My son has, for the most part, always been a great sleeper and a great nap taker!!! He is a little over 4 1/2 and still can take a 2 hour, sometimes even longer, afternoon nap. My question though is how to do I start to ween my child away from his afternoon nap? Lately, about the last month or so, it has been taking him longer to fall asleep at night which I am assuming has something to do with his afternoon nap. Also, my son is going to start kindergarten in the fall and so naps will not be part of his schedule anymore at that time. He is in full-time preschool/daycare now and so he still gets a nap ("rest time") there but I am looking to try and cut back on his weekend naps without making the weekends miserable for our family. Any advice on how to start to eliminate nap time but still have a not so cranky child on my hands?
Thanks everyone for all the advice! We are going to try and shorten his nap time on the weekends because he is having a hard time falling asleep when it is bed time and we will see how that goes. I don't think we are ready to fully eliminate the nap altogether just yet. I appreciate all the responses!!! :)
When you aren't forced to, why break him in before he's ready.
You could put it off as much as up to a month before school. Then closely note what happens with crankiness and sleepiness. Adjust bedtime or wakeup time if needed.
Doing it earlier can result in a very cranky child who can't use his brain to the best capacity to make good decisions and learn.
yeah same with my daughter she just turned 4 and I weaned her from napping. She was taking a long time to fall asleep for her nap then I would have to wake her up in order for her to still be ready for bed at 8 so I figured it's time to stop naps. I started just putting her down every other day for a nap. I did that for a few weeks and then I just stopped. She did seem tired at first so I would put her to bed at 7:30 instead of 8. And then she started sleeping in later in the mornings to make up the difference. So now she is back to going to bed at 8 but she still sleeps in a good hour to hour 1/2 later in the mornings which is fine with me :)
Hi K.,
My son napped til 4 1/2 also. He's 5 today :o) Anyway, I just didn't nap him and dealt with the crankiness and it didn't take long for him to adjust. It was just a couple days and he fell right into place with not napping. He would still nap about once a week for another month or so, but the crankiness didn't last. Can you ask the preschool/daycare to not nap him? Is it an option for him to sit quietly on his cot/rug with some books while the others nap? If they can help, it will make your life at home easier. Nap or no nap should be consistant. Maybe if you start not napping him on weekends you could put him to bed 1/2 hr. earlier than usual just so he doesn't get really overtired, because we've all been there and we know how that goes! Good luck!
In some schools, for Kindergarten, they still nap.
or quiet time.
Just try putting his bedtime earlier.
You can still let him nap on the weekends.
Every kid is different.... my daughter, in Kinder, they still had a nap time. BUT... afterschool, she would still nap. Their day is LONG for a young child. A kid, is OFTEN real over-tired when they come home from school... and you can opt to let him nap then.
My daughter did.
And she still slept fine at night...
Little by little-shorten the nap time and put him to bed earlier and earlier.
We're now doing this with my 3.5 year old because he was also having a hard time falling asleep at night and, selfishly, he has an older sister who no longer naps, so we're ready to not be tied to the house in the middle of the day! He still naps at school, so I feel he's getting catch up time there.
We found it helpful to go for a drive later in the afternoon, if that's possible. I don't know if your son is a "car sleeper" put both my kids zonk out if they're tired and we're driving. That's allowed him to grab about 30 minutes, which ties him over but it doesn't feel like we're waking him up.
It'll be a little trial and error, I think. My daughter was a hot mess when she stopped napping. The whole afternoon was a disaster for a while. My son is much more flexible about sleep. He has moments of crankiness, but for the most part, if we just push his bedtime down a bit he can rally. Hopefully it's the same for you. Good luck!
We had to do this recently with our son too, he loved his nap. Our kindergarten does not do quiet time or nap time, so I was concerned. I started by shortening his nap, but that was unsuccessful. He doesn't like for me to wake him up before he is ready and it was melt down city. So we changed it to quiet time, no naps. Since his younger sister still needs a nap he was allowed to do quiet activities or play in our back yard. For about two weeks we had to move his bedtime up about an hour because the crankiness set it. But after that he slowly went back to his old schedule. He still occasionally takes a nap, but usually he enjoys the being allowed to miss it now.
My 5 y/o doesn't have nap time at Kindergarten either... so as SOON as we get home, she eats a snack and takes a nap. 3:30-5:30 everyday after school. With all the running, learning, growing, etc she's doing, she needs all the sleep she can get. We go to bed as a unit (still bed-share until we put her new bed together) between 9:30-10pm.
I always needed naps as a child all the way up to now, at 31 y/o. Some people just do better with naps. I'm sure you will find out if your son is one of them when you try to take out the naps.
I have never heard of a kindergarten that didn't have a scheduled nap/rest time. they usually start weaning the kids after Christmas and hopefully by the end of the school year they are no longer taking naps. I have 31 ear old daughter and have over 10 years in child care with mostly school agers. I have worked in several cities and dealt with kindergarten schools each time and every one of them do naps.
If your child still naps like that he still needs the nap. I child care he will be required to rest at nap time until he finishes. To me it seems you may be fighting an uphill battle. If he is taking naps everywhere else his body is used to it and it will be a struggle to change the routine at home.
My middle child was my best napper. His daycare teacher and kindergartner teacher would comment on his long naps. In kindergarten the teacher would have to wake him up sometimes. I just let him outgrow naps. He had plenty of sleep, just loved naps. My oldest, stop taking naps at 2 1/2 or she'd be up all night long. My youngest is the same for the most part. He's 4 now and doesn't take a nap, sometimes in the evening he gets really cranky and tries to fall asleep about 2 hours before bedtime. But if that happens then he's up in the middle of the night ready to play.
I would ask the daycare not to let him sleep as long as he does now. Maybe have them see how long he usually takes for a week, then take away 10 minutes. Then in another month take another 5 minutes away.
Good Luck!
