Should My 2 Year Old Stop Napping???

Hi S.,
Yep, once naps start affecting bedtimes, it's time to eliminate them. That happened with both my children at age 2.
Good luck,
S.

Hi S.! My almost 3 yr old still takes one nap right after lunch. He goes to bed around 8:30-9:00. We have two older children in the house, so things keep us busy. If he won't sleep, then just make it quiet time. make him lay down maybe watching a movie or give him some books to look at in bed. Some times, having him read in bed eventually will lead to a little nap. Good luck
M.

Hey S.,

At the age of 2, most children no longer need a nap. Especially if this is affecting his bed time. My son is only 16 months and there are many days when I only give him a morning nap and not an afternoon nap. You can always try elimanating his naps and see if this works.

Best to you!
T.

Dont let him nap so early in the day and if he does let him sleep for an hour then wake him up, at dinner time let him eat and drink some milk then by 8 pm he should be ready to sleep

My youngest two are 20 months and almost 4. Both still get naps every day. Sometimes they will sit and play in their rooms instead of sleeping. But most days they go right to sleep. You have to set some kind of routine and not give in just because they're wide awake past bedtime.
At 2, they also get some new back molars. Maybe check his mouth and see if that is keeping him awake because of being uncomfortable.
I'm a huge fan of naptimes. My oldest two are now 7 and 10 and they napped right up to kindergarten.

Okay, how old exactly? (2 yrs could mean 25 months, or it could mean 32 months)
Some children are able to skip naps earlier than others, the later on the "2 year spectrum" the more likely this is to be the case. He may still get very grumpy later in the afternoon (just before dinner time is what I noticed with my daughter). But you can give it a try and see how it goes. Just keep in mind that they can still have "quiet" time even if you don't make them nap. If you have errands that you run in the car for periods of time, try to time them for after lunch and see if your little one will doze in the car while you are running around. Sometimes that is all mine would sleep, but that few minutes would be enough to get her over the "hump" so that she wasn't grumpy but still went to bed at bedtime. All kids are a little different about how well they handle this, so try different things and see how it goes.

I guess I would have several questions to you. If his usual bedtime 8 PM, do you still put him to bed at 8 PM in his room even though he is not sleepy? Have you tried not putting your child to nap time in the afternoon and see if he can last all day or tell you when he is tired?

Let me tell me about my experience and what has worked for me. My son was never much of a long napper as compared to my next door neighbor's children. I would put him to nap later and later during the day as he got older. The latest at 3 PM. If he didn't take a nap by 4:30 PM, I'd go get him. He began to only take a nap every 3-4 days. He has always been content to stay in his room when put there. But at night when he'd have a nap that day, he would stay awake until 9 PM or later. So I figured, why not discontinue the naps and see how he does. He never did seem tired when I'd put him to nap anyways and was never one to fall asleep if we were out somewhere. I started discontinuing the naps at 2 years, 10 months. My son is now almost 3 years, 1 month and naps do not exist anymore. And once he is put to bed at night, usually he is out in 15 minutes. The only, like any other stay at home parent, is giving up that free time to yourself in the afternoon. But I tell my son I'm going to do this and that for a while and he has to entertain himself for a while. Hope that helps a bit.

Hey S. - everybody's children are different, but I was the opposite to your current replies.

I have 3 children, now 8, 10 & 11. "I" needed a nap in the afternoons!! I kept my children on a consistant schedule until Kindergarten. Yes, my kids still had "down time" until they were 5. The more active they were in the mornings the better they napped. Our nap times were normally 1-3pm. We were up around 7-7.30am and in bed by 7-30-8pm (later as they got older obviously).

Just remember for future reference, when he goes to pre-K and Kindergarten they have afternoon "naps", so if he stays used to some kind of quite time now, it will help him in early school experiences.

Good luck, trust your instincts Mom.
M

if it doesn't affect his behavior during the day, no naps aren't going to hurt him. my kids stopped around 18 months, i thought it wasn't good, but it never affected their attitude and they have no problems going to bed at 8:00. i know what you mean about your husband and you needing your evening time. i absolutely cherish our "quiet" time after they go to bed, i feel it makes you better parents when you can have your own down time!

