Cutting down from two naps to one

L

lisa88

Registered User
I've read that toddlers 13 months upwards will reduce their naps from twice a day to once. How to go about this? I know that Gina Ford recommends actively training the toddler to cut down one nap, but I don't really want to do that. I'd rather let my toddler just naturally cut down her nap. Is this possible? how to transition this? My toddler 13+ months sleeps around 10 hours a night, from 7.30/8pm til 6AM (sometimes 5.30am!!). She has two naps totalling 1-3 hrs daily. A few times a month she will refuse one nap but otherwise she still has her two naps.
 
your baby sounds a lot like mine in terms of sleep hours .... she's now 19 mths and she's slowly adjusted her biological clock to 1 nap / day... I started out with not forcing her to nap in the mornings to see how long she would last...but if she wanted to sleep (like she might on some occasions now), I just put her in for a nap. i'm not too regimented...but you will find that as they become more alert, they will want to "play" instead of sleep! so eliminating 1 nap will only get easier. i always believe that the more a baby sleeps, the better, so I was never very concerned...the only thing that I would be concerned is to not let her nap for over 2 hours (which my baby can do on occasion) as that would mess up her night time sleep schedule...i don't mind shifting it back 1 hour, but anything over 1 hour is really too late (she sleeps at 8:45)....i'd say follow your baby's lead!
 
My baby is 14 mth old. A couple weeks ago he started fighting his pm nap, but if he doesn't nap in pm he'll be cranky at dinner. So I started to change his schedule to one nap a day after lunch. He sleeps much better at night and gets up at 7 instead of 5-6am in the morning. Some days I still let him take a short 30 min nap late morning if he gets up early that day or we need to go out for lunch.
 
Your child will show you blatant signs to indicate s/he is ready to drop a nap. It's unfair to follow a book and get your child to drop a nap before s/he is ready. Just as every adult has different sleep needs, so too does every child. It'll only mess up a good routine, your baby's mood, and your own sanity!
 
I agree with putput. The books are good but only a guide. They are (unfortunately) not written specifically about your child!

When we went from two naps to one, we brought the afternoon nap forward to 12 and now do lunch at 11.15 - 11.30 ish and then bed at 12. Initially my son was sleeping 3 hours from 12 - 3pm but now about 2 hours is the norm.
 
I tried to hold on to two naps as long as possible, since it was so nice for me to get the breaks! But at around 16 months or so, he just never seemed quite ready for the morning nap, and then if he finally went to sleep, it made the afternoon nap so late which then interfered with night time. SO, it was clear to me that it was time to drop a nap, but I was definitely following his lead. WHat I did was just try to get outside and be very active during the time he normally would take the morning nap, and then I moved the afternoon nap from starting at 1:30 or 2 back to noon. It worked well!
 
my son was late in transitioning from 2 to just 1 nap. i transitioned by making sure we always had an activity in the morning whether it was a playdate, playgroup or a class. then we would eat lunch around 11am and nap at noon for 2 hours.
 
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