Suggestions About Nap Time

I have a 3yo daughter and every now and then she will take a nap but for the most part she hasnt since she was 2 and a half. What I find that helps is we get up at 615am everyday and she is in bed by 730 everynight. She does really great with this schedule.

Hi K.,

Lately my now 5 year old would refuse to take naps, when she was 3-4, we would either put her in room, and tell her fine if you don't want to take nap, then you at least have to rest. Of which she lays in her bed, or sometimes on the couch, though she will fight it, and you know she really needs one, this "rest time" seems to be the key word vs NAP time. At 5 sometimes she'll rest, sometimes she wont. I think its funny when she throws fits about nap time, then you tell her rest time on the couch and with in minutes shes out like a light.

Suz

I have been going through the same thing with my 2 1/2 year old. Instead of napping he now plays in his room for an hour. I make sure that he has everyting he needs and then he stays in there and plays while I do something quietly in the other room. Even without napping he is much more pleasant in the afternoons. They really do need there alone time and an hour seems to work for us. Sometimes he is so content I let him decide when he wants out. Last week he played for 2 hours. I didn't move his bedtime he still goes to bed between 9:30-10:00. However, he now sleeps until 8 or 9. So not only do I get an hour of time during the day we get a couple of extra hours in the morning.

My advice for your own sanity is to incorporate "Quiet " time into your day.

A time close to your normal nap time where your son says down with a book, quiet toy or music and he must stay there with out you until say the "beep-beep" (timer) goes off. This worked really well with my two for a long time.
This will also help when he goes to Pre-K or Kindergarten where they still lay down in many schools. You can't make him sleep but, you and he both need some time to rejuvenate.

Good Luck to you

That's so funny K. because my daughter who just turned 3 is doing the same thing right now. She did it for about a week and now she is the first one asleep. My 1 1/2 would fall asleep first but now she is so I don't know what's going on. But I tried to let her stay up all day but by dinner time she was asleep. If you get any good suggestions let me know.

I'm a stay at home mother and also a Mary Kay consulatnt. I have a daughter who is 3 and a son who is 1 1/2 and another little boy on the way.I've been married for 2 years and we are a military family.

Hi K.. Both of my girls started resisting naps during their 3rd year. If I forced them to go to sleep, they would have trouble falling asleep at night. If they didn't nap, they would be cranky by late afternoon/early evening. It was a bit of a catch 22! My solution was to cut out the naps since they interfered with the girls going to sleep at night. I moved up their bedtime instead, from about 9 p.m. to between 7:30-8 p.m. This works beautifully for us. Now my daughters have no trouble going to sleep at night and are well-rested for the next day. Kids DO outgrow naptime and there does come a point where's there's no reason to force it. The time at which each child no longer needs a nap is a bit different for every kid. If you still need a mid-afternoon break, consider doing what the other moms suggested and having a "quiet time" for an hour instead. Good luck!

Hi K.,

My son did the same thing when he turned three... we have down time, he goes to his room and plays for an hour or he watches a special movie. Usually if he needs a nap he will fall asleep doing one of these things. I understand how you feel because I was so distraught when he wouldn't take a nap it was so hard for me to get used to loosing my time too but I would try the "quite time" and see if it works. His behavior around five sounds like us too... his body will learn to adjust to him not napping and he may get better about the craziness at about dinner time too. Good luck! A. www.busymomsworkathome.com

My oldest child did the same thing a couple months after turning 3. I took advice from one of my friends and started an hour or so of quiet time each day to watch a movie, work on art and crafts or other low key activities. He seems to be able to make it better through the day with that quiet time break. Another suggestion I remember getting was to move bedtime ahead an hour. Hope this helps!

A.

My son now 4 use to do that same thing. I require a hour of what we call quiet time everyday no tv, only certain books and you must stay in your bed. My son started off around three wanting to give up naps and same thing he was so tired at dinner that he was miserable. I started off reading in bed and then I would lay because it was better to get him to have a nap than have him really cranky. My two youngest being 4 and 2 have a nap everyday or quiet time. You cannot go by the doctor if you think he is tired put him down no matter what is takes. Habits can be broken their little body's need rest to grow hope this helps.

