Toddler suddenly drops 2-3 hour nap

[nmhermione]

My 2 year 8 month old toddler has always been an amazing napper. He needed his nap every day and could easily sleep 2-3 hours (we would often wake him up after 2), then a few hours later he still happily went to bed for the night.

If we skipped a nap because we're out and about he's okay, but does get tired.

I thought he would slowly phase out the naps, so they'd get shorter and shorter until he wouldn't need them anymore.

Two weekends ago, we skipped his nap two days in a row. He then did two more days of naps and since - nada. He asks for us to take him out of his bed after 10 minutes of trying. We sometimes wait, give him another 10-15 minutes, but it hasn't worked.

I hadn't yet heard of toddlers suddenly dropping a long nap like that, I thought it'd be more gradual. Is it a phase? Will he ever want to nap again? I'm not ready for him to be up all day long 😅

That's exactly what mine have both done. My eldest used to nap 11.30-2.30. Then just stopped. I was heartbroken 😂 youngest didn't have as long a nap (about 1.5 hours) but also just stopped. We had to bring bedtime forward though. For a while my 3yo was going to bed at 5.30pm and getting up at 7am when he first dropped his nap. Now they only nap if they are really ill.

Mine also suddenly abandoned the nap like that.
Just one thing though, could he be teething? That could temporarily stop naps and they could come back afterwards.

One of mine had a 3hr nap each afternoon and then one afternoon she didn't. And flatly refused after that.
She was 18 months, so well done lasting as long as you have!

Oh no! So it IS a thing 😂
We could try to bring bedtime forward but I'm afraid he'll then wake up at 6 😅

We had to as he was falling asleep on the sofa and was an emotional mess. My youngest only needed it bringing forward half an hour when she dropped her nap. It's definitely a case of "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" 😅

Can't be that, he's had all 20 teeth since he was 18 months!

Mine did that, she used to go in her cot for 2 hours every day from about 12.45 until nearly 3pm up until she was about 27 months. it was great. But suddenly she realised she was probably missing out on something more interesting! So we changed it to ‘Snoodle Time’. A cross between snooze and cuddle. We’d have lunch then potty then some warm milk and sofa with a Snoodle story (this book was only for Snoodle Time and she loved this book). We read the book had a cuddle and she’d have a 30-40 min snooze on the sofa. Worked until she was nearly 4.

You could replace it with quiet time? Tell him he has to stay in his room. Give him a few (not too exciting toys) and books, and tell him he can sleep if he wants to. Works for some!

Yup, mine dropped his very suddenly too at about the same age. I used to manufacture a nap on my day off by making sure he was in the car early afternoon, and he'd usually nap then. But otherwise, once he'd stopped it was only when he was ill.

I remember being baffled by how he went from sleeping 8pm-7am with a two or three hour nap, to 8pm-7am with no nap!