I had the same problem with my daughter when she was younger. She is almost four years old now. When I would try to put her down for a nap she would sometimes fight and not want to take the nap. Then she went through the phase of taking the nap, but wanting to stay up late at night. I started keeping her up for as long as I could to tire her out so that she would have no choice but to go to bed at night. I still have some challenges with her today, but I just put her in her room and let her entertain herself and within 30 minutes she goes to sleep.

our two in half year old stopped napping when she turned two. we tried at first but she wasn't sleepy and if she did nap she would be awake late.
now we put her down at 8:30pm and she wakes up at 8:30am on her own.
my husband and i really enjoy our evenings together. it is important for our relationship.

Hi S.

I had the same problem with my son, who is almost 7 now. If he took a nap he would be up until midnight. If he skipped a nap he would be grumpy around 5 pm. So I either had to deal with the grumpy little boy or have him stay up. I chose the grumpy little boy most of the time. What I would do was around the time he started acting out, I would find something active to do. Either take him to our community pool for a 1/2 an hour or so, or go outside to ride his bike, or I would even talk a walk around the neighbourhood. After that he would get over the acting out and I could finish making dinner while he watched some T.V. with his older sister. It's up to you if you feel he needs to skip naps let him skip the naps. Some just don't need the naps anymore. I know my husband and I need our me time at night.
Good Luck
C. :)

I've experienced this same dilemma with all three of my children and I found that if they napped past 3 P.M. their bedtime (8P.M.) would be out the window. My youngest is also 2 and in order for him to go to sleep at bedtime, usually between 9-9:30 P.M. he CANNOT nap past 3 P.M. You need to encourage earlier naps. I know, this is not an easy task. On a good day, I can get my baby to nap before 1 P.M. Put your son in a playpen (if he'll stay) or what I ususally do is put my son in his highchair, where I know he will stay put and let him work it out on his own. They do get bored and will eventually fall asleep. If you truly want to stick to his bedtime, no naps past 3. Good luck.

My son is three (39 months) and he just stopped napping a few weeks ago for the same reason. On days when he napped, he would not go to sleep until 10 p.m. - he simply wasn't tired. Admittedly, he did get grumpy around dinnertime for several days until he got used to the new schedule, but now he goes a full day with no problem and sleeps 11.5 hours at night.

Age two seems a little young to me, though. But, maybe he just does not need as much sleep anymore. Try it and see how it goes. My only other thought is that maybe he is tired, but you are missing the sleep window and he is getting a "second wind" that is keeping him up so late. 11 p.m. is pretty late - I would think even with a nap he would be sleepy before then. I have heard that moving bedtime earlier can actually help if the "second wind" issue is the problem. You may have to try a few different things until you find what works.

I eliminated my DD's naps a month after her 2nd birthday for the same reason. Actually, it started taking too long for her to fall asleep for her naps and from the time she woke up until bedtime, she needed at least 6 hours of awake time so she wouldn't fall asleep again until 9:30 or 10. I treasured my evening times, so i sacrificed the nap time and got her to bed between 7:30 & 8 pretty easily. But also, something i never tried which probably would have worked, is wake them up earlier. Since it's morning, they tend not to be grumpy and then can take an earlier nap. Good luck to you!

I had trouble with my 2 1/2 year old getting up repeatedly at night about a month after transitioning to her big girl bed. I found that limiting nap time to one hour (usually waking up no later than 2pm, 3pm latest), was helpful because she was so tired at night, it broke her of the staying up late habit and getting out of bed. It took a solid month the new schedule to break the getting up habit(and I decided dealing with a grumpy toddler to get them to sleep at night was WELL worth it in the long run!).... so she could get back to both going to bed earlier at night and napping when necessary during the day. At this point, she's 33 months and she naps almost every day, still for only 1 hour or 90 minutes... sometimes, on weekends, I don't give her a nap at all and have no trouble at all getting her to bed by 9pm latest.

Good luck!
K.

Yes, Ur son should stop napping because if he takes nap it will be difficult for him go bedtime. let him keep awake all day and have a good sleep at night without a problem. it happened to my 3 kids same thing. it is not hurt to try, if it is work between you and ur son.

Hello S.,
I know from experience, as many as the mothers have contested, when a toddler is done with nap he will let you know by not sleeping at night! The problem you run into is a very cranky baby at about five! A trick I learned with mine was "down time". A required couple of hours of reading, movie, view-master, video games(for older ones) to let them slow down and recharge so at dinner time they are still human! Good luck and have fun!!

My son was the same way. At 2 1/2 I couldn't take it anymore and took away the nap and things got much easier. He went to bed easily, earlier, and slept later in the morning. I know it seems very young, and on the other hand I bet if you just kept putting him down for nap at the time you want you would probably prevail but it depends on how long you want to deal with it!