Dropping naps can be scary- you don’t want to do it when your little one isn’t actually ready and you end up with an overtired monster, but don’t want to wait too long and the unneeded nap time impacts night sleep. What to do??
Around 15-18 months your toddler may be ready to drop their morning nap and only take one nap over lunch time. But how do you know they are ready? And why do we drop the morning one, can’t that one stay?
Signs they are ready to drop a nap:
· It’s really hard to settle them for the morning nap,
o
They may be still very awake and alert,
eventually falling asleep after 30+ minutes which then pushes the whole day’s
routine later and later, OR
o
They may not settle at all and instead play in
the cot for the full nap time or get upset because you keep trying to settle
them and they don’t want to be settled!
·
They have the morning nap but don’t settle for
the lunch nap
o
Again they may take a really long time to settle
down and finally go to sleep or completely refuse the nap
o
They aren’t sleeping for as long as they used to
for the lunch nap.
·
Bedtime is becoming a struggle, taking a long
time to settle and go to sleep.
·
They are waking early in the mornings.
Why drop the morning nap?
By this stage the morning nap is probably only 20-30 minutes long whereas the lunch nap is probably 1.5-2 hours long. The morning nap is more of a quick refresh to help them get to the longer lunch nap which is far more restorative, and helps them to reduce the sleep pressure until bedtime. If you dropped the lunch nap, there would be a really long stretch of awake time across the afternoon and your little one would struggle to make it to bedtime without becoming overtired.
How to drop a nap:
If your child is still on the younger side (closer to 15 months) then you could begin by shortening their morning nap by 5-10 minutes and see how that impacts things. If they settle much easier and there are no other impacts to their sleep (like harder to settle at bedtime or waking earlier in the morning) then keep the nap at this length for a while, until other changes are noticed.
If your child is closer to 18 months and only napping 15-20 minutes anyway, try removing the nap and see how they fair. You may find that they can handle a day or two without the morning nap just fine, but seem tired every couple of days and need to take the morning nap to get through. Doing this ‘2-1 dance’ is fine- read your child and their tired cues and do what you need to. If you remove the morning nap and they are really tired by 10.30-11am most days, they may not have been ready to drop the nap and you can put it back into their routine and try again in a couple of weeks.
In the first week or so of only one nap you may want to bring the lunch nap earlier by 15-30 minutes, edging bedtime back to the normal time by the end of the first week. Otherwise keep an eye on how tired they are by bedtime and offer an earlier bedtime by 15-30 minutes for the first week.
Each child will be ready to drop their nap at different times, and each child will respond differently. Do what they need at the pace they need and eventually you’ll find the routine that works for them and your family.
If the idea of dropping to one nap frightens you and you
want a little more guidance on how to make it work for your child and family,
get in touch now! We can come up with a plan that will suit everyone in your
home.