Just turned 2 year old dropping nap?

[OoohOoohWeeee]

DS is literally just 2. Sleeps through the night, has done from 6 mo. Always been a shocking napper though. I was regularly that person walking a newborn around who had been awake for 8 hours.

Until a week ago, he was waking at 7am and wouldn’t nap until maybe 2 or 2:30pm. I’d cut the nap off a 3 or 3:30pm and bedtime would be 8-8:30pm.

In the last week he’s just not needed the nap. He fights going in the cot and, if I can get him in, he just rolls around it singing and giggling and shouting for an hour. I drove 1.5h up the motorway to my inlaws yesterday after lunch and he didn’t come close to dropping off. He had a 30 minute sit in the buggy at 3pm today and didn’t fall asleep. He’s a very active child and our mornings are very busy, usually outside - I don’t think it’s lack of stimulation.

The pay off for this has been he is now sleeping 7:30pm-7:30am and is out like a light (I previously used to sit with him for 20 mins). His behaviour has been fine, we’re lucky that he’s a relatively easy going toddler.

I don’t know wether to cut into his night sleep even more to try and force him to nap, or just accept he’s dropping it way earlier than expected. Has anyone else had a toddler drop the nap at 2? Has it worked out okay?

My dd dropped her nap at 15 months. Just 2 is a little early but not unusual

My dd was also a terrible cot napper and I ended up in a habit of driving her for naps; we became slaves to it.

I eventually snapped and said to myself if she's tired I'll know and she will sleep. She was just turned two when we decided this.

Since then she almost never naps - some days she does, and if we happen to be going somewhere around lunch time she will likely nod off in the car for a little bit. But we are all happier for choosing not to stress about it!

My 12 month old is down to a single hour nap a day from two last month. We’ll definitely be on no nap at all in a few months. I find that once they’re on a single, fairly short, nap it’s not long before they can last the day.

To my mind two isn’t early at all.

Thanks both. To be honest, I’ll be glad if this is the end of naps. Compared to bedtime, when he practically puts himself to bed and has done for ages…they are such a bloody fight! Waking him up after an hour is such a pain too. He’s so grumpy for a good 45-60 minutes after - almost the same length as the nap! I just don’t want to let my view of the nap being a pain bias me, when everywhere seems to imply a toddler should nap until 2.5 minimum or there will be grave consequences 😂 DH has already vetoed driving him round - petrol is too expensive!!

A two year old definitely doesn’t need a nap. If they still have one and go to bed at a decent time then of course that’s fine too but I wouldn’t say they need one at that age.

My 12 month old is up at 7.30, naps at 12.30/1 for an hour then goes to bed at 7.30.
Both the nap & bed time happen easily. In my experience that’s the key. If everything just flows then it’s working.
if you’re happy to drop naps altogether I’d seize the moment.

My DD dropped her nap a couple of months after she turned 2. Initially it put it down to lack of stimulation (was during lockdown) but it never returned even when her days got busier. Nighttime sleep remained good.

DD dropped at 2, she sleeps 10-12 hrs overnight, almost always sleeps through but doesn’t nap. There were two of them at nursery that were the same, so they played together while the others slept. I know it’s early but some of them are ready. It’s also possible for it to be temporary as they have a regression, so it’s a wait and see.