Is It Time for My 4 Year Old to Stop Napping?

Well, taking away his naps really depends on a lot of things. Does he still show interest in wanting a nap? Does he go to bed at bed time well? Is he cranky through out the day without a nap? Look at these answers and decided if taking the nap away would make sense. If you don't want him to wake up so early try to instill that when he gets up early he needs to stay in his room until you come and get him. That way it will be a little easier in the mornings.
Since he is in daycare, you will have some difficulty cutting out the nap entirely. When my son entered Kindgergaten he was on ly a half day, so if he was tired after school I would let him take a short nap when he got home. But we tried to stay up to get used to his new schedule.

Hi, C.,
Let the little guy keep his naps until he declares them unneeded. Each person is an individual with a different clock, and if he is still sleeping mid-day, let him. (Actually, my father-in-law still takes a mid-day nap every day, and he's retired.)
Best wishes!
K.

personally, I would wait longer than three days. There are some days (three or more) that go by with my two year old where she doesn't nap, then she will start taking daily naps again. I don't fight her if she doesn't want to nap if she is behaving properly. If she is not then she is made to stay in the crib and take a nap. We will probably still use her crib for her till she doesn't take naps any more. If I were you i wouldn't fight him on his naps if he was behaving according to your rules. I would maybe start cutting out naps the year before he starts kindergarden because then they are not taking naps, but they are also in school for only a half day.

Hi C....I'm no expert, but it sounds pretty normal to me. My son is turning 4 on Halloween and for the last few months I've also been seeing him start to outgrow his naps. I found that if he falls asleep late, so I get him up late, he has difficulty going to bed at night (it would be 10:00 or later before he actually fell asleep!) So, what's worked for us is that I still put him down at the same naptime everyday (1-3), but he knows that if he's not tired, he's allowed to play quietly in his room until I come get him at 3:00. Most days, he ends up falling asleep at some point, but I always wake him up at 3:00, no matter what time he fell asleep. So, some days he sleeps for 2 hours, some days he sleeps for 30 minutes. But at least I can still get him to go to bed at 9:00. And even if he doesn't fall asleep, the 2 hours of quiet time really helps to keep him from getting too cranky the rest of the day (and me, too!)
Hope this helps!

Dear heryl,
You'll know when he's ready to stop. My almost-4-year old is the crabiest little girl when she skips her nap for whatever reason. That's how we know she's not ready to stop napping. She also tends to fall asleep really early when she skips naps (which isn't a bad thing sometimes :)) But you might want to put him to bed later if you want him to wake up later.

I think that you shoould keep your rountine. I think that if you change it up like put him to bed a little later or take his naps away, its going to throw him off. Thats nice to still get your 4 year old to still take naps. Its hell getting my 3 year old to lay down anymore to even pretend that hes going to take one. But I would keep everything the same. I was told by my pediatrician that kids can run for hours on the littlest amount of sleep. Hope this helps

Hi C.. This is quit normal. With raising 2 boys its been a learning experience. You might want to try a "cat" nap in the afternoon instead of a full nap. Maybe 15-20 mins. in the afternoon then try bedtime at 8:00. It might be easier now that it gets dark earlier and your son's body can get use to the change. I'm not expert but this seemed to work with me. From what I've been told most school age children need 8-10 hours sleep. I hope this might help. Good Luck!!

I would start weening him off his naps as he gets closer to the age of 5 cause the schools don't give kids naps anymore at least in my school district they don't.But as long as he is not fighting taking a nap he should be fine.

I had 1 napper 1 not. It's up to them. They'll let you know when they're tired. Most kids need 10 hours of sleep. My kids go to bed at 8pm and wake at 7am every day. naps stopped when kindergarten started