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The Best Ages for Dropping Baby's Naps

This post discusses the best ages for dropping naps for your baby or child. 

Dropping a nap is always a little bitter sweet (along with a bit scary--are you doing the right thing?!!?). On one hand, it was nice to have that quiet time to get various other things done without the "help" of the child at that moment. On the other, every nap dropped is an opening to more flexibility and freedom for the family.

The Best Ages for Dropping Naps | baby naps | baby sleep | #droppingnaps

Babies on a typical 3 hour routine have 4 naps by my estimation. I consider going to sleep around 7 PM or later to be "bedtime" and not naptime. I will walk you through the ages for dropping all 4 naps.

Ages for Dropping Naps

The 4th Nap
The fourth nap is typically dropped around 4 months old. Pretty easy to remember, right? The range is 3-5 months with four months being the most common. This nap is the most predictable across all types of babies. Both high-sleep needs and low-sleep needs babies tend to drop this nap right around four months old. This is the most consistent age for nap-dropping. Across the board, most babies do this close to 4 months old. 

The 3rd Nap
The next nap is to drop is the 3rd. This nap might be a short nap for a while before you actually stop having it altogether. The average age for this nap being dropped is 8 months. The range is typically 6-10 months. You can see this is a longer range than the 4th nap was. There is also a lot more variation among babies for exactly when this nap is dropped. See Dropping 3rd Nap Impact and Dropping the 3rd Nap (evening) for more on this nap. 

The 1st Nap
The next nap you drop is the first nap, or morning nap. The average age for dropping the morning nap this is close to 18 months. The range is huge. Some are 14 months and some are closer to 2 years old. The age of dropping this nap has a huge variance. Some people even find their baby does best dropping this nap younger than 14 months (though this is very few). See Dropping the Morning Nap Guide for more on dropping the morning nap.

The Only Nap
By the time you get to dropping your one and only nap, it is just "the" nap. One nap a day goes on for years. The dropping of the one nap goes very slowly, and ideally you will move from it being a "nap" and turn it into a "rest time." Usually, a 2 year old will sometimes just play through the nap instead of sleep. This might not start until closer to 3 years old. This starts a long process of dropping the nap slowly. I still put my child down for a nap every day during this transition unless we have something going on, like a family party or a day out. I make these exceptions but I know that a nap can be missed without the child losing it completely.

As your child gets older, this nap becomes more often a rest time than a nap. Sometime between 4 and 5, you will most likely find most days are a rest and not a nap. You then officially consider this time rest time. See Dropping Naps: Moving To Rest Time and How to Know When Your Child is Ready to Stop Napping for more on this topic.

Rest Time
Then the question becomes, when do you drop rest time for good? The answer is completely up to you and what your days end up looking like. I hold on to rest time until sometime during Kindergarten. We have half-day Kindergarten here, so rest time can still happen for us, but we typically stop having it daily during the Kindergarten year. See When To Drop Rest Time for more on when to drop rest time. 

We still have rest time every Sunday for our children on up to the oldest child (and subsequently, parents!). I will still do rest time on days I think a child could use a nap. I say we will have rest time that day and the child will usually fall asleep. I sometimes re-institute rest time during summer break, also. With older children, I often just do Sustained Silent Reading and let that count as rest time and SSR time. Let rest time be something that aides your child and you in having a good day. It does not need to become a source of guilt. Rest time is a great thing to have in your day if it makes sense for
your family. 

Summary of When to Drop Naps:


  • Fourth nap: Dropped between 3-5 months old. Usually at four months.
  • Third nap: Dropped between 6-10 months old. Average at eight months, though there is a wide variation.
  • First nap: Dropped between 14-24 months. Average is 18, though there is a wide variation.
  • Only nap: Dropped between 3-5 years. Most right around around age four. This is a long process to drop. Move to rest time once this is "dropped".
  • Rest Time: Can be as early as Kindergarten and as late as never. 
For more help on dropping naps, see these posts:
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Dropping Naps Ages {Poll Results Post}

Dropping Naps Ages {Poll Results Post}
For so much of your baby's first 18 months of life, you spend time wondering if it is time to drop the nap yet. A great way to keep on top of when is best to drop the nap is to know what the average age is. It is also very helpful to know what the outliers ages were and how that worked out (for example, if a child dropped a nap months earlier than usual, did the child still sleep well for naps and night).

Here are the results from this poll. Please feel free to comment below with your own experience. You can see the full, original comments here. 

