Three-year-old Nap Advice

My son is 3 and takes a nap at home and at daycare every day from about 12:30 to 2:30. He then goes to bed around 8:30. When on occasion he doesn't nap, he is so cranky in the evening. Good luck.

my dd gave up naps when she was 2 so i may not be much help but here's what i think. he may just growing out of the nap phase. my dd who is now 4 sometimes would get cranky between 4-5 but i started giving her vitamins after lunch and that helped a lot. sorry i don't have much advice on this but good luck.

My daughter's 3.5 and we just gave up her nap 3 weeks ago. She was doing the same thing and wouldn't go to sleep at night. I have her take a rest time on the couch daily and watch a movie in the afternoon. The first week, she fell asleep a couple of times for 45 min. and a couple of times she fell asleep around 5:00 and we woke her up after 45 min. She was VERY cranky around 4:00-5:00 for the first several days but then her sleep cycles regulated and she got used to it. We put our kids to bed around 7:45-8:15 and she sleeps until 6:30-7:30. My advice is to fight through the crakiness for a week until he gets on a night time schedule. He will start sleeping the amount he needs after several days. Our nights are much more peaceful now because she's out within 5 minutes of going to bed instead of staying up until 10:00! Good Luck!

I think a child his age needs to sleep during the day especially if he is cranky in the evenings. I would let him have an hour to hour and a half nap around 12:30. Put him down right after lunch and he will come to expect it each day. Also, try to gently wake him from his nap by playing some soft music and rubbing his back or just talking to him quietly about what we are going to do that afternoon. I hope this helps.

I liked the every-other-day nap approach from the one of the other moms.

My son napped until he was three, but my daughter stopped napping regularly around two-ish. I would send her to her room to "play" and read when she acted cranky and sometimes she would fall aleep and sometimes not! My motto was "I can't tell you how to FEEL, but I can "FEEL" when I need to tell you to go to your room for some alone time!"

I imagine it would be nicer to get him on a daily routine, especially with a home-based business!

Good luck!

I think it depends on the kid really. I know some 4 year olds that still need a nap, and some 2.5 year olds that dont! One idea might be to have a nap every other day, which is how we do it when we first start losing naps. For example, if he wakes up at 7 or so lets say, then that day he takes a nap, but he may not go to bed until around 9pm. Because of that, my kids normally wake up later in the morning, so we can skip a nap, but then it is early bed time for sure! Well..obviously, early to bed means early to rise, and the cycle starts all over again!! Eventually they only nap when I can tell they need it, but they still make up for it at night time..sleeping 12-13 hours or so at least!! Maybe try letting him nap for an hour, instead of just 30 min..my DH, the sleep expert:) says that we either need a 10-15 min nap for a refresher..or at least an hour to get through a full sleep cycle. Waking him up at half an hour means you are trying to wake him up during REM sleep..which is never a good idea. There will be an adjustment period no matter what you do, and even still my 5 year old gets super cranky around 5pm..she would nap if I would let her at that time, but obviously that is not happening. Also, be sure he is getting plenty to eat..esp. at his grumpiest times..if dinner is even half an hour late, I have to give my kids an apple or something, they get grumpy when they are hungry too. Hope that helps some, good luck with your blessed, blended family! I cant imagine 7, but we are on our 5th, and would not have it any other way!! ~A.~

In my day care all the children are ready to sleep after lunch. We have lunch at 12 but I called other day cares that eat at 11 and they go down at 11:30. They all sleep for 2 and half hours. I have a 5 yr old that mom says do not let him sleep long. What is happening there is he will not sleep until about the time the other kids are waking up. So I will not let him sleep past 2 hours. The state says no more then 3 hrs. Other parents to 2 yr olds say they see no difference if I put them down at 12:30 or 11:30. What I really think is mean is to wake them all up. When we sleep we wake up when we are ready. It also says that if a child is in physical need let them sleep. But we play so hard here and with interaction and mental learning they get tired and if they sleep a morning nap which younger ones do I will wake them up so they will do a nap in the afternoon. Some times one sleeps too long in the morning and off schedule and will play quietly while others sleep but I try to avoid it as I need a nap too. They are all wild after full. Also if I wait a little all the dirty diapers get changed and they sleep better. If not they will dirty diapers in sleep and wake up sooner. Sounds like you really have your hands full but God will help you and instincts are built in. So much advice from people with degrees who do not even have children and have no clue. I found this over and over in professionals. So do what your gut tells you. God Bless G. W

A rest time sounds good, and then if he falls asleep good, but a lot of kids this age, won't sleep over an hour, if that long. I would say if he does take a nap then a later bed time would be in order, but if he has got to where he doesn't nap in the day, some stop that at an early age, then an extra early bed time would be in order. One of my children went to bed at 9 p.m. and other people told me they had their kids in bed by 7. I would of never been able to get her to bed that early , she just wasn't sleepy, so each child is different. Another of my children went to bed much earlier. I know some people have a bed time period, but my children were so different in when they were tired for a nap and bed time that I had to have different ones for them, as I could see that it wasn't spoiled it was just that they weren't sleepy, so it was no big deal for me to have different bed times for them, besides you can have a tuck in time with each so anyway that is just a suggestion.

Hi B.,

What a fantastic family you have. My husband would be jealous if he knew. He came from a big blended family too...his dad had two, his mom had two...then they had my husband and his brother. He has fond memories of his childhood because of that. You're giving those kids so much more than just stability and routine.

Okay, that all said, I can tell you that my eldest daughter started not napping every day at about 31/2. My second daughter is that age now and hasn't seen a nap in forever but that is because she and her sister share a room and it's hard to convince her that she's younger (there's only 15 months difference between them!) The best advice I ever got was that time doesn't really matter to kids just so long as there is a routine. As long as they know that every day after dinner it's time to brush their teeth and get their jammies on..it doesn't matter what time you eat dinner at...even if it's different times each night.

I don't know if any of this is really advice or helpful. I guess I just wanted you to know that I'm incredibly impressed with your great big heart and to hang in there!

M.