Dropping a nap can be tricky but it doesn’t need to be. It may take your little one a bit of time to adjust and they may need still need the nap they dropped occasionally and that is okay.
Ages to drop the naps-
- Your little one will go from 3 to 2 naps around 6-7 months of age.
- They will go from 2 to 1 nap around 15-18 months.
- The last nap will likely go about 2.5-3 years.
Knowing when to drop the nap –
Their will be a few indicators it is time to drop the nap. You may see all of the indicators, or you might just see one. The indicators are –
- refusing the nap, they may just stop having the nap.
- waking for an extended time overnight, they may not be upset but just awake for an hour or possibly even more in the night. It will likely be between 12am -4am
- not tired at bedtime, you put them into bed and they much longer then normal to settle to sleep.
- they wake early in the morning.
Now some of these indicators particular the early morning waking and struggling to settle to sleep at bedtime can also indicate being overtired. If you would like a sample routine let me know or type it in the search bar in the Facebook group.
Actually, dropping the nap-
When you stop giving your little one a nap they may need an earlier bedtime as they adjust to having less day sleep. This will prevent them being overtired. When going from 1 nap to no naps you might try reducing the nap before completely dropping it. Reducing it by 30 minutes at a time.