At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

DD is 20 months and has been giving us more and more problems about taking her nap. She gets slap happy in the evenings and has more meltdowns than usual when she doesn't take one. I am finding that I'm wasting hours just trying to get her to go to sleep.

For example, today I planned to have her nap from 11-130 then run some errands. It's 1230 and she's still up. I am waiting for her to nap so I can shower and get ready, which will be a huge battle if she doesn't go to sleep. Would you just give up on the naps if this continues? I can't waste my whole day trying to get her to go to sleep!

Message edited 11/26/2012 12:21:15 PM.

At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

Oh the fun. I hated that time. But she still *needed* that nap. If I let her go without she was not only a nightmare for bed, she'd wake up god awful early. I formed an interesting talent of keeping her on the go, hard. Run, play, think, work, concentration.. anything to keep her engine running constant then slow her down with a movie or music a book.. then I'd say its quiet time and all the electronics got turned off but one (be it radio or tv) and volume was set so low you had to sit perfect still to hear it...

She's 4 and she STILL has a daily nap.

ETA: the TIME of her nap has never been solid at home. School, she's asleep on time, home though, not happening. I have been known to put her in the car (when I gave up) to run a quick errand only to find her asleep in minutes. Then my errands become longer drawn out and further so she can sleep. Thank god for drive through CVS! And yes, I *HAVE* sat in my car in the garage playing on my phone while she has napped. Garage door open car running or car off and door closed if the weather permits.

I even once *gasp* rolled all the windows down, left her in the car, in the garage, open the door in the garage to the house and took the 3feet it takes to get to the spare bathroom opened all the doors from her to me and took a tinkle! I know.. the horror!

Naps are serious business..

Message edited 11/26/2012 12:54:12 PM.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

What time does she wake up? my DD is 26 mos and her nap time is getting later and later...On the weekends she wakes up 8-9 am and I wont put her to nap until 1:30-2:00pm and she will fall asleep much faster.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

Thanks for the responses. DD goes to bed 730-8p and wakes up between 630-7am. On days with no nap she'll go to bed a bit earlier and sleep a bit later.

I'm not ready to give up the naps but I can't get her to sleep at all the past 3 days, aside from briefly in the car. Once you take her out of the car she pops back up awake.

At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

We went through this and are still having non-nap days. She will be 3 next month. On days she "isn't tired" we have quiet time. I changed her, put her in bed and say you don't have to sleep, but it's quiet time. You can read or play in here quietly, but Mommy, Brother and you need rest. 9/10 times she sleeps, but when she doean't she is fine. Maybe try that approach.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

since about that age ds will skip a nap once a week, no predictable reason. I decided that he take 1 hour of quiet time, if he doesn't fall asleep, then I get him up.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

My DD gave them up at around 3.5yrs old. Before that, she still REALLY needed her naps and never fought them, she was exhausted and couldn't wait to get into bed.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

DS gave up naps at 2 1/2. He was a solid napper until 2, then we woudl have some trouble getting him to go to sleep from 2 till 2 1/2. I would drive him in the car and sometimes sit there with him, sometimes transfer him to his bed or mine. When DD was born (when he was 2 1/2) I coudl no longer do this. So unfortunately that was the end of naps - even though he really did still need them!

Hopefully it's just a stage for your LO!

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

Less than 2 years old. It has been a few torturous years, let's just say.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

At 26 months my twins still take one. Once every few weeks they'll have a day where they just wont fall asleep so I go in and get them but that's rare. I have slowly had to move their nap time up. It used to be 1:00 but now we're up to 3:00. They sleep for a good 2 hours so I know they still need it. Plus I need them to nap too, sanity wise lol.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

DS gave up his one nap right before his 2nd birthday... It was not good.... At 3, he rarely naps at home. If we are out in the car and he falls asleep, I can usually transfer him from the car into his stroller and get some things done for an hour or so....I was not ready for him to ditch his nap that early... I tried to get him to lay down for an hour or so at home, but that didn't happen for long. He would just jump up and down in the crib and scream. If I laid down with him, he would relax for a while, but didn't sleep...

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

My oldest is 3 & still requires a nap especially on school days. There are days like yesterday where he didn't take one but we had "quiet time" on the couch & he went to bed 30 mins earlier.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

My older DS napped until he started kindergarten, and he had a major struggle with the transition. He is 6 now and will still occasionally nap if we're on vacation or if we're in the car. My younger DS will be 3 in March and hasn't napped in at least a month or two. He may take one every two weeks, if that. He was a beast at first, but he has adjusted and he asks to go to bed by 7:30/8:00. Actually, he sometimes ask as early as 6:30 for bed, but we hold him off because otherwise he wakes too early.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

My son is 4 and still naps at school. When he is home it's either hit or miss with napping. I don't push it. I will tell you that on some days, you can still tell that his behavior is better with a nap.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

30 months and my son still naps (usually 2-3 hours) but naps are getting later and the later we put him down, the better he sleep. He goes down between 1230-130

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

We stopped naps this summer, so I could get DD used to being awake all day for kindergarten. She turned 5 end of August.
She does still naps some weekends.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

going strong here at 3.5 still taking daily naps!! almost 2 hours a day but she needs it she is up and out of the house with me by 6:30am

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

DD will be 4 in March and still takes a daily nap. She does fight it on occasion, but she really needs it. Will sleep 1.5-2hrs. So when I am home with her, sometimes she needs a little threatening to take the nap, but she will.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

My almost 4 year old twins still take naps. DD will nap every day, DS will sometimes just have quiet time instead of a nap.

My 20 month old is resisting naps, but I remember my twins did the same thing around that age. I keep putting her down, and usually she will fall asleep. If not, she stays in her crib for an hour or so.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

just now at 4 1/2. Some days he naps and some he doesn't. We don't push it, although we do have him go in his room for a 'rest time.'

But in the past, he's tested us many many times about naps.

Usually it's just a phase and they'll return to taking/needing naps.

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

At 22 months my twins naps are getting longer and longer. They are usually 3 hours. Of course each of them will have their days where they don't sleep but they will play in the cribs for a while and have some "quiet" time.

Im thinking it could just be a phase with your dd. Keep with it!

Re: At what age did your LO drop their daily nap?

She gave them up for good at 3. But there were plenty of times before that when she would try to give them up but I knew she wasn't ready. I still put her in everyday and eventually she would start napping again.