Ultimately, your child will completely switch to an afternoon quiet time. When your tyke gives up her last nap, expect her to start running out of gas earlier in the evening. So be prepared to slide dinner and bedtime an hour earlier. If your child is able to skip naps without any sign of crankiness or exhaustion, then they may be ready to stop napping.
Surprisingly, your 4-year-old will go to bed earlier than she did at 18 months! Have questions about a Happiest Baby product? By age 5, most children no longer take a regular nap. When some toddlers hit a certain age, daytime naps become the enemy.
Even if they resist, naps may still be necessary if:. A telltale sign that your child is ready to drop naps is the ability to skip a nap without signs of crankiness or exhaustion. Dropping naps is a gradual process that starts with your toddler going from two naps to one nap, and then, sometimes years after the shift from two to one nap, slowly decreasing the length of their one nap. Children who no longer need a nap typically fall asleep faster at night and sleep through the night, making the bedtime routine a little easier on you.
But although some kids eventually wean themselves off naps, you can give your child a small nudge. You can also try drop one nap a week to get their body used to less daytime sleep. Your child will slowly adjust to less sleep. But keep in mind that less sleep during the day means they may need more sleep earlier at night. They likely will fall asleep earlier or may sleep later in the morning if allowed.
So be prepared to move up the bedtime routine or adjust the morning schedule. You can also help your child drop naps by avoiding afternoon activities that could cause drowsiness — at least until they break the habit. This includes long car rides and long periods of inactivity. Keeping your toddler moving can keep them stimulated and awake. Be mindful that heavy lunches might also make your child lethargic and sleepy. So opt for healthier lighter lunches with plenty of vegetables and fresh fruit.
Even though your child may no longer need naps, they can still benefit from a little downtime each day. Your child might not be required to fall asleep, but they might be required to lie on their cot quietly and not disturb other children. The length of quiet time is up to your discretion and depends on your child. Although children stop napping at different ages, you might have concerns about an older child who still needs a nap or a young child who is resisting a nap but still clearly needs the midday snooze.
Different reasons might explain why an older child still naps. It can be as simple as going to bed too late and waking up too early. Or it could be due to:. A University of Colorado Boulder researcher, Assistant Professor Monique LeBourgeois, says that in fact, many young children today are not getting enough sleep. Her research showed that toddlers who miss only a single daily nap show more anxiety , less joy and interest and a poorer understanding of how to solve problems.
Babies become harder to settle for naps and at bedtime during this tricky period. The transition periods for all nap changes needs to be handled delicately and with some understanding of what your baby is going through. Sometimes it is just trial and error to work out if dropping a nap is the thing that your child needs at that time. Even just a 10 minute power nap is enough to stave off any residual overtiredness to get your baby through to bedtime.
Somewhere between months your baby will go from 3 naps to 2. This transition to 2 naps depends on your baby having consolidated their napping so that they are doing at least one good long nap over 45 minutes as well as one shorter nap during the day. We would recommend that the longest nap be in the middle of the day rather than the morning, as a shorter lunchtime nap can cause your little one to become overtired at bedtime and affect their nighttime sleep. Dropping down to one nap is slightly harder and longer than 3 to 2 transition.
The aim here is to alter the morning nap until it finally fades away. NOTE: There can be a " sleep regression " closer to 15 months, which is mainly caused if your toddler is still having two day sleeps. This regression will mean your toddler starts resisting bedtime in the evening, resisting their second nap, waking again overnight or waking early in the morning.
If this is the case with your toddler, it is definitely time to drop to one nap and aim for a good restorative sleep across the middle of the day rather than 2 fragmented naps. This is the trickiest transition of them all! If your toddler is resisting bedtime or is difficult to settle for their nap or waking early in the morning, it is time to start getting rid of the nap. You might even reduce the nap so it happens every second day.
Once you've dropped the nap altogether you might need to introduce a slightly earlier bedtime until your toddler adjusts and to avoid too much overtiredness by the end of the day.
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