Sometimes they don't need naps, but their body needs the down time. This happened to mine and me. Try to make him lay still for about an hour. If he doesn't go to sleep thats o.k. But make sure that he's still. Maybe this will help.

Hi There!

I am right there with you and what has worked for me is what Minda was telling you. My twins are three and when they do not nap i move their bed time to 6:30 to 7 at the latest. To fight the five o clock grumps I feed them an early dinner and give them a bath, other wise they Will fall sleep at that time which is too early. So that puts them in a better mood and buys me time until 6:30 when they go to bed (or 7) and they DO fall sleep then. Eventhough they fight the nap I know they still need to rest, even my 5 year old that wouldn't take a nap if you pay him to, sleeps at school when they have nap time (he is in prek)
Now lately (the last 4 days) the twins seem to be needing to sleep during the day sometimes up to 2 hours! and they still go to bed around 8 at the latest. Now what I do is put them down, they may get up one time, so I go and put them down again, it may take even up to 3 times but I won't badge, and finally they fall asleep. Beleive me,is worth the effort if would give you some time and less stress in the afternoon.

Don't give up!!

A.

Perhaps rather than enforcing a nap time, you could enforce a rest time for him. Make him stay in his room quietly by himself, but don't press the issue of sleeping. He may actually be just in need of a good rest during the day now, rather than actually needing to sleep. I know this helped with my older two when they started fighting off naps.

I happen to think naps are REALLY important. My four year old still takes them, and my 5 year old still does sometimes on the weekends when she's not in kindergarten. We have a strict rule that everyone takes a rest for a minimum of one hour around 2:00. My 4 year old always sleeps, my 5 y.o. usually just plays quietly. No 3 year old is going to WANT to take a nap, but if it were me, I'd continue the routine. I tell my son I'll check on him in one hour... he's not to come out of his room before that. Inevitably when I check he is asleep and then I leave his door open to let him know when he wakes up that he can come out. It makes such a difference in his day, and mine too. And he still doesn't have any trouble going to sleep at night. Maybe not all kids need that much sleep... but I feel like some of my friends give up on nap time too soon! Good luck!

unfortunately your napping days are comming to an end. I hae 5 kiddos, my older three being above the 3 year mark and each of them cycled out of naps during their threes.
It is hard because they are indeed a mess come 5 pm but that is just part of growing up.
In our home we still require quiet time. You don't have to sleep but you do have to stay on your bed with your 4 books and a few specials (small stuffed animals)
Normally what would happen is we would have a few days of no napping and a few days of napping.
Many nights of the no napping stage we had early bed (between 6 and 6:30 instead of the usuall 7) and/or things just ran different like- bath time before dinner. Baths usually bought me more time and cheered up the grumpiest kid!

LIke I said it is part of the procdess of growing up. Don't fight him over sleeping- you will end up 2 very unhappy people and the majority of your day will be wrought in frustration over him always being "in trouble" for not sleeping. INstead change things around and in a few months he will start to adjust. Some days will be sleeping days and some days won't.

I WOULD however require quiet time. He must be quiet and he must be in his room/on his bed (My kids did not graduate to non bed status until they could be responsible about being quiet with their toys during nap time). This way he still has down time and you can still nap with your younger one if need be.

Hi K., My 3 year old used to be that way in that he would not take a nap and then be terror around dinner time. We just made sure he stays in his room for a little while in the afternoon resting. Just not being roughty. He does not take nor does he need a nap really anymore.

I do hope this helps.

Sincerely,
K. S
www.kristies.fourpointmoms.com

Maybe try changing the location like letting him nap on your bed. Also listening to soothing music may help too.

Hi K.! My son is at thistage as well. If he doesn't nap then he has a meltdown around 5pm-6pm. What I do is I make him stay in his bed for an hour every day around what used to be nap time. He'll usually lay there and talk, sing, etc. for a while, but most of the time he eventually falls asleep. Hope this helps!