Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school When did your DS, DD skip nap?

I made both kids give up napping a week before kindergarten started. Everyone is different.

DS always hated napping--seriously, he could go 10 days when he was a baby, and it was a miserable 10 days, but he'd do it. But he napped fairly regularly from about age 1 to age 3, then stopped.

My DD was a regular napper until she was 6, as long as she was in a quiet, dark place. Man, those were the days.... but you never appreciate it with your first kid. You just look back later and realize how awesome it was.

DD10 stopped napping as soon as she turned 3. Then, she was the only kid in K4 that they ever allowed to stay up and read. She was good as gold if she didn't take a nap, but if she actually fell asleep it was never until the very end of the time and then they couldn't get her up.

DD8 continued to take naps in school through k5 but stopped at home at 3.5/4. She is the one in my house that doesnt need a lot of sleep. Stays up late and pops up early.

Night terrors SUCK! I still get them as an adult, DD only gets them during growth spurts now!

Ours too! We stopped naps when she started SCREAMING at naptime at school because she wasn't tired and they were forcing her to sleep. For the sake of everyone's sanity we told them to stop trying & just let her have quiet time -- she's awesomely behaved when she doesn't have to nap!

I have 3 kids: DS7, DD3, DD2. No one sleeps in my house like a normal person. No one ever has. None of them want to nap - unless we are in the car and the car is moving. (The 7 year old doesn't nap regularly, obviously. But if we go for a car ride that is longer than 30 mins or so, he'll still nap!) The 3 yo and the 2 yo will occasionally nap in the stroller or after they've had a particularly exhausting morning (ex. running in snow).

I gave up trying to get any of them to nap at regular times or for regular lengths. Generally speaking, they are all pretty pleasant kids (most of the time) and don't seem to suffer from their lack of sleep. They all sleep about 9-11 hours a night.

As far as what they do during the day when not napping - read, read, read, read, read, ask me to teach them how to do everything, drag out the real toolbox and ask me how to fix things, the 3 year old has begun engaging in theological discussions with me, run around the playground, ride public transportation in our city, go to museums - you know, basically
(delightfully) they spend the day exhausting me.

my eldest didn't sleep more than 2 hours at a time until she was 2 years old. 2. she didn't nap for more than 20 minutes until she was 18 months old.at 2 I managed to get 90 mins napping if I drove around for an hour first, I gave up at 28 months. She was never grumpy, just me :-) Now, she sleeps from 8 till 6.30 ish every night yahoo.

Have to say though that we later discovered allergies had a big part to play so it might be wroth checking that out...

DS1 who is way further ahead on all milestones to DD has always slept well, but he gave up morning naps at 10 months. Now he does 7 till 5/6am and then 12 - 1.30 lick clockword. After DD this is terribly exciting for me!

My ds7, was a very irritable, alert baby. I essentially forced nap/ quiet time upon him aka he cried himself to sleep or atleast was quiet. Once he started talking (8 months), he would talk to himself for 30+ mins when he woke up. We were not supposed to get him until he cried- then called. He continued to nap through K just on Saturday. (He's not a morning person.)

Ds3.5 is a very light sleeper. He has always slept ok if it's silent aka if we're sleeping too. He still naps about 2 hrs in the afternoon. We let him stay up 1-2 days a week. Yet, he is a bear with no nap. It's just hard to be silent (no walking around, going to the restroom, etc) everyday.

In saying the above, both boys are full energy and full intensity while awake. I've always attributed this to their need for sleep. Who knows?

Thanks all of you for your sharing, having a quite time is a great idea, I will try it on my son. ��
Btw, did any of you try iLs pillow? My son's OT recommend it when he heard that my son skip his nap when he was 22m old. He doesn't like to use it much at that time due to his hypersensitivity to sound, but now he like it. Even though it doesn't help him to fall asleep and have nap, it does help him to stay clam and reduce his nightmares in the midnight.
Mana, may be you can check it out,
http://www.integratedlistening.com/dreampad/

For the day my son does nap, he always wake up at the midnight and said he want to go out to play and then cry so hard. It makes me prefer him to skip his naps. ��

My daughter has never napped. We had the hardest time when she was in a one year old class at her childcare center. She would sit on her mat
and sing at the top of her lungs. They used to walk around the hallways with her during nap time because they could not get her to stop singing. She is seven now, still loves music and still requires very little sleep;).