1-What age did your baby move from 4 naps to 3 naps each day?
3 Months: 3
4 Months: 7
7 Months: 1
Don't remember: 2

2-What age did your baby go from 3 naps to 2 naps each day?
6 Months: 4
7 Months: 1
8 Months: 4
10 Months: 1
11 Months: 2

3-What age did your child go from 2 naps to 1 nap each day?
13 Months: 1
14 Months: 2
15 Months: 1
18 Months: 2
20 Months: 1
N/A: 5

4-What age did your child go from napping most days to to not napping most days (whether doing rest time instead or just not napping)?
3 Years: 3
4 Years: 3
N/A: 6

5-What age was your child done napping consistently?
3.5 Years: 1
4: 1
5: 3
N/A: 7

6-Any tips, advice, and/or words of wisdom for parents out there?
Christina said: Any tips, advice, and/or words of wisdom for parents out there?
Don't fear losing naps. When you drop a nap, your baby will usually compensate by sleeping better at night or napping longer for the other nap(s). I remember dreading it with my daughter and found that even while constantly sick while pregnant, it wasn't as bad as I thought (time she dropped naps entirely). It is a wise idea to institute daily room time or daily quiet time, though, for non-nappers. They need to learn how to respect YOUR time.

You will know your baby's ready to drop a nap when he/she consistently won't sleep a few times a week for several weeks in a row. Right now I can tell my son is close to dropping his morning nap (though not completely there yet) because when he does take two naps, they are usually 45-60 minutes at the most and he won't fall asleep as easily at bedtime (and will just sleep 10.5 hours a night instead of 11 or 11.5 hours). I know he's not fully there yet, though, because on some days, he gets incredibly fussy at naptime and actually does sleep. So not fully there yet but close!

My daughter was ready to drop naps when she stopped napping every day and did quiet room time instead. We got to where she'd take one nap a week and the other days were room time days. I'd set rules for her (quiet activities only, stay in your room unless you need to use the bathroom, let Mommy have HER quiet time), and if she broke a rule, I re-set the timer. Worked like a charm!

But honestly, dropping or eventually eliminating all naps is nowhere near as bad as I used to think it would be. 

Jennifer said: We found that what worked well for our daughter was to extend wake time incrementally until there just wasn't time for the last nap of the day. That's even working now at almost 18 months. She's now awake usually 3.75 hours for each wake time, meaning that she naps right up until lunchtime, and sometimes her evening nap goes later than is usually recommended. However, she still sleeps fine at night, so we go with it. At some point we'll have to bite the bullet and not nap before lunch and do the one nap right after lunch and make bedtime earlier, but at this point, she has not shown that she's ready for that change to happen. I think because her naps have always been 1-1.5 hours each (and now they are usually just one hour each), she is on the late side for dropping naps since she needs the sleep. If she napped longer, perhaps she would have been ready to drop earlier, if that makes sense.

Jessie said:If your baby's sleep is off for a few weeks, it's probably time for a change. Also, we wanted to preserve bedtime, so we probably dropped naps earlier because we were okay with earlier bedtimes for awhile.

We are in the midst of dropping to one nap at 13 months. It is definitely on the young side, but he has always dropped early and is well rested. Doing 2 naps every day makes for early mornings and a cranky baby but doing one nap for more than 2 days in a row ALSO results in early mornings and crankiness :) Alternating days keeps him happy and well rested.

Natalie said: We knew it was nearing time to drop a nap when she started to struggle against the last nap of the day. She eventually would just not go to sleep. At first her bed time would be earlier, but we would progressively lengthen her wake times to compensate. And she made up for the missing nap with the extra sleep from the early bed time.

PESTAG said: Waketime needed to increase because naps lengths were shortening due to undertired. As waketime increased, naps were dropped naturally because there wasn't time in the day for a nap to occur. We used Sleepwise Consulting's method of dropping to one nap, which can be found on their website. It worked seamlessl

Lisa said: No real advice but interested to hear what others said. We went from 4-3 gradually as it was in the middle of leap 4 so I was happy to be getting any naps out of her. By the end of the leap she went from 4-3 with no hassle.

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Dropping Naps Ages {Poll Discussion Post}

For so much of your baby's first 18 months of life, you spend time wondering if it is time to drop the nap yet. A great way to keep on top of when is best to drop the nap is to know what the average age is. It is also very helpful to know what the outliers ages were and how that worked out (for example, if a child dropped a nap months earlier than usual, did the child still sleep well for naps and night).

Please take a moment to answer the questions below. Doing so will help other parents now and in the future. It is very helpful for me when compiling answers if you at least number the answers you give. You can also copy the questions and answer them. If the question does not apply to you, simply put "N/A."

