Napping for almost 3 year old

[Mumof2boyseb]

Hi,

My almost 3 year old gave up naps completely when he was about 2 years old.

But now after talking to lots of people and reading copious amounts of forums and websites about sleep, I'm thinking he may still need naps.

The only issue is that he obviously hasn't napped in about a year (other than sometimes he kips on the sofa if hes had a busy day or bored).

I'm thinking I may want to try and introduce naps back into his routine. Lots of places say that children still need naps until at least 3 years of age. Also, lots of people say that their child sleeps much better at night if they've had a nap during the day.

I've always thought that he still needs naps but he just seems to busy for them.

If he does ever conk out during the day, its almost always at 4/5pm which then means its pretty difficult to get him to sleep.

He also gets quite grumpy in the afternoon, lots of tempers (I'm aware this is a normal toddler thing anyway haha), but just wondered if naps would improve this? He also wakes quite early too.

So my main question is, has anyone introduced naps back to their toddlers routine after a long period of not having them?

Thanks.

No - I think once they've gone without for a period of time it'd be pretty impossible to get them to start again.

I think your only chance would be a long drive or cuddle and watch a film around 1pm...

My DD is 3 1/2 and mostly stopped napping a bit over a year ago. However, she is now in her third period of going back to a daily nap. Each time so far she went back to napping for between 6-8 weeks, so assume it will be similar this time. It always seems to coincide with a big growth spurt. Telltale signs that she needed it was just being increasingly grumpy from mid afternoon onwards.

I always find she's really reluctant the first few days going back to it and we have a few strops, but once she's back in the habit it's fine. If she is reluctant I usually just say she has to lie in her bed for half an hour and have a rest, but then she'll end up dropping off anyway.

Probably does depend a bit on personality whether you can convince him to even try though!