When is my toddler going to be DONE napping?

Mar 24

That dreaded time is approaching…the end of a glorious few years of daytime ‘breaks.’

I remember when my son transitioned from 2 naps down to 1 and that felt like a punch in the gut. What do you mean I don’t get a morning AND and afternoon break to myself? I quickly realized that I much preferred 1 nap a day since the break was longer and it was so much easier to schedule my day around 1 nap, instead of 2.

Then when he transitioned from 1 nap to none, I almost felt offended. Like why don’t you want a midday nap? I would kill for a midday nap, dude. You don’t even realize how lucky you are - actually having a designated nap time. The problem with keeping his nap, was that it was taking him so long to fall asleep at bedtime. Sometimes over an hour of tossing and turning in his crib.

There were 2 signs that he was ready to drop the nap, which will be evident in any child.

A) They take the nap, but then bedtime gets pushed back too late, OR they are taking forever to fall asleep at bedtime. 20 minutes should be the maximum amount of time that it takes a child to fall asleep for any sleep situation.
B) He wouldn’t take the nap at all, and he was actually fine when I got him out of the crib 1.5 hours later. He would just chat to himself, play with his lovey, and enjoy some quiet time alone in him room. Bedtime was a bit earlier (6:30pm) than normal.

This went on for 4+ weeks and I decided it was time to call it quits on the nap.

What happened, was once we were totally ready to drop the nap, I would make sure to get my little guy outside doing some active play around the time he would normally nap. I would also feed him some natural sugars to give him a little boost of energy. He would start getting cranky around 4pm, but we would do some stimulating play or even some screen time to keep him alert. For the first week or 2 of this new change, we were doing a 6pm bedtime and Drake would sleep through right until 7am. Thus accounting for the lost hour of nap-time during the day. This is perfectly fine and normal.

By week 3, we had moved bedtime to 6:30pm and he was still waking at 7:00am.

By week 4, bedtime was back to his usual 7:00pm, and his morning start time was anywhere between 7:00-8:00am.

A few tips to know how and when to drop the nap…

The transition to no nap generally occurs between ages 3 and 5. A child can continue napping as long as it isn’t interfering with a solid 11 to 12 hours of nighttime sleep. One way to hold off on dropping the nap would be to limit the duration of the nap to 60 minutes. Also make sure it does not go too late into the day. You can experiment with the timings but cutting off between 1:30-2pm would be appropriate. If you are already doing this and it is still interfering with bedtime, it may be time to make the switch.

Usually an appropriate 1 nap schedule for a child who is close to dropping the nap would be:

7am - Wakeup
12:30-1:30pm Nap
7pm - Bedtime

If this schedule isn’t working for you at all, then it might be time to drop the nap.

Some suggestions to help with the transition:

Offer a snack with some natural sugars when it is getting late in the afternoon. This will give your child a boost.
Expect your child to be a little grouchy during this transition.
You may need to tweak your schedule to allow for a solid 12-13 hour night, so this may mean an earlier bedtime.
Full adjustment to this transition can take up to 6 weeks.

Once your child is used to having a nap-free day, you can implement something called “quiet time.” Take a few quiet activities into your child’s room and explain that they can play by themselves until quiet time is over. This is the new rule and it needs to be enforced. Set a timer in their room and let them know that they cannot come out until the timer goes off. Start with 30 minutes and work up to an hour. I really like a visual timer for your child so they can physically see the time ticking down. This is a great one to use.

The reason I recommend waiting until they’re comfortable with not napping, is that usually they will fall asleep near the end of their quiet time alone. This can cause disruption to their bedtime routine as we are trying to rid them of any daytime sleep.

I don’t enforce quiet time in my house (mostly because I don’t want Drake’s room getting destroyed once a day haha), but it is a very normal and manageable thing to do every day with your child. I encourage it with older children 3.5+ especially if you feel like you need a break.

Do you have any lingering questions about the 1 to no nap transition? Feel free to post them below!

As always, if you’re really struggling with your child’s sleep - let’s set up a call today to chat about how I can best help you!