1-What age did your baby move from 4 naps to 3 naps each day?
2-What age did your baby go from 3 naps to 2 naps each day?
3-What age did your child go from 2 naps to 1 nap each day?
4-What age did your child go from napping most days to to not napping most days (whether doing rest time instead or just not napping)?
5-What age was your child done napping consistently?
6-Any tips, advice, and/or words of wisdom for parents out there?
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Preschoolers and Naps


In the preschool age group, "naps" vary among the children more than any other age group. One three year old may be done napping 99% of the time while the next three year old turns into a swamp monster if the nap is missed. This post contains affiliate links. If you read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (affiliate link) under preschool naps, you will see that "Years Three to Six: Naps Disappear" (page 338). Guys, that is a three year spread of when naps disappear. Remember the spread of dropping to one nap? 14-20 months of age seemed like a huge range. Instead of six months, we are talking three years. So how exactly do you navigate the naps for your individual preschooler?

What Age Will Your Preschooler Drop the Nap?
As I just said, the age of dropped naps is a three year spread. While it is normal to have the age of dropping the nap spread quite a bit, there are some very common consistencies.
  • Most three year olds still nap (91 percent according to Weissbluth). 
  • Half of the four year olds will still nap.
  • Only about 25 percent of the five year olds still nap. 
  • Most six year olds do not nap (page 338).
For most of you, your child will stop napping as a four year old. There are outliers. Some will stop at three and some will stop at 6. Four is a good anchor age, however. 

What Are Signs Your Preschooler is Ready to Drop the Nap?
Look for signs of readiness that your preschooler is ready to drop the nap time; however, always remember you are the parent. Most preschoolers aren't going to thank you for having nap time each day. Some might love it. I had one child who was that way. Some might seem kind of neutral or just resigned to understanding that is life. I had one like that, also. Many will hate it and fight with every ounce of power they have--even mentally and physically. I had two who used every ability of cunning as could be dreamed up to try to get out of naps. I say that to say, you need to lead out on when it is dropped, not your child. You are the parent and you get to decide. Decide based on your observation skills. 

  • Your preschooler will stop napping altogether, or may still nap but stop sleeping well at night. If the latter is the case, you might start with shortening the nap rather than cutting it altogether.
  • If you drop the nap and your child slowly gets less obedient and more grumpy, do not write it off as being a "three year old" or "emotional four year old." There is an excellent chance your child is acting out because he/she wasn't actually ready to not nap at all.
Please be wary of dropping a nap in order to add in extra-curricular activities. If your child is truly ready to drop and activities are available to do at the old nap time, that is totally fine. Do not, however, drop a nap in order to start an activity. If you can't move that nap, do not do the activity. I promise delaying the activity by a year will not prevent your child from a lifetime of happiness and achievement in that area. 

What Should You Do When Your Preschooler is Ready to Drop the Nap?

  • Be aware that you will likely need to add sleep to your child's night. This might mean an earlier bedtime, and/or it might mean your child needs to sleep in later in the morning. If neither of these things is possible in your life at the moment, hold off on dropping that nap. 
  • Keep a rest time. Rest time is your insurance policy to provide a time for naps to happen as needed. They also allow your child to get a mental and physical break even if not sleeping. My youngest is currently four years old, and she cannot have a skipped rest time and maintain being pleasant past 7 PM. If we have something scheduled beyond 7 PM, I am absolutely sure to get rest time in there. 
Related Posts: 
How to do rest time instead of naps

How to know when your child is ready to stop napping


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What to Do When Your Toddler Refuses to Take a Nap


"But I don't want to sleep! I want to plaaaayyyy!" Does this phrase have a familiar ring to it? It is quite common for a toddler to start to decide nap-time is not quite fun-time. Staying awake is much more exciting and interesting. 

You might take this resistance to nap time as a sign that it is time to drop naps all together. (This post contains affiliate links). Before you take that step, please reconsider! In the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, Weissbluth says, "Between twenty-two and thirty-six months, most children still need to nap" (page 313). I fully agree with this. Wants and needs are very different things, and just because your child doesn't want to nap, doesn't mean your child doesn't need to nap.

Of course the process of keeping the nap in place is easier said than done. So what should your do when your child wants to drop that nap but you still need nap to happen?

1-Do Not Drop It
I have been told how lucky I am that my children nap until they are quite old. This is no luck! Do not not be fooled; I have had some resistance to naps over the years. Of course a toddler has better things in mind other than napping! They want to delay, prevent, and stop the nap at all costs. Little toddlers get quite creative. Some get quite angry. 

But you don't drop it. You stick with it. Keep nap time in place if you want nap time to continue. 

