2.5 yr old - nap messing up bedtime - do I shorten the nap or drop it?

[TheBlonde]

DS is 2.5 yrs
Gets up about 7am, preschool 9-12
Will go for a nap about 2pm but wants to sleep til 5pm
Then won't go to bed til gone 9

Is it worth him having a short nap or should we drop it altogether?

I'd limit the nap rather than drop it. Your lo is probably really tired after pre-school and if you take the nap away completely you run the risk of him getting horrendously overtired and then not settling to sleep at night anyway. I'd limit it to 1 or maybe 1 1/2 hours and see how it goes. You can always reassess after a few days and then decide if you want to take it away or not.

move nap earlier to before lunch perhaps. Give small snack and put to bed. May sleep less and less tired and if does sleep for 2-3 hours you will still have time to have a proper afternoon before going to bed. If wakes up at 5 you are nearly into the supper bed time slot alreay

my ds1 is 2.6... i have to limit his nap, or like yours he would sleep all afternoon

i give him an hour, sometimes an hour and a half... he goes to bed much easier this way!!

oh and i make sure he's down by 1pm!!

My dd3 dropped her afternoon nap at about 22/23 months...but if she ever as a really tirig day or is in the car alot she sometimes falls asleep - we only let her have 45 mins or bedtime is affected ...

we have this problem with ds, if he isn't down by 1pm now he misses the nap and can only really have an hour althouh he'd sleep for ages if you let him.

I miss 3 hour naps [sigh]

Thanks for the replies
I let him sleep from 1.30 til 3.30pm
He is now up but in a grump!