How to Keep Your Toddler From Dropping Their Nap

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If you’ve found yourself asking “when do toddlers stop napping?'” and are hoping yours doesn’t drop theirs anytime soon, I’ve got some great advice for you.

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How to Keep Your Toddler From Dropping Their Nap

Branden will always be known as our good sleeper. I guess that firstborns do that to you with a lot of things and then you have a second child that throws you a little off track (ahem, Blake). He did, however, drop his nap really early – at only 18 months. But the upside was that he would, like clockwork, go to sleep at 8:30pm every evening, and sleep well through the night until 9am or so the next morning. I can’t even imagine what I would do with all my free time if Blake slept until 9am, but I digress.

Then there is Blake who slept great as a baby, but the toddler years have been tough for us. In addition to waking up through the night sometimes still (she has night terrors) and being up by 6ish every morning, we are starting to get to that point where she is still napping most days, but twoish days per week she will want to skip it. Being a WAHM, its so freaking important to me that we keep those naps going well into age three and beyond. Her naps are when I get my most work done and quite frankly, she still needs them.

First, when do toddlers stop napping?

I think a lot of parents start asking themselves “when do toddler stop napping?” as soon as there is a little glimmer of noticing them wanting to drop their naps once and for all. I mean…it’s scary to lose those naps.

According to Sleep.org, “The morning nap is typically the next to go, which tends to happen somewhere between a year and 18 months. Eventually, even the one remaining afternoon nap will (sadly!) disappear. Just 50 percent of children are still napping at age four, and 70 percent have moved on by age five.” They also have shared two important things to keep in mind:

Whenever your toddler doesn’t want to nap, it’s not the same things as them not needing to nap.
Toddler do need 12-14 hours of sleep per day still.

Whenever Blake had her most recent physical, I talked to her doctor about this issue, too. She advised us that if evening rolls around and Blake had skipped her nap and she’s still cranky in the evening, that it’s a pretty clear sign that she still needs that sleep during the day.

How we’re keeping Blake from dropping her nap entirely:

Both of our children have never been the “fall asleep anywhere” type. If Blake sleeps for 20 minutes in her car seat, that’s all we’re getting for the whole day. So in an effort to keep those long, one and a half hour + naps going, this is what we do.

1. If she skips her nap, she is put to bed a half an hour early to bed that night.

2. Build a reliable routine built around nap time.

For instance, Blake knows that everyday after lunch it’s time for her nap. She chooses a stuffed animal to sleep with, kisses anyone who is home goodnight and goes upstairs to sleep. Because my days are a bit hectic, we don’t do books and songs before nap time, but they are a part of our evening routine.

3. If she refuses to nap and we are home, we opt for quiet time instead.

Whenever we go down this path, it means that Blake can play quietly with her toys or read books up in her bedroom by herself. During this time, I keep her tablet downstairs so there isn’t anything super stimulating happening around her.

4. Use your morning for high energy activities.

I try to get as much done as I can while chugging alllll the coffee first thing in the morning, but once that early morning rush is over, Blake and I are outside running around! This helps her burn off energy and actually be tired for that afternoon nap.

5. When all else fails: play with nap timing a little bit.

Whenever we were really struggling with Blake’s napping and sleep in general, I hired a sleep expert to help with some things. Her biggest emphasis on naps was that anytime your toddler sleeps, the time awake should be broken up by about 5.5 hours. Because of that, I’ve always been cautious about letting Blake sleep any laster than 2pm because she goes to sleep at 7:30pm every night. But just like adults, kids sometimes get tired at different times and that’s ok. Play around with it a bit and see if a morning nap works better than afternoon, or even two shorter naps. Every child operates differently.