For help knowing when to drop naps, see my post on how to know when your child is ready to stop napping. When your child is ready to cut back on napping, implement rest time. You have some time yet before you will be totally dropping this chunk of time in the afternoon known as nap time. 

2-Have Enough Physical and Mental Stimulation
Your child will sleep better if you have some activity in the morning that challenges her mentally. Learning activities will help work her brain and give her body need of sleep to process what she has learned. You also want physical movement. Gross motor movement. Go for a walk. Blow bubbles for her to chase. Get a little trampoline for inside the house or a ball house so she can move and get physically tired.

3-Analyze Nap Start Time
Your child will show the least amount of resistance to nap time if you get the start time of naps correct. This takes us back to thinking about waketime length just like we did with babies. Some children are incredibly sensitive to the timing of this nap. When Brayden was a toddler, we had a ten minute window, and if I didn't meet it, nap didn't happen that day. He stayed awake. Keep a log and find patterns for when nap works and when it doesn't.

4-Analyze Bedtime
A possible reason for no naps is having bedtime either too early or too late. It can be either one, so you will need to experiment with earlier or later bedtime to see if that solves the issue.

5-Be Honest With Yourself
Weissbluth says, "Ask yourself whether napping is your child's problem or your problem" (page 327). This is a moment where you need to be really honest with yourself. Do you have a hard time being home each day for nap time? If so, you are not providing the consistency your child needs to get a nap in. I promise your day will come when you will have the freedom to take off and go shopping, go out to eat, or just run errands during the afternoon. For now, get out in the morning hours if you must get out and be home in time for nap.

6-Be Aware of Sleep Regressions
Two year olds often have a sleep regression. It is normal, it happens, and it isn't anything to freak out about. Remember back to the four month sleep regression? Baby's sleep went crazy? You are facing the same thing. Sometimes the answer is to just keep going as you have and wait for the regression to end.

Why Not Drop the Nap?
You might be thinking the effort to keep the nap is too great or that it would actually be really nice to be done with naps. So why not just drop it?

Dropping sleep before the child is ready for it leads to a sleep deficit. Sleep begets sleep, and in the same way, lack of sleep leads to lack of sleep. The child who should be napping but isn't will eventually start having a hart time falling asleep at night or start waking earlier and earlier in the mornings. Sleep deficits usually take a few weeks to build up, so you often don't put the cause and effect together.

Conclusion
Your toddler won't always thank you. Your toddler probably won't thank you at all for requiring sleep! When your little one emphatically proclaims that she doesn't want to sleep, gently tell her you know that, you understand it, but her body needs sleep.

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When To Drop Rest Time


Looking back to those early newborn days, did you ever think you would make it to this point? The point where you wondered if it is time to stop the rest time all together for your child? Those early days, the minutes crawled by at times, but in retrospect, the years have flown by. 

First your child naps. That napping basically consumes your life. Between tracking that, feedings, and diapers, sometimes it is hard to remember if you brushed your teeth or not that day. As time goes on, things mellow out and become pretty predictable (other than all those times your child drops a nap). I have a quick reference for you in nap dropping.

Then somewhere around four years old, your child is basically done with naps and starts to do rest time instead. Because your child is still growing and still needs rest, and also because sometimes four year olds can be a tiny bit emotional (like the other day when Brinley was crying, looked in the mirror and exclaimed in devastation, "I don't want TEARS on my face!" That's a four year old for you). You need a break. They need a break. It's good for everyone. For every detail you could ever wish for on rest time, see this post.

Now you are at a point when even rest time might be a thing of the past. How do you know?

The very good news is that dropping rest time is going to be about the easiest decision you have ever made as a parent. Glory in this moment. 

I dropped rest time, for most days, when my children entered Kindergarten. Not the first day. In the beginning weeks, the little ones come home from Kindergarten so very tired! They need a nap, and rest time gives them that chance. 

If your child has full day Kindergarten or afternoon Kindergarten, you don't have a lot of chance other than to have your child drop rest time on school days. But if not, let your child adjust to school for a couple of weeks before considering letting rest time drop.

Why do I drop rest time then? It seems like as the child adjusts to the demands of school, he/she is typically ready to drop it around that age. If the child is ready, I drop it just so we have more time to be together during the day. 

Sometimes a child really needs some alone time. You can still continue on Independent Playtime so your child can still have some alone time. 

Now it is time for me to make a really key point.

You are still the parent, and therefore, even after rest time is not a normal thing each and every day, you can have rest time any day you see fit. If your child is grumpy one day and seems super tired, you can inform you child that he/she will be having rest time, even if he/she hasn't had it for 6 weeks straight. You are the grown-up in the relationship and responsible for making those kind of calls. 

