Did Your Child Stop Napping When Switched to Toddler Bed?

Absolutely not. My daughter is now 5-years old and she transitioned out of her toddler bed and into a big girl, full-size bed over 1 1/2 years ago and she still takes naps on the weekends. We will continue to do naps for as long as I feel like she needs them. She does okay without naps for a few days but after about 3-4 days it starts to catch up with her and she starts to get really grumpy and is just a bear to deal with. She goes to bed at about 8:00 p.m. each night (although she sometimes has a hard time falling asleep because she is overtired) and gets up around 6:30 a.m. (closer to 7:00 a.m. on weekends). She usually has a much more pleasant attitude after she wakes up from a nap and she is so much easier to be around. She is absolutely impossible if she is tired or hungry. She went through phases where she wouldn't sleep at all at nap time. I think this is when a lot of parents just give up on naps. We could tell that she was tired though so we stuck with it and eventually she started napping again. She still tries to resist most times, and I always tell her that she doesn't have to go to sleep but she does need to lie down so she can rest. Amazingly, about 99 times out of 100 she ends up falling asleep.

My son went into a toddler bed at 2 and continued to take naps until he was a little over 3. I don't see why the bed has anything to do with wether or not he needs a nap though.
Would it be nice for you to put your son in the morning preschool and daughter in the afternoon so you can have some alone time with both of them? Just a thought.

My 2 year old is still in his crib and I am keeping him there because he would stop napping if I moved him to a toddler bed. He would not be able to resist getting out of bed. Because I DD I can't stay upstairs to keep putting him back in bed suppernanny style. I got a crib tent so that he can't climb out once he decides he wants to do that.

It depends on the child. My son napped happily until he was 4 and a half. We had phases where he fought it, but they were short lived and unrelated to his bed. My daughter, however will not nap consistently since changing beds. She needs the nap, but she won't settle down. It can take over an hour to get her settled enough to sleep.

there's been a lot of questions about napping lately!

Our school district requires a rest period daily for the 1st semester for KG. As parents, we need to encourage napping to ensure success in this during the all-important first year of school.

In our state, licensed daycares require a 90minute rest period for preschool age. This is part of their licensing process.

So with all of this in mind, it's simply better/easier on the kids to keep the nap routine. All it takes is a little bit of physical activity in the a.m. + the parents dedication to the process. Good Luck!

It totally depends on the child. We switched when my son was just 2. He napped for 1 more month and was then DONE!

No, it just took a different strategy for naps after that.

We used to just put him in his crib and leave him. He'd fall asleep eventually. Afterwards, we had to do a story, snack and milk.

It's hard to say what your little one will do, since every child is so different. I will tell you what happened with my little girl who is 27 months. We just switched her from a crib to her toddler bed 5 days ago. She did amazing I told her that once we lay down in our big girl bed we don't get up. She actually goes to bed better than if i were to put her in her crib. I do have a pretty good sleeper as well, plus she already has to sleep on a cot at daycare so she knows once you lay down you stay there till it's time to get up. I would say that if he won't take his naps in the bed I would try using the technique of putting him back every time he gets up, and reinforce that he needs to lay there until it's time to get up. I hope he does well for you since he isn't staying in the crib anymore.

No. I switched my daughter from a crib to a twin bed when she was 2.5yo. We had no issues with napping and she rarely gets out of bed on her own. She knows that it's nap time and even if she doesn't nap she has to be quiet and play in bed. She almost always naps.

we held off on switching my son out of the crib until he was about 2.5, and moved him to a twin bed. He still naps and actually never gets out of his bed--he still calls for us when he wakes up and waits for us to come get him. he's been out of a crib for about 6 months now

Nope - my girls kept napping in their toddler beds just the same as cribs. We switched them at 20 months and they didn't give up naps until almost 4 years old.

Personally, I wouldn't do preschool in the afternoon. Even if he no longer needs a nap, kids are more tired in the PM and he might get less out of school.

My son is early 3 and he still naps in his toddler bed. In the fall he'll be starting preschool 2 days a week, I'm sure he'll still be napping on those days.

Toddler beds are for toddlers, ages 12 months up to about 2 yr.s old. After that they don't sleep well in them because they are confining and just not comfortable. Once they get to be 2 and over they need to move on up to a regular bed. I would skip the toddler bed at this late date. You'll just have another transition in a few months when the bed is too small.

The younger kids are transitioned to the different bed, toddler or big bed the easier it is. They don't wander and change sleep patterns if the move early.

My son didn't stop.
He napped through kindergarten (and his teacher told me he REALLY slept - fell fast asleep every time) and on weekends through first grade.
At 4, 6 and 8 years old he had some tremendous growth spurts (he shot up 4 inches each of those years - poor kid had horrible growing pains) and when he was growing he'd need more naps.
Now he's 12 (13 in Oct and starting 7th grade in a few weeks) and shooting up again (he's taller than me now (he's 5'6" and we're expecting he could grow another foot or so before he's out of high school)) and he's napping again.