How do you know when your child no longer needs a nap?

KittyFX

Mine seems to be napping every other day and I'm wondering if he is transitioning to not needing a nap? I thought I read that most kids are still napping at age 3 so it seems like this would be a really young age to give up naps. I read they need 12-14 hours of sleep a day, and he is getting 12 hours at night so maybe he can go without a nap for a day or so and then need one?

Is it a transitional thing like that where they go on again off again or do they just stop all together?

carlinlp

For us, the deciding factor in no longer needing a nap = it taking way too long to put them down at night if they have had a nap.  If the nap is causing less sleep at night and they are happy without it, we forgo it.  That being said, there are times at 6 that DD will still nap.  She's a sleeper and she need a weekend nap at least once per month, just to catch up.  I think it's more about accumulative sleep rather than a nap every single day.  My oldest DS gave up naps at 2.  It was taking me 45 minutes to put him down for a 10 minute nap and then it would take forever to get him to go down at night if he did nap.  He was perfectly happy without naps, no meltdowns, just on the go.  DS#2 still naps 4-5 days a week and he's almost 4.

KittyFX

Good points. I need to monitor better how he goes to bed on days not napping and napping.

mcgee

Generally when they can go all day without a nap and NOT be falling apart screaming and crying at 6 pm, you can ditch the nap. Or when it takes an hour or so every day to try to get them down for a nap.

Meredith was totally done napping by age 3, but if she's had a really busy and active day, she will sometimes fall asleep, especially if we're in the car, and she's five now.

You can try having quiet time instead of nap time, where you have them look at books or listen to music in their room. We did this for Mer a lot between ages 3 and 4.

Taytee

For my own sanity, Abby does quiet time when Emily goes down for nap. Almost everyday she chooses to nap and she naps for 3 hours (Emily more like 1 hour!). It varies greatly by child. When she doesn't get a nap, she sleeps an extra 1-2 hours in the morning. She tolerates the no nap day pretty well except dinner/bedtime gets tricky because she can and will still meltdown if things aren't just so.