Our church time changes each year. This year, it is from 1-4 PM. Starting in January, it will go back to 9-12 AM. Hallelujah! We love the 9 AM slot. The last time we had 9 AM, we had rest time for the entire family almost every Sunday. We would come home, eat some lunch, and have rest time for 30 minutes. Fantastic. We plan to do the same thing this January. 

Rest time is a tool for you to use when your child just needs a rest. Younger children, around 4-5, really need some downtime each day. As they get older, the physical need isn't necessarily there so much. You might find a personal need, especially if you have a newborn at home and need time to take a 30 minute nap or something. Use the tool as your child needs it and as you need it. Once neither of you need it anymore, feel free to drop it and enjoy the freedom of no daytime sleep constraints!

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How to do rest time

How to know when your child is ready to stop napping


independent playtime for the school-aged child


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How to Do Rest Time {Instead of Naps}

Once your child is ready to drop a nap, that does not mean that your days of a bit of quiet time in the afternoon are over. Even if a child doesn't need to sleep each afternoon, the child will greatly benefit from some quiet time to rest and be alone. Your child will be able to recharge and it can help him have a happy attitude through the rest of the day. Follow this link for help on knowing when your child is ready to drop that nap.

Brinley (age 4) did her first official rest time this past week and she was so thrilled to have something that wasn't a nap. She is not ready to be rest time at full time, but it will work for some days. 

So what should rest time look like? 

WHO? 
Rest time is typically started with four year olds. Before that, you might have days that look like rest time, but still call it naps with your child. If you are totally confident that your three year old does not need naps anymore, you might call it rest time as a three year old. But read through this post and be sure your child is ready. 

Rest time can be done by children (and adults!) of all ages. We often still have a family rest time on Sundays when our church is in the morning hours. Since my children go to school, we don't have it each day. We don't have it in the summer each day, either, but if someone is having an emotional day during the summer or on a Saturday, we will have a rest time. That child always emerges happier and more pleasant. 

WHAT? 
Rest time is a time when your child goes to a restful place and lies down. You will still want similar rules to nap time. Your child should stay in bed (or on the couch--see the Where? section below for more on that) until you get him or until the clock hits a certain time if your child can tell time. 

You can give your child books to look at. I always either leave blinds open or leave the light on low if the room has a dimmer so the child can see the books. I don't want bright light on because I want the child to sleep if he gets tired. 

WHEN?
Rest time should be in the afternoon right about when the nap used to be. It can be as short as 30 minutes. It might be as long as 60 minutes. 

If your child falls asleep, you will want to get him up when the nap would have ended. You might give him an extra 30-45 minutes, but you don't want rest time nap to lead to no sleeping at night. 

If your child doesn't not sleep, watch behavior that evening and know you might need an early bedtime and put your child to bed 30-60 minutes early if he seems like he needs it. 

WHERE?
Rest time is ideally still in your child's bed. That isn't always the best place when you add in all factors, however. If your child shares a room with a sibling, you will probably want the child doing rest time to do rest time somewhere else. 

Your child could do rest time in the family room on the couch if it is a place your child will not see you. Another great option is your bed. The great thing about rest time is that on those days your child is tired, your child can take a nap, so you want rest time to be in a location where the child can fall asleep if needed. You also want your child to really be able to rest and not be distracted by what is going on in the house. 

HOW?
I do an abbreviated sleep routine before rest time with Brinley. Instead of two stories, we read one. With my older kids, I usually just took them in and had them do rest time without much of a routine at all. I always had a baby to take care of when the older kids were doing rest time, so I liked to keep the routine short. 

WHY?
The body and brain still need rest each day. A child is at a hundred miles per hour from the time he wakes up each day. A rest time gives him the chance to fall asleep if sleep is needed and if not, it just gives him a chance to sit and be rather still. Children often need more sleep during growth spurt times, which still happen frequently through childhood, so rest time offers that daily break to have that nap happen when it is needed.

It also gives you a break each day to do what you need with it. Rest yourself. Take a shower. Make some phone calls. Maybe you need it for time to be able to focus on a baby or an older sibling. 

CONCLUSION
Rest time is a great chance for everyone in the family to get a little break. You will be so happy you used that in your daily routine, and it will be of benefit to your child as well!

Related Posts:
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When to drop rest time

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How to Know When Your Child is Ready to Stop Napping


One of the biggest mistakes parents make with napping is allowing the nap to drop to no naps a day too early. It is not uncommon for parents to say, "My child decided she was done taking naps at age two! You are so lucky your four year old is still napping!"

