Anyone encourage kids to stop napping at 3?

My two will be 3 in early July, and I've been toying with the idea of phasing out naps in the next few weeks. DS still naps nearly every day, unless we have a commitment like a doctor's appointment or birthday party that is during nap time. DD can easily go without a nap for several days in a row, and usually naps about 4-5 times a week. The days when she doesn't nap she stays in her room for quiet time.

Here are the reasons I'm thinking about phasing out naps.

1) DS will be getting 2 hours of ABA therapy at home every M-F this summer. I am having a hard time finding a way to fit those 2 hour sessions in since he also goes to a special needs group program for 3 hours on Wed and Fri mornings, has an hour of speech therapy at home every week and he goes to a mommys' day out program on Thursdays. Finding time for 2 hours of therapy between 9am-5pm is hard when I have to block out every 1-4 pm for nap time! He usually naps 1:30-3:00 or 2:00-3:30, but is super grumpy when he wakes up so I can't count on him being agreeable enough for therapy until 4 pm.

2) In addition to the above, both kids also go to the babysitter around 5-6 hours a week so I can get some work done. (I work part-time from home.) They do not/would not nap at the babysitter so if I send them in the afternoon, I know they would not be getting a nap in.

3) My DD is having a hard time falling asleep at night. I think it's because even though I put her down for her nap at 1:30 or 2:00, she often doesn't fall asleep until 3:00 which means she's napping until 4:30 and then not tired for bed until late. DS is still falling asleep at a decent time, but he's been waking up at 6:00 every day, which is earlier than I'd like.

So, with all these circumstances, I'm thinking it might be best to phase out naps. Has anyone else encouraged their kids to give up naps around this same time frame? Did it work? Without a nap, they'd be ready for bed earlier, so they should be able to get the same total amount of sleep.

Am I totally crazy for wanting them to stop napping?

 

We took naps away about 3 1/2 because bedtime was becoming later and later (usually 8 pm was starting to go until 9). One twin was more ready than the other to give up naps. There was a few months when the one who liked to nap took an occasional one, never planned just fell asleep watching TV or in the car. So it is OK to go no naps, just be prepared you will get a few. I had to avoid driving at 2-3 pm or else we would get a late nap and bedtime would be hard.

Cindy

 

We began to stop naps around that age. They weren't really napping for their parents anyway and when they napped on my days they wouldn't go to sleep easily at night. To start with I cut their nap down to an hour (from 1 1/2-2) and that helped for a couple of months, then I had to cut naps altogether.

They mostly did OK with the change. To start with (maybe for the first 6 weeks) they would often fall asleep mid-afternoon when we were reading stories or watching TV, and that time of day (3-5pm) became a bit of a witching hour until they adjusted. I used to give them a snack around 3 o'clock to boost their energy and have more focused activites (reading/drawing/puzzles) that I sat and did with them to minimise squabbles.
My advice would be to stop naps now to give him time to adjust before he starts his therapy. You don't want to 'waste' a number of weeks through him not cooperating because he's tired. Also if you try it for a while and find it's really not working and he can't cope without a nap you can re-instate it and still arrange the therapy to fit around it.

Good luck!

 

Nope. All my children napped until at least 4 1/2-5 years old. With having to get up to go to the bathroom in the morning, we would not be able to get in the needed hours of sleep and still get out of the house. I would end up with sleep deprived little guys. I hope you figure out a good schedule for your little ones. Sometimes there's just not an easy answer. Maybe you could try it out for a while and see. I know my guys couldn't get away with not napping yet, but some can because they can fit in the hours at night.

 

My boys have never, ever been good nappers. However, they are awesome through the night. We stopped taking naps at 2.5yrs....not by my choice though. It was just SUCH a huge fight and struggle to get them to nap and it was taking them almost 2hrs to fall asleep and them it screwed up bedtime, etc...
SO, they go to bed at 7pm and wake up anywhere between 7 & 8am. Makes for a REALLY long day for me with no break but it makes going to bed at night super easy. They are generally a little crabby starting around 4pm but nothing too bad. Every kid is different though! I wish they still napped!

