At What Age Did Your Kids Give up Napping?

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My oldest was 15 months or there-abouts.

Both my girls were in kindergarten and sleeping at nap time. My oldest daughter was mad when they instituted reading time instead after Christmas Break. She also went to bed at 7:30-8:00 until maybe 7th grade.

My youngest was probably twoish, his naptimes were often interrupted since we were always on the go by the time he came along. Most of his napping was done on the way to violin, piano, cub scouts, girlscouts, soccer, you name it.

Giving up naps is not an option in my house. I need that time to unwind and relax. Half of naptime is spent cleaning. So if my kids wake up before I even get to sit down, I'm the one that's going to be crabby.

My grandson is 2.5 and has tried this. I have made him sit on his bed. He's had a book or a couple of toys. He's held out some days, staying on that bed 2.5-3 hours before I gave up. Then I started telling him that he can't watch a Blues Clues episode until he wakes up. He sleeps about 1 hour even though the other kids sleep for 2 hours. So he watches 2-3 episodes of Blues Clues every afternoon. But it keeps him on his bed and quiet.

Uggh, mine gave up naps at age 2, as well. So I just moved her bedtime up an hour, which worked out fine and she adjusted just fine. So did her dad and I; we had more time to ourselves in the evening! ;) Good luck.

Probably around 2.5ish.

We then had a period of a total exhaustion nape every other or every three days.....but the "set" schedule was pretty much done.

Then we replaced the nap with "quiet time" when he would stay on his bed--reading books or watching a movie for an hour.

When he was extremely miserable and overly tired, I moved bedtime earlier.

My daughter (now 3) also gave up her nap around 2 1/2 (or a little earlier even). She's my third child, and I think she just didn't want to miss out anymore.

My boys were both around 3.

It's a hard transition, some days my daughter could still use a nap, but we do a 7:00 bedtime to compensate.

It takes a few weeks for sure.

J.

Oh man, I can NOT get my 2.5 year old to nap. When he does, he can't go to sleep at night. He isn't really crabby. He does go to bed an hour earlier, and get up an hour later. He averages about 14-15 hours of sleep at night, so I guess he's making up for a nap. He is actually worse when he naps, so I just gave up.

He does have quiet time. He sits out in the living room (or whatever room I'm in, his room is the farthest in the house. I can't hear him back there.) and quietly plays while I clean, for an hour a day. It's sit down and play type of stuff. Books, a few trains, blocks, etc. I've found I love the extra time at night and the hour before he wakes up, actually.

My daughter (now 6) stopped a month before she turned 3. She was only napping for 45 minutes anyway so the fight to get her down wasn't worth it. It took a few weeks with her trying to fall asleep at 5 pm (and me keeping her up so she wouldn't be energized and stay up super late at bedtime), but with an earlier bedtime she adjusted pretty quickly. Fell asleep a lot faster at night too which was pretty awesome.

My son is almost 3.5 and he still naps most of the week including the 2 days he goes to preschool. But some days we don't get around to naptime and he just goes to bed earlier. He only naps about an hour. He probably could make the transition to no naps and early bedtime, but I kinda like the small break I'm getting when I'm home. If he gives me a hard time going down, I just skip naps. I spent way too much of my life trying to force my daughter to sleep when she didn't want to and I'm too lazy to waste all afternoon on it with my son. As long as they are sleeping at night and not waking me up, I'm good!

My oldest stopped at 2.5. I tried and tried to keep him napping, but a three hour fight with him wasn't worth it... Now he relaxes and has quiet time for a couple hours, while my 15 month old takes his nap. It works out pretty well... He goes to bed at 7pm, and wakes up at 6:30am. Fine w me :)

My first two were around 2.5 but my third one is just over 3 and still takes one daily, she needs it too!

My son gave up napping just after he turned 2. We instituted "quiet time" where he was not required to lay down, but was required to play quietly in his room for 1 hour. Some days he passed out on the floor playing and sometimes he didn't.
A warning though, it took a lot of consistent discipline in the beginning to get him to stay in his room.

OMG...see my post from about 5 minutes ago for "Frenzied Preschooler".

I feel your pain.

My son did the same thing around that age. HOWEVER, he was NOT ready (like your little one) and after a month or so he was back to napping.

What got us through that patch (and got us back on naps) was mandatory "quiet time" during the first hour of his old nap time. He didn't have to sleep, but he had to be alone in his room doing a quiet activity (reading, playing with a quiet toy, etc).

I also tried to make the morning our busy time and plan a lower key afternoon. I think this helped him WANT to pick his nap back up, and it made him less over-amped in the afternoons when he didn't nap.

He was on-again-off-again with napping a few other times before he gave them up for good last summer (5 1/2) to get ready for full day kindergarten.

I have bad news from my experience. My son gave up his afternoon nap at 2.5, and he was almost 3 before he finally stopped crashing around 5 or 6. If we let him sleep then, he would wake up at midnight, ready to play. If not, he was CRANKY for HOURS until bedtime. It was miserable for at least 4 months. When I spoke to the doctor, she recommended putting my son down for a nap later, like 3, but then waking him after an hour. Whenever I did this, he would stay up until 11 at night! I was beginning to think we should just move my son's bedtime back to 10 when his schedule finally evened out, but like I said, it took several months.

Good luck! I'm hoping my daughter will nap longer.

Nope, 2.5 sounds about right to me You can always change "nap" to quiet time so you can milk it a little longer. My child had to lay with me, look at a book while I shut my eyes and rested. 9 times out of 10, he fell asleep. That should help for another 6 months... Good luck!

My youngest is almost 4 and he naps daily at Chapel and only occasionally the 3 days he is at home.

My boys were/are sleepers. They both napped until they were in kindergarten, and they still napped on the weekends for 2-3 hours each day until they were 6. My 7 year old goes to bed at 7:00, and still needs a nap occassionally. I know all kids are different, but my boys behave better and are happier when they are well-rested. I've known other kids who just don't seem to need as much sleep, though.

All 3 of mine (2 boys & 1 girl) gave up naps around 2, 21/2. Only one was a grumpy butt in the afternoon and HAD to have a snack @ 2-3p or he was a BEAR! Other 2 adjusted just fine!

Both of my kids were done by 2. I just moved their bedtime earlier, and they made up for it at night. It just took a few weeks for them to adjust.