It might be something you fear (how will I ever get anything done?!?). It might be something you eagerly anticipate (freedom to leave when I want to!). Ready or not, the day will come when your child will no longer need a nap each day. We all know it will come. The big question is when? What age? How do you know when your child is ready?

SIGNS OF READINESS
  1. Age: Age is a huge factor. Two year olds still need to have a nap each day. They might not sleep every day, and they very well might fight you on it, but nap should be a part of the normal routine. A two year old is not old enough to decide if sleep is best for him/her or not. Most three year olds should still have nap as their normal routine. A three year old will definitely not sleep each day, but still call it a nap and put her down. Do not stress when she doesn't sleep. Age four is the most common age to be read to drop one nap a day. At age four, you might start cutting out nap if your child is ready. However. I strongly recommend rest time and not just dropping naps from the daily routine (see section below for more on this). 
  2. Attitude:  A huge sign to you on readiness for nap dropping is how is your child's behavior in
    the evening and the next day after skipping a nap? If your child is still able to be obedient and continue on with her normal disposition, then skipping nap works for her. If she becomes an emotional wreck, starts trying to annoy people on purpose, or starts disobeying you uncharacteristically, then you know she was not ready to be without a nap.
  3. Sleep Patterns: Another sign to watch is the sleep patterns. Does your child sleep at nap? If so, does your child sleep well at night? If naps seem to make it so your child doesn't sleep well at night, take a log for a couple of weeks before you decide to take action. Actually write things down. You don't want to think naps are interfering, be wrong, and drop the nap. That will lead to sleep and discipline troubles. If you do think naps are trouble after a couple of weeks, start with shortening the nap and see if that is enough. 
  4. Sleep Needs: Different children have different total sleep needs. Some need the lower end of normal, while some need the higher end of normal. Among my children, I have a wide range. You might assume that a child with low sleep needs will be dropping the one nap a day earlier than those with high sleep needs. That might be true, but my two low sleep needs children still napped daily at age four. Sometimes the less sleep a child is getting at night, the more he will need a nap in the day. 

WHAT TO DO
When your child is ready to drop that one nap and be nap-free, it is very wise to still have a rest time each day. In the very beginning of dropping this nap, your child slept most days and stayed awake some. As time went on, your child stayed awake most days and slept some. There will still be days a child who is no longer napping will need a nap. Those will be rough days if your child doesn't have the opportunity to sleep. 

When you have rest time, your child is in bed or a location where sleep can happen if needed. The location should be private and free from distractions. This way, if the child is tired, she can have a nap that day. Rest time should be at the same time each day and in the same location as much as possible. Rest time is a great time to allow your child to look at a stack of books. Rest time should be for 30-60 minutes. 

Please remember that you can be flexible. When your child is ready to move to rest time, you might want to take off one afternoon to go do something out of the house, even though it is over rest time. This is absolutely okay! Just like your child could miss nap some days, your child can now miss rest time some days. Just make sure if you are home, rest time happens. Also make sure that your child doesn't get to decide whether or not rest time happens. YOU are the parent and YOU decide. 

CONCLUSION
The day will come when your child is ready and able to drop to zero naps a day. Be sure your child is actually ready to do so before you drop that nap. When you do drop it, continue on a rest time in the place of nap time so your child can still have a physical and mental break each day to recharge. 

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Dropping Naps: A Quick Guide

Sometimes you just want information quickly. Sometimes you basically know what you are doing (like when it isn't your first child) and you just need a refresher. Sometimes you have no clue what you are doing (like when it IS your first child) and you just want a basic idea of what the road ahead will look like for you.

A quick guide for dropping naps
It is for both of these scenarios that I made this quick guide. I hope this will help you in your parenting life. I hope it makes things just a little bit easier. 

I know some people really like hard copies of things. I made a printable version and uploaded it to my Drive account. You can get your free copy here.

I have also added it to my eBook, Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Book of Logs. When you purchase these, this sheet will be included. If you have already purchased, you can download for free at the link above. 

If you want further details on any nap dropping, see these posts:



If you still have questions, please ask! When I get the same questions over and over, I know I have a gap in my information and I work to fix it. So ask away!
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Dropping the Morning Nap Guide


I put it off as long as I possibly could. I NEEDED that extra break each day. Moving usually meant puking, and my little pretoddler boy was a mover. The day finally came when I had to face the music so to speak. I had to drop my child's morning nap.

And what a glorious thing it was! Not only did it make it easier to fit in everything we wanted to in a day, but it made it so he took a longer afternoon nap. That meant a longer period of rest for me as a pregnant mamma, which was just what I needed.

