3 Year Old VS. Nap

He may not need a nap. If he is napping and not going to bed until 10pm he isn't needing a nap anymore. My son gave up naps at this age. The tradeoff was a earlier bedtime. I gave him the choice of a nap or earlier bedtime, he took the early bedtime. He was in bed at 6:30 and slept until 7:00am and was very well rested! If he napped or fell asleep he was up until 9pm or 10pm which was very stressful. Most of us moms need downtime at night, so try putting him to bed a lot earlier as if he is outside all day he will be tired, throw him in the bath and then he will crash out! :) If he is that deep of a sleeper then I suggest you decide if you want him up at 10pm or if just bypassing a nap is best. He will adjust after a week to not being so grumpy once he gets the sleep he needs all at once at night. Good luck.

my son stopped napping at 18 months. we simply told him he had to stay quietly on his bed with books and toys. An hour is enough if he's not sleeping at all. The key is to have downtime. Then offer a snack and some active time afterwards to ward off the grumpiness.

my son is the same way. i kept trying to wake him after an hour but sometimes it was impossible. so i have changed to 45 minutes and this is working well. i let him take the nap whenever he feels he needs it, but sometimes i plan a trip in the car specifically to get that short nap taken care of. some days he does fine with no nap but wants to go to bed an hour early, which works well too. good luck!

mine is a girl but still an active 3 year old. we do quiet time too. she doesn't have to sleep but she does have to stay on her bed. sometimes I put on a movie on her portable DVD player always a quieter movie she has seen tons of times since she is more likely to fall asleep with one of those.
on the days she needs a nap she falls asleep on the days she doesn't she just spends the time quietly on her bed. I still get a break, she isn't as grumpy and it seems to work for us. She probably naps 4 days out of the week. usually the day AFTER a really busy day.
hth gl!

I have had that same problem with both my older kids. I have done, was at a certain time they go take a nap, or atleast laydown to watch a movie, for an hour, if they fall asleep I would let them sleep two hours, if they dont atleast they had an hour of quite time, as so did you. my 8 yearold daughter no longer takes naps, and depending on how my 3 yearold son slept the night before depends on if he takes a nap or not, but he is easier to control he if he has to do atleast quite time. Not saying he is perfect there are many times he gets sent to his room for being a brat. But by 8-9 at night my kids are ready for bed, sometimes by 7 at night they are begging to go to bed. But I'm not a big fan of getting up at 5 or 6 am. So in my house bedtime is 8pm for the 3 yearold and 9pm for my 8 yearold. Hope this helps.

Try eliminating the nap and putting him down earlier at night. That may solve the problem of him getting cranky. My 3 year old doesn't take naps anymore (unless he falls asleep in the car) but sleeps for about 12 hours at night (usually from 8 to 8), and sometimes even longer.

Is he fighting the nap at the time you lay him down or is it just knowing when to wake him up.

I have been a nanny for over nine years, here is how I have delt with it.

I too suggest quiet time. I have set the timer (between 20 and 90 minutes depending on how badly they need the nap) she can read books, lay quiet and when it goes off the three or four year old can go play some computer games while her younger siblings nap, then do an art project etc. If she needs the nap she will usually fall asleep, if she does I wake her up after two hours, if not she at least got a rest.

Good luck
S.
mother to Kai
www.HomeWithKai.com

I'm going to chime in on the "quiet time". What seems to work well for that age is when you start sensing they need a nap, lye down in bed with them, read a book or two, and then set a timer (or alarm clock,etc). Tell him he can play quietly in his bed (I've found you're more likely to get them to fall asleep if you tell them to stay in bed). Put some books in there and even a couple of toys. You may have to tell him you'll check in on him once in a while to make sure he's playing in bed instead of running around the room. You can even make a game out of it by telling him his bed is a boat floating in water (unless of course he's afraid of water!). I'd say 80% of the time, they fall asleep before the timer. If that's the case, just sneak back in and turn the timer off so as not to wake them prematurely. Give him two hours max and make sure he'll have at least four hours (or 4 1/2) of awake time from the time he gets up from his nap and the time he goes to bed at night. So if you put him down at 8:30, make sure he's up from his nap by 4:00 or 4:30 at the latest.

Moving forward, if he continually is playing the entire "quiet time", you'll know he's outgrowing his naps. Some days (particularly active days or days with birthday parties, etc), he may still need a nap, but a lot of kids do start outgrowing a daily nap around age 3-4. On days he doesn't take a nap, try adjusting his bed time earlier by as much as an hour to make up for the lack of nap.

Hope that helps!

We do quiet time of laying down and reading a book. We go wake our almost 3 yo if it's too long. We make sure he's awake and not going back to sleep (usually very grumpy). We let him know he's free to come downstairs when he's ready to be happy. After about 5 minutes and 5 more of snuggles, he's good for the rest of the day. We usually let him go about 2 hours max unless he had a short night, then we let him go longer. Hope this helps.