When Did Your Child Stop Taking Naps?

My daughter will be 3 this week and she basically stopped over the Summer. No more cat naps for mommy...

Mine were both done before they were 3, but they too slept 11-13 hrs a night :)

Mine started around this time as well and we cannot get him to take a nap to save our lives. Only way he will is if he happens to be in the car and falls asleep. According to him "naps or resting isn't fun." The best of luck to you.

My son turned 3 in August and gave up his naps over the summer. I was still putting him in his room for quiet time but occasionally he would still take a nap...then he wouldn't sleep very well at night so I nixed that too.

All kids are different - my twins stopped taking naps at 20 months but from what I hear that was early. They went to bed at 7.15 pm and got up around 7.30am . 3 1/2 sounds about right to me to be stopping.

My almost 5 year old will still come home from school and occasionally take a nap. Not long, and not often but she still does. My 3.5 year old still gets about 90 minutes a day. My mom works at a day care and says that there are 3.5 year olds that have stopped taking naps. Her suggestion - take some one on one time with him. Bake cookies, art project, something that can be relaxing for you but fun for him. There comes a point, that as parents, we loose that me time. I would enjoy the one on one time though.

Hi~

Mine stopped with his naps when he was three. (just around that time frame, anyway!). I felt the way you do now: he still needed his rest! :) (because I too, would rest!)

What we did do to compensate: moved bedtime back a half an hour. This helped us and he did start sleeping better in the night for us. He also went to sleep faster than he did when he was taking the naps.

But I do agree that it totally depends on your child. (my nephew stopped his naps at a year and did fine. You did know when it was bedtime, tho! LOL~)

As your profile mentioned you are sleep deprived, do you have anyone that can take the older one or two for a visit (or come by to watch them?) so you can nap with your youngest? I could not imagine having three!! One keeps me busy enough! :)

Hi J.,
It depends of the child, I think. My first son stopped taking naps at around 3 but my second has refused to take a nap since about 2 and a half. He definately needed one but would not take one. We had to move his betime up to 7:00 sometimes 6:30. He will be 3 in Jan. and still is going to bed early. So even though I don't get the naptime anymore it's nice to have the early evening to relax. Good luck.
Chris

My daughter was 3. But I noticed she still needed some down time around when she would have napped. So we would have quiet time; sit and read, or quite play. Or watch a quite show like little bear. It really worked for us. I know what you mean about the "me" time. Thats all some of us get. Mine just started kindergarten so I again have me time. And am starting to know what to do with myself! (That I have a self!)

My friend had her older son play quietly in a fort w/ little sister napped. So she could study. So you could both look/read your own books. It's good for them to see us read too.
Good luck, A. H

Hi J.,
I was hoping my child would nap until kindergarten started but at age three he was done. At 3 he was sleeping 13 hours a night so I think that was all he needed.
Now he is 7 and sleeps 10 - 12 hours a night.
Good luck, It is hard when they stop napping because we mom's need it more then they do sometimes :)
M.

Both my older boys stopped around three. Neither of them would stay quietly in their rooms either. They didn't want to take them and if they did they were up till 10:00 so I quit giving them naps. I don't think there is a typical age where kids stop taking naps. I think it all depends on the kid.

My daughter stopped taking naps when she started kindergarten.

Her daycare person before made each of the children lay on their "mat" for quiet time and taught the children that they didn't HAVE to sleep but that this was the "quiet" time of the day and that others DID want to sleep so they needed to be "nice" and "quiet" while others were sleeping. She would play a video with the sound turned down low so that they would have to really focus on it to hear what was going on, thus keeping more quiet. Some who were not used to napping before ended up falling asleep, others would just get that "wind down" time watching the video.

When my daughter started school they put them through a "transition" period (she was in all day kindergarten) for the first few months where they would have nap/quiet time for 30 minutes right after lunch and then gradually changed the type of quiet activity to reading a story or quiet coloring, depending on the child.

Every child is different and they all may need a different amount of sleep depending on their activity level. My daughter is 6 now, 7 in January, and I still feel that she could use a nap after a busy day at school, but she and I are not afforded that luxury unfortunately. With my work schedule she goes to the school's latchkey program after school so we've had to compensate with an early bedtime at 8pm and we get up at about 7:15 am. So she's getting about 10-11 hours of sleep per night - and some days it still doesn't seem like enough...

But I agree with the previous response regarding getting someone to come sit with the kids or getting a neighbor maybe to "swap" with you for nap times/play dates at different times of the day.

My son just turned 3 and he hasn't been napping for a couple of weeks now. However, he does sleep at least 12 hours per night. When he does occasionally nap in the car, he does not sleep well at night. Boy.......do I miss those naps!!!! I used to get so much done during that time. Oh well!!! :)

I think you're lucky he lasted until three and a half - all my kids stopped napping at two and a half! He'll probably be more tired but you can get him into bed a bit earlier - and as all your kids are so small that shouldn't be a problem with lots of big kids rushing around. Perhaps you can just have some quiet time mid-afternoon - watch a video or read some books. Enjoy! - Alison