I have come to find that I always love moving to one nap a day. It seems scary, but it opens up life in a whole new way. You get the ENTIRE MORNING open to do things without your child needing to sleep. It often seems like an eternity since that was possible. So while it may scare you a bit, trust me that there are fantastic things that come with the one nap schedule. 

But how do you go about dropping the nap? And how do you know baby is ready to drop the nap? 

Age Range
The age range for dropping the morning nap is pretty wide. Your child will be ready between 14-22 months. There are always outliers. There will be some 13 month olds ready and there will be some 23 month olds you are trying to convince to move to one nap.

At least once each week, I get asked essentially, "I think my 10 month old is ready to drop his morning nap. Should I do it?" 

It really is almost always a 10 month old, though sometimes it is an 11 or 12 month old. I strongly recommend against dropping the morning nap before your child is one year old. Very strongly. Usually when people drop that nap too young, they create a sleep problem that spirals for months. 

If your child is 10 months old and seems like he needs to drop a nap, he is either experiencing a sleep regression, he needs a little more waketime before naps, he is teething, or he needs playtime to be more stimulating physically and/or mentally.

If your child is 11-13 months old and seems like he needs to drop a nap, you are entering transition time. See my post Dropping the Morning Nap (from 2 to 1 naps): Transition Time. 

Transition Time
Let's discuss this transition time. Most, if not all, children go through this transition time before they are ready to fully drop the morning nap. This is true whether your child is 14 months old and starting to seem ready or 18 months old and starting to seem ready. Younger children will likely dwell in transition time longer than older ones. Be familiar with what the transition time is and how to work with it. Dropping the Morning Nap (from 2 to 1 naps): Transition Time

Readiness Signs
Your child might be ready to drop the morning nap if:
  • The morning nap goes well but the afternoon nap does not. He will not sleep well during that afternoon nap, if he sleeps at all.
  • Your child is in the correct age range for dropping the nap.
  • You have addressed the tricks for transition time and they are not working. 
Times for Afternoon Nap to Start
Initially, your child might need the afternoon nap to start as early as 12 or 12:30. If your child can't make it past that time, you are still living in transition time. 

Afternoon nap for one nap a day typically starts in the 1 PM hour somewhere, but the exact time will vary based on morning wakeup time and individual child sleep needs. The child who wakes at 7 AM will likely need nap at an earlier time than the child waking up at 8:30 AM.

Dropping the Nap Methods
Once you are ready to try dropping the nap, you might wonder how to go about it. At this point, your child has dropped a couple of naps, so the concept isn't totally new to you. Usually, however, the previously dropped naps happened when feedings were also dropped. You are entering a new world. This is the world of no nap in between feedings. Here are some methods for dropping the nap:
  • Cold Turkey: This is where you stop having a morning nap and you never look back. Again, you might start with a 12:30 nap start time but ultimately land at 1 PM after 2-4 weeks of being at one nap. Cold Turkey usually works best for the older toddlers who are dropping to one nap. If your child is 17 months or older, this is a good method for you to consider for dropping that nap.
  • Weaning Process: In a weaning process, your pre-toddler takes two naps one day, and one nap the next. You might start with 5 days a week with two naps and two with one nap. Over time, you increase the number of days that are one nap. This works well for those younger children and children who are in transition time. It can be a difficult method because days are unpredictable, but it is effective. 
Trying It Out
If you think your child might be ready for one nap, you can always give it a try. Try it for 2-3 days and reevaluate. Usually the first day will work out fine. If it continues to go fine, you are on the right path! If your child falls apart or can't stay awake, you will need to go back to transition time mentality. 

I have had children with whom I was not completely confident they were ready to drop the nap and I had to just try it and see what happened. There is no reason to feel bad if you have to "try it" to know if it works. That is often what parenting is all about; try it out and see what happens!

What to Expect
Changing sleep patterns isn't usually easy even when it is something you are ready for. Just think of how hard it is for you to change by one hour at the time change--now imagine rearranging your sleep altogether. 
  • Even a child who is ready will likely be a little tired for the first week or so. It is wise to plan your days so you are doing things your child can't fall asleep during. Be ready to entertain your child a lot during the first week or two. 
  • Initially, the one afternoon nap will most likely not be long. It will be 1.5-2 hours. As your child gets used to this new sleep pattern, your child will likely extend the nap to 2.5-4 hours long. The length will vary based on individual sleep needs and age. Expect the nap to lengthen out after 1-2 weeks. If it doesn't then, I recommend re-accessing if your child is really ready for one nap or if the start time of nap is best for your child. 
  • Bedtime might need to be earlier, at least for a while. This nap dropping is not so much getting less sleep each day as rearranging the times the child is sleeping. If the one nap is short, you might need bedtime moved up by 30-60 minutes to make up for the lost sleep. This can move back as your child extends the nap length. 
Conclusion
Dropping this nap will be a delight to you once it is done. You can have a nice independent playtime in the morning about when that first nap used to be in order to take up some of that previous nap time. You can take trips to run errands with HOURS of time available. I promise, it is lovely. While I dreaded it with my oldest, I was giddy for it with my youngest. It is a great milestone!

