nap time question

[cereal K]

when did your kid drop naps completely?

here at home, C is still in a crib. she seems comfortable there, doesn't try to climb out, takes naps on the weekends, no problems. 

at grandma's house (where she is m-f), she's in a toddler bed, because she was climbing out. twice this week, she would not nap. she just wanted to get out and play.

when she naps, she naps for about 2-3 hours.

she sleeps/goes down well in both a well-napped and a napless scenario. she falls asleep more quickly on no-nap days. on a regular night when she's napped during the day, she falls asleep around 8:30-9 and sleeps until 6-ish in the morning. no-nap nights, she falls asleep closer to 8.

my instinct is to keep offering naps and rolling with it. if she takes one, cool, if not, we deal. it's easy for me to say, because MIL is dealing with the not napping toddler.

thoughts? agree? disagree?

ftr, we're starting potty training this weekend, so i'm hesitant to change anything else. 

[papie]

They both have "quiet time", even Anna at 5.5. She dropped naps at home around 3 and at daycare at almost 5. But she has to lay down quietly for 30-45 minutes.
Sophia is not 3 yet and still needs her nap. If she doesn't fall asleep during nap time, we find her sleeping on the couch later.

[lilybug]

DS1 dropped naps altogether around 2.5. He has never been a very good napper, though. How is her behavior on no-nap days? If she seems fine, then I agree with your plan - if she takes a nap, great. If she resists, let her stay up. It would be different if she were a whiny wreck by dinner (that's what happens when my 19 m.o. skips his nap, it sucks.) Then, I would enforce the nap.

[pursemeatballs]

She has only napped sporadically since 12 months She was up today from 5:30 AM until 7 PM (NO NAP!!). I thought I was going to die. I'm jealous of your long naps. When she does nap, it's only for 45 min-1 hr.

[eb777888]

David completely dropped naps at about 3.5. He took two naps at 1-2, one nap at 3 and at 3.5, we phased them out. I'd put him down every day and he'd nap four days a week, then two days a week, then he quit completely. Really, I just offered the nap then followed his cues.

[cereal K]

MIL puts her in her room for naps (C has her own bedroom over there) at the scheduled time and makes her stay in there. when she isn't falling asleep and is up f-ing around, MIL goes in and talks to her about how it's nap time and she needs to sleep, etc. i wonder if C just has more opportunity to get out and screw around b/c she's not in a crib there.

generally speaking, C tests more boundaries with us than with MIL.

for the past couple of times C has been without nap she's been super sweet and well-behaved in the evenings at home. to the point where i'm open to considering dropping her naps all the time.

conversely, this weekend, WITH naps, the kid was such a tantrum-y trainwreck that i considered selling her. so maybe there's no pattern?

[nsl]

DS 1 is 5.5 and could probably still use a nap on weekdays. At home he stopped napping just before he turned five, though.

Honestly, if your MIL wants to get her to nap, more physical activity in the morning may do the trick.

[KKD]

Kate is 3 and still takes a daily two-hour nap in her crib. Like your DD, when she does skip her nap, she falls asleep more easily at bedtime, but unlike your DD, if she DOESN'T nap, she's a bear by dinnertime, so that tells me she is nowhere near ready to give up naps.

Emily was a terrible napper and stopped napping daily when she was around 2.5, but she still needed SOME naps, just to take the edge off every other day or two. I think she gave them up for good when she was around 3, and it made bedtime so much easier. She was in a big bed at that point, and when she did have a nap, she would take forever to fall asleep at night and would come out of her room and call for us. Since giving them up, she's been falling asleep almost as soon as we turn out the lights.

I would keep offering naps until it starts to interfere with bedtime, or if you notice the tantrums become a habit when she does nap. I think it's normal for naps to become occasional for kids around age 3, although obviously some still need them daily much longer than that.