Non Napping 3 Year Old

[actaktmdt]

I have a non napping 3 year old. She used to nap and i always felt bad about having to wake her up as pick up is at 2:45, but she clearly needs a nap and when she goes home she will nap and then go to bed by 7:30 or 8 for her mom.

She arrives at my house at 6 am and goes back to sleep until 8 and i am thinking that im going to stop allowing her to do this in hopes she will nap in the afternoon with the other kids instead of playing around and making noise. Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.

ETA when she is here on the weekends, she naps the majority of the time when its nap time. Why not during the week.....

[momofsix]

I agree with you that keeping her up in the morning might be just the thing=hope it works!

[Lucy]

She wakes up at 6. She's tired. She needs the sleep. Let the girl sleep. Have you ever been in class, or a meeting, or church and you're so tired you can't stand it but it wouldn't be proper to fall asleep? Isn't all you can think about is wishing you could crawl in bed for a nap? That's how it would be if you made her stay awake. LET THE GIRL SLEEP!

[kidkair]

I'd cut back how long she sleeps in the morning slowly and take a look at the difference in activities she does during the week vs. weekend. Is she the only child on the weekends? Maybe she's overwhelmed with the rest of the kids and activities durning the week that she's too wound up to sleep at nap time. If she's the only child on the weekends and at home maybe she's sleeping because she's bored. In any case, I would make her lay down quietly and read/look at books quietly by herself for all of naptime regardless as to how many kids are around. Try reading a chapter book outloud to her if she won't sit still. I've done that with a one year old who wasn't falling asleep but would calm down as long as I was reading. It bored her to sleep in a few minutes. I have a 3 year old that doesn't need a nap and she knows she has to stay quiet and will color and read without out talking for the hour and a half that the other kids are sleeping. Whatever you decided to try remember to keep at it for at least a week before trying something else. Good Luck!

[TGT09]

I agree and disagree with pp's. I would be inclined to wean off the morning extra sleep unless she is actually sleepy in the morning. Are you making her lay back down when she gets there at 6? Maybe she doesn't need that little extra in the morning. What would it hurt to cut it out for a day or two to see if that's what it is. However, it could back fire and she would stop going to bed so early and go to bed later resulting in needing that little extra in the morning. BUT, you will never know until you try it.

[mrs.meg]

I usually only let my earlybirds sleep for 1 hour, then get them up and they go down for afternoon nap perfectly. The 1 hour nap helps a bunch in the morning, you could try it and see and wean her like a pp said.

[DancingQueen]

How long does she nap in the morning?
If she isn't napping in the afternoon and she is napping in the morning - you just need to get it to flip flop.
I've done it but cutting the morning naps way back. so if she normally naps for an hour - I'd let her nnap for 1/2 hour. Just a cat nap then wake her up. A cat nap is normally plenty for a kid to be revived to make it a few more hours and then over the course of a couple of weeks decrease it more and more and increase the afternoon nap more and more. she'll still be getting the same amount of sleeping hours during the day - they'll just be at the time that the rest of your daycare is napping.

[Unregistered]

Why is she napping SO much she is 3 years old she only needs one 2 hour afternoon nap a day. My little girl who will be 3 wakes at 6am during the week because her brothers are getting ready for school and its rare she even naps in the afternoon and she goes right to sleep at 8pm and thats plenty of sleep why does Mom have her take so many naps?

[Lucy]

Don't think of that early nap as a "nap". She gets up at 6:00 am!! Just think of it as putting her back to bed. Do it for 30 min even. I mean, think about it... most 3 yr olds are not up till 7:00 or later. Just think of it as giving her back 30 min of that overnight sleep that was robbed from her. I'd even put her on the couch with a blanket and pillow. If she dozes off, she obviously needed it. If she doesn't, at least she had some good rest time and will be ready for the day.