months old (September birthday).

He currently naps from around 12:45 for 90-120 minutes.

I am worried about whether he will still be doing this next January, as the pre-school runs from 12:15-15:15 so no point him going if he will just be asleep!!

Am I being unduly worried as this is a long way off? Are his naps likely to shorten or disappear by 2 years 4 months?

Would love to hear about your experiences!

My second baby is due in July and will be 6 months old by the time my son is due to go to pre-school and will be nice to have some quality time together.

Thanks for reading xx

Our DD dropped all of her naps by the time she was 2, probably forced into it as my mum wouldn’t put her down for a nap when she looked after her whilst I was at work, I would’ve liked for her to carry on napping, even now at 3.5 she could probably do with a nap some days.

DD napped until she was 3yr8mo. We deliberately selected a preschool that would take her in the mornings. We might have been able to wean her off naps earlier, but not much earlier! Do you have any other options - even if your DS isn't napping when he starts, he'll have more energy in the morning.

My DS dropped his nap at about 22m this was quite young compared with others though. Its too early to say atm!

One of mine dropped thier nap at 2.3 the other is 3.6 and still going - can't he go in the morning instead ?

Thanks so much! That's super helpful.

Yes he's also on the waiting list for a pre-school in the morning, but that would involve battling rush-hour traffic to get him there, whereas the afternoon one is in our village a ten minute walk away... :-(

Think we will have to wait and see what happens with his naps! Oh, for a crystal ball 😔

Thank you all for kindly responding x

My DS has been battling naps for about 6 months and he’ll be 3 next month. He’s at the stage where he probably does need the sleep, but then it affects bedtime too much if he does nap. Many of his peers still reliably nap, but several are in the same boat as us. He probably naps a couple of times a week.

You could try a late nap say 3.30- 5 and then a later bedtime and (hopefully) later start in the morning? Or a short early nap from 10.30-11.30 if he gets up early? Or just do early bedtime. DS has got used to it more now, but previously if he didn’t nap he was in bed by 6pm at the latest.

Thanks so much Caterina. That's really helpful x

Does he have one or two naps a day at the moment?

My DC2 is almost 2 and just has a short morning nap around 10.30- 11.15ish, so could do an afternoon session at nursery. My eldest dropped naps completely by that age though and DC2 will only sleep if we are home at nap time and is put to bed, if we are out she can go without one.