 

We've been gradually letting go of naps lately. If we put them down for naps every day, DD will nap most days of the week, DS anywhere from 0-3 days a week. Naps haven't affected bedtime that much, but getting them settled for naps has been getting harder and harder.

So here's what we're doing. On days where there's something fun we want to do in the afternoon (free play at Gymboree, activities at the children's museum, or even just me or DH wanting to take them out for a long walk/run in the stroller so we can get some exercise), we skip the nap. If we're home and there's nothing else we want to do, we put them down for naps/quiet time. We've explained to them that it's OK if they don't sleep, they can just have quiet time instead and read/sing/play with their animals, and we'll come and get them when quiet time is all done. If they don't nap and have quiet time instead, then we come to them after 45-60 min. Even when they don't sleep, they do get a little rest (and so do we!!!) and it recharges their batteries. All in all, this system is working really well for us.

Anyway, long story short, you don't have to drop naps completely if you don't want to. You can always put them down just a few times a week as schedule permits. I've found that those couple times a week do seem to meet their needs and keep them going. And (to my surprise) they don't seem confused or bothered by the inconsistency - they just go with whatever we're doing.

Good luck with whatever you decide! And just remember, it's not written in stone. If you drop naps and it's disaster, you can always start putting them down for naps again.

 

You need to do what works best for your family. I had to stop DD's nap at 3y2m because she was not falling asleep until 10:00pm each night when she napped. I hated to do it, but once I did she was out like a light at 7:30pm. :good: So it was a good thing for her. She just had a quiet time then and DS napped for 5 more months.

 

We had this problem with our oldest DS. A good nap resulted in him not being ready to fall asleep until 10:00 or 10:30 at night! :faint: That just wasn't working at all! So, we stopped the naps when he was 3 and he started going to bed easily at 7:30.

 

My girls only nap 2-3 times a week now. On days they do nap, we have a 'slumber party' because they are not ready for bed at 8pm.

 

We stopped naps around age 3, but both of mine were kind of phasing out of it and they were really bad at bedtime about falling asleep. Dropping the nap helped them fall asleep right away at night.

 

I am right there with you ... today I screamed at them because I was so. darned. mad. about the fact that instead of napping they just fight and destroy their room. It was a domino effect of months and months of it being a huge struggle to get them to take a nap already. My girls take one to two hours to fall asleep (even if their eyes are rolling around in the car on the way home from whatever activity ...) for their naps which made it so they slept until 4 or 5 (I generally have to WAKE them from the nap at this point) and then we put them down at 9 for bed ... and it is 10:30 or 11 before they finally fall asleep. I am at the same point as you ... should I just stop fighting them for that break in the day and just get the break in the evening instead? Ahhhh! It is nice, though, to have some "me" time alone during the day ... I don't know ... I would continue to put them in their room for "quiet" time ... but the time they spend in there is anything but quiet ... they just play and run around and scream and carry on in there ... it wouldn't be a big deal but when I have to go in 5 times to kiss a boo boo or break up a fight or whatever ... that just doesn't count as a "break" for me.

I had a friend who did naps every other day for her child and I may try that for a few weeks and see how it goes. She would put her to bed at 7 on a non-nap day and 9 on a nap day ... and it worked pretty well for her.

Anyway ... good luck to us all ... I sometimes think that my children are trying to kill me ...

 

We stopped naps at just past 2. I love my kids to sleep 12 hours a night. It is so much more convient to not have to worry about nap times. THey sleep 7 to 7 and I get my evenings without kids. I am loving no nap time. Granted at times I would like some down time during the day but usually after lunch I put on a movie for an hour adn they get some quiet time and get revivied for the rest of the day.