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Surviving Dropping Naps

The period of time when you are dropping a nap can be stressful, what with figuring out new waketime lengths, ideal nap time, and what to do to keep the baby/child happy when slightly tired. So how do people survive this time? Here are some ideas.
ACTIVITIES
  • Ali said: Outings helped with both my kiddos. With my first born dropping down to 1 nap was the hardest. We adjusted his lunch to an earlier time and usually had an outing in the morning (we needed him to get a 10-15 min cat nap). My second is a mamma's girl and is in the process of dropping the 3rd nap. I can get my shopping done in the late afternoons now!! And daddy helps distract her when he gets home until bed time.
  • Ashley said: Dropping naps has been easy for me since the "most-crutched-on" nap came during the morning and the babysitter was with Jake most of the time he was transitioning. But, being an active boy, he had extended free play, reading times, and tv time (if desperate). Warm weather is fantastic as outside time = better contented = easier to fill gaps where nap used to be. 

    On the weekends we would use those free mornings for church on Sundays (he had been going to church previously, but we went to an earlier/later service to work around his naptime), and family outings on Saturdays (ie: grocery shopping, visiting family). 

    We have a dog, and sometimes that dog provides much needed entertainment/distraction factor. Sometimes I would pull out normally off-limit items to keep J going for a little bit. This can bite back when he wants to see that item next waketime and it is back to off-limit status. I don't recommend doing that...slippery slope. 

    I try to cram all of my normal "during the previous first nap time slot" activities into the gloriously long afternoon nap time period. That has been great. I will take one nice, long, solid nap over two short-medium mediocre naps. 

    Sadly, once Jake started eating fewer meals I stopped tracking things. Big mistake on my part, I know. So, I kept things easy for on-the-hour naps/feedings, and tracked everything in my brain. Looking back, I don't know how I did it, but that is what I did.

    Daddy is a GREAT resource for when I'm tired of fighting with an overly tired baby/toddler, but we just need 10 more minutes. Daddy and J usually end up doing something involving the floor, t-rexes, piggy back rides, the dog, and tickles. Hey, it's passing the time smile emoticon
  • Jess said: We aren't down to completely dropping the first nap yet but it's been the hardest to navigate. The vet things we strive for with scheduling (getting tired at the same time every day) also seems to be a hurdle for us. Fortunately with it being in the morning, we do grocery shopping or story time at the library etc. Something that is interesting enough to get over the initial hurdle
  • Laurie said: I found having a more structured routine helped with dropping naps!! For example maybe story time or music time!
  • Jana Lee said: My son loves eating so we really take a long time with feeding to fill time lol. I will give him his bottle then play, then purees then play a little and then maybe some frozen fruit in a mesh feeder to fill time.
    Walks also!
  • Joelle said: Go for a walk, to the park, pool... It helps baby stay awake, have fun and maybe forget that he's tired. Also playtime with siblings/daddy works! It takes a couple of days but at the end, you'll have a happy cooing baby!!
  • Steffi said: I'm very intentional now that we've dropped the morning nap about which part of my housework I can do with my kiddo. During her IP time I do some housework and when we are together, we fold laundry, cook (she can snack on some veggies that I cut) or run errands.
  • Kelli said: Leaving the house helped us. (But not far, so they didn't fall asleep on the way home!)
  • Katie said: Room time or ip time slightly earlier than the dropped nap's time.
  • Rachel said: Putting my baby in a carrier has helped me if they're under a year. They so close to me and can see what is going on so they are comforted if they are tired, but they don't fall asleep.
  • Lindsey said: Getting outside or out of the house to do something!!
METHODS
  • Cindy said: I started cutting off the morning nap to only 1hr for several months then went cold turkey to noon nap when she didn't sleep during afternoon nap.
  • Mandy said:  My 3 year old is dropping his last nap. He's still tired, but refuses to sleep. So we have quiet time where he has to stay in his room - he can sleep (ha), read, play - but he has to stay in his room for 1-1.5 hours. It's working really well.
  • Brooke said: Quiet times! [Val's Note: This means you are having your child take a rest time or quiet time rather than the nap time--this is done typically when dropping the one nap altogether]
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