Dropping the Nap
It’s difficult to know when your toddler is ready to drop a nap. It can also be a bit daunting to think about!
When your child was napping, it was so nice to have some downtime. The thought of your child not napping, and being a terror as bedtime approaches may also be causing you turmoil.
I get it! I want to make this transition as easy as possible for you and your toddler.
Is your toddler ready to stop napping?
This commonly happens between 2.5 and 3.5 years of age
Here are the common signs that your toddler is ready to drop the nap:
- Shorter naps, sometimes lasting 20-30 minutes
- Your child protests going down for a nap, and is getting progressively harder to get to sleep for nap or bedtime
- Your child is refusing a nap completely
- Your child is waking early in the morning
- New wake-ups in the middle of the night
If your child is showing any of these signs, I want you to pause before you jump to dropping the nap.
It is especially important to not jump to dropping the nap if your child is younger than 3. Toddlers commonly go through periods of “nap refusals”, but this doesn’t mean they’re ready to stop napping altogether! Check out my free Guide to Sleep Regressions to find out how to deal with periods of nap refusal.
Has your child been waking early in the morning, but is showing no other signs of being ready to drop the nap? You may have a different issue at hand. Check out my post on Early Morning Waking. You can also check out my services or book a free evaluation call with me to work 1-on-1 with me to solve your early morning issue.
Or maybe you aren’t sure if fighting bedtime is a sleep regression, because your toddler has also been waking up in the middle of the night. This is another tricky one, so be sure to check out my free Guide to Sleep Regressions!
It’s so hard to tell! I encourage you to give your child at least two weeks and examine their habits during those weeks. If this behavior seems consistent or is getting worse, it’s probably time to drop the nap!
Dropping the Nap
When you do drop naps completely, your toddler is probably going to be a BEAST by bedtime. This is a big transition and can take a few weeks for your toddler to adjust.
The great thing about dropping the nap? Your child is probably going to sleep longer at night. This means that you’re going to need to move up your child’s bedtime. You want them down for bed before they’ve reached that all-out tantrum portion of the evening or the wired and seemingly full of energy (but they are actually over-tired!) portion of the evening. This may mean that your child is going to bed earlier than they were when they were an infant! Your child still needs 11-14 hours of sleep a day, so they will now need to make that up at night,
No Nap=Quiet Time Instead
Even though your child has dropped their nap, that doesn’t mean they don’t need time to wind down in the middle of the day. Around the same time that your child would normally take a nap, start to do “Quiet Time” instead!
If you’re curious about how to carry out Quiet Time, check out this post to learn more.
I hope this makes you feel prepared for the transition to no naps. Think of it as a good thing, you can still have an hour or so where your child entertains themselves, and you get to put them to bed early at night!
If you need some guidance along the way, I would love to help! Book a free evaluation call, and we can chat about how I can help!
