When Did Your Toddler Stop Napping? - Jackson,NJ

My son will be 5 in a few weeks and still naps if I put him down... I LOVE IT!!!! If he still does "quiet time", take advantage of it!!! All my friends are jealous because their kids stopped napping at 2 or 3...

Kids in child care are required to nap/rest until they start kindergarten. In my honest opinion kids act better and just seem to be happier if they keep napping. I would say he is just having a stage and if you keep putting him down to nap he will nap on at least some days.

I think it was around age 3. First he started skipping a day here and there and then the nap disappeared completely.

That's when we started "quiet time." In your room. Alone. With a book or a movie. For an hour. Of quiet.

Sometimes, my son had quiet time too! ;)

My son is three and he stopped napping consistently when we switched from daycare to preschool. Same deal- he'll happily lay down for quiet time, but he doesn't "need" a nap anymore.

Still have him lie down, but no worries if he doesn't actually sleep!

My kids are 5 and 8 and are in school.
They still nap... when tired. My son the 5 year old, will still nap like 3 times a week. He gets super tired... from school.
it is not a battle.

Quiet time is fine, if that is what your son will do.

My oldest stopped around 4.25, my youngest is still napping at 3.5. Even after the oldest stopped, we have "quiet time" in the afternoon. Kids need the sleep, and need the rest, so don't get rid of it unless he cues you in. If he isn't sleeping, fine, but encourage the quiet, because there will be times he needs it stll.

Mine 3 yr old just stopped about 2 months ago (when he turned 3).

We're trying to institute quiet time, instead. That's a bit of a battle. But the "rule" I'm tyring to enforce is 1 hr - in your bedroom and quiet - every afternoon.

He's not a reader, so books aren't fun for him. I have an iPad, and he likes to watch You Tube videos of Thomas the Train, so I set that up for him and he does that. So far, so good.

I would say around 4, but she would still lay down and rest.. Looking at books or she would quietly play with toys.

She was in daycare so they had quiet time. If she was at home, I would have her "read" to me.. I would usually fall asleep and so would she or she would look at books next to me.. "I told her, M. needs a nap, you read to me today.."

My daughter just turned 4 last month and she still naps daily. There are days she goes without but usually it's more because of what we have going on that day and we can't fit a nap in. Sometimes she's okay, sometimes she gets really cranky from being over-tired. But she really does sleep for her naps, so I figure she still needs it. She averages 10 to 11 hours of sleep a night plus a 2 to 3 hour nap (used to always be 3 hours, now it's getting a little shorter).

I am laughing thinking about yesterday because I put her down for a nap, closed her bedroom door, but still heard her playing around in there. She came out an hour later saying she did not need a nap but was acting all crabby like she does when she's tired. I told her she still needed to stay in her room for "quiet time" - she could play, look at books, whatever, but she had to stay in her room so I could get some cleaning up done downstairs. She whined that she didn't want to but still went along with it and went back in her room and closed the door. I didn't hear one peep out of her so after 10 minutes I checked on her and she was sound asleep in her bed, under the blanket and everything.

If he's really not sleeping but okay with the quiet time alone in his room, I would just leave it at that. He might still end up sleeping sometimes. Sometimes I let my daughter stay up past her bedtime as long as she spends it in her bed "reading" books. She usually passes out within minutes.

About the time kindergarten started :-) She slept less and rested more, and didn't nap every day, but most days she did.

As long as he is happy to have quiet time, I would continue that routine.

My son is the same age and stopped napping a couple months ago. I love it because I also have a younger child and now they can go to bed at the same time (earlier) and I get some quiet time at night (better than in the middle of the day, in my opinion). He falls asleep much easier at night than he did when he napped. He's starting preschool next week and they don't have naptime there, so I guess it's normal for his classmates, too (unless they nap after 3, but that seems late to me). But obvioulsly they're all different- my son has always seemed to require the minimum amount of recommended sleep.

My son stopped right after he turned three. If I talked him in to a nap he'd take forever to fall asleep. Then later he'd be wide awake at 11 p.m. I was sad to see the nap go, but the late night thing was just too hard for all of us.

My daughter is 5 and I still make her nap at least one day on the weekend. She usually fights it and tries to tell me she's not tired, even though I know differently. I always tell her that she doesn't have to go to sleep but she does have to lie on her bed quietly and rest. She ALWAYS ends up going to sleep. If she didn't truly need naps it then I wouldn't worry about it, but she gets soooo grumpy when she's tired. She just started kindergarten and they have a 30-minute rest time each day but I know she doesn't sleep. She's usually really good on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesdays are kind of iffy. By the time Thursday and Friday roll around she is grouchy because she's so tired. I thought maybe we could just cut out naps and put her to bed earlier but that doesn't work for us/her. I can put her to bed at a decent time but she might lie in bed for 1 - 1 1/2 hours before she goes to sleep, even though she is very clearly tired.

When she was younger she went through phases where she had trouble napping but I still made her lie down because I knew she was tired. Eventually, she started napping again.

Each child is different. If your son is alright with no nap then you could cut them out - just make sure he's getting enough sleep at night. It truly would not hurt for him to have some rest time though, even if he doesn't go to sleep. He could just have quiet time where he has to stay on his bed, but he could play with some quiet toys or look at books and you could still have your down time too. I think this is good for kids and helps them unwind.

Our daughter flat-out refused at age 2 and there was no changing that. So we made her bedtime earlier to make up for the missed zzzzs.

My son stopped napping abruptly at 26 months (he's now 4.5yo). My daughter is almost 22mo, and she has days where goes without napping, but it's maybe once per week. Part of me enjoys the days she doesn't nap because I know bedtime will be an hour earlier!!! :)

At 4, he might not need the nap, but the quiet time won't hurt him. A lot depends on how many hours he sleeps at night. If he sleeps 10-12 hours, he probably doesn't need the nap. If I allow my 4.5yo to take a nap (not that he ever would willingly), he'd be up til midnight! Falling asleep for even 20 minutes in the car on the way home from an event screws up his bedtime and throws things off for several days while we try to get back on track.