How do you know when it’s time to cut the nap?

For us, it was when her napping during the day was leading to 930-1030 bedtimes that took forever to calm her body. Ditching the nap put her right back at a 730 bedtime. Granted- she isn't high sleep needs and is very good at taking the day as it comes. If we were at the zoo all day and she naps in the car, we let her. If we are having a late night outing like a baseball game or party, we put her down during the day for an hour or two We moved from naps to a designated quiet time, books, low stimulating movie, quiet soft toys. We dim the lights and put on calming music. Sometimes she zonks out on the couch, but mostly she's fine.

Is she in daily group child care setting? Usually that enforces a nap and only a bit older than that, my oldest was alright to skip on weekends. We eventually settled on him agreeing to 20 minutes resting in his bed and after that, if he was not asleep, he could be done. 4/5 times he'd fall asleep and on the others, the rest tended to still be fairly helpful.

This was our answer too!

My 14 year old still naps, I stress about napping for anyone haha. No later that 2pm for a nap or else you're struggling to fall asleep later in the day. 12pm start to wind down and fall asleep, we try to nap in our beds rather than the couch. I don't want the couch breaking down too soon 😅 and it gives the brain an idea that sleep only happens in the bed.

Ha! My kid stopped napping just over 2! I knew it needed to go when there was nap resistance/bed time resistance and early morning wakes. When we stopped the nap, bed time was no longer an issue, he went to bed just fine. Figure out how much sleep kiddo is getting over 24 hours. Bank about 11 hours for that over night and anything left can be a nap (but at 3 I bet there isn’t much left).

We went from 2 naps down to 1 when our daughter turned 2. She’s 3.5 now and we still have “nap time” but it typically starts as quiet activities in her room and she sleeps if she’s tired. I stopped napping at 18 months and was mentally preparing for our daughter to do the same. All kiddos are different.

When it just became a battle with our daughter we gave up. Instead we implemented “quiet time” in her room and we moved up her bedtime.

My high sleep kid napped multiple times a week still around 5. My low sleep kid we had to pull it at 3/3.5 because he could not fall asleep at night. He took one or two a week for a while as he transitioned off. My 3rd kid stopped a few months before her 4th birthday, but being a 3rd meant her naps were often had disruptions or required flexibility to older kids schedules. We had periods around 2/2.5 that looked like naps were ending for the second two but we stayed as consistent as we could and they came back and lasted another year+.

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Daycare is required to put kids down to nap through age 5. It is healthy for kiddos to nap when they are that young. Around 6 years old, the balls become less important, but quiet time is still encouraged.

Every kid is different. I had one that quit napping at the age of 2.

I still put mine down for quiet time. They could lay in bed and “read” books (only books were allowed no toys) and they didn’t HAVE to go to sleep. But most of the time they did fall asleep. It also encourages reading books.

When they fight the naps it is time to drop them. If they fell asleep while playing or on the couch or in the car then I left them to sleep. I just didn't put them down for a nap. I remember when I was heavy pregnant with my second and was also a single Mum at the time. Our first was still under 2 but when I put him in his room for a nap so I could have one he wasn't having a bar of it. I got so upset because I needed a lie down. I ended up just putting a movie on for him while I lay down. We have 4 kids and they all dropped their naps around 2 yrs old. But they still fell asleep in the car or on the couch at times, especially after a busy morning at preschool

Personally I don’t think you need to cut the nap. they will naturally when they don’t need it anymore. We let our kids lead - our 3 year old has recently stopped altogether and as she is ready there are no huge emotional breakdowns from being overtired. It was a gradual thing over months. Naps became inconsistent until we got to a point we realised she hadn’t napped for a week lol and now it’s been 3 weeks. She does get tired at the end of the day but nothing excessive and it just means she’s in bed at 7, same time as our younger child. The 9.30 bedtime was a killer for a while but I was always on the side of letting kids sleep when they need it. I’d continue with encouraging the nap until she is able to better manage the afternoons and evenings without one. it sounds like your little one is where ours was a few months ago :)

Mine gave up naps at 2.5. He got to the point where he was falling asleep late and waking up early. He would cry whenever I woke him up from his nap because he wanted to be sleeping 4, 5 hours. So I stopped putting him down for naps and his sleep schedule fixed itself.

i’ve never seen a child that still naps at 5 years old, especially since many preschool programs do not have naps. my daughter stopped napping at 13 months. and only bc i was over fighting her with it. couldn’t even get her to do quiet time. she wouldn’t stopped all naps at 9 months if up to her. my son was maybe 16-18 months

This is going to sound silly, but we got our son to continue napping for a whole extra year, so 3-4, by napping with him. My husband would say, want to go take a nap in the big bed with daddy, and our kiddo loved that. We were not a bed sharing family, so climbing into the big bed was a fun treat.

As our son started missing naps we just let him take the lead. If he skipped it we let him, if he fell asleep in the car, we’d let him but we stopped doing an intentional nap in bed. For a little while when he was resisting but clearly still needed it we’d do his nap routine and I would say “we’ll lay in bed with the lights off and have a cuddle but you don’t have to sleep, just rest your body” and he’d fall asleep almost every time. We did find during the transition, on days he did nap, he’d not fight bedtime like other children but he’d wake overnight and earlier in the morning. Having worked in childcare, it’s very rare for children to still be napping at 4-5yrs. It’s very normal to stop napping at 3

Stop the nap the summer before they have to go to kinder. The naps help their brains develop, get as much of that good stuff as you can.

Both my kids stopped napping around 2.5. Some kids are just done way earlier. Believe me, I tried to prolong them but it just wasn’t happening

My 2.5 year old is going through the same thing. Even a month ago, if she skipped her nap she was an absolute wreck by 5pm, and would be overtired and wake up throughout the night. However, on the days she did nap, even just an hour, she’d be awake until 10pm. Over the last 2 weeks, she has skipped nap all but 2 days (she just lays in her crib and sings and never falls asleep), but has been fine in the evening, goes to sleep right away at 8pm, and sleeps 12 hours straight. I’m not ready for her to be done napping, but all signs point to her being ready 🫠.

When you know you know. Mine was showing signs right around her second birthday. I cut the nap and made her bedtime earlier and she slept perfectly

If it’s more hassle than it’s worth just stop trying. I wish I had given up sooner lol. Honestly not having to stress about a nap has set me free. We just go about our day doing whatever we want, whenever we want! At first he would crash some days at like 3/4pm but now he lasts all day till bedtime