Top 3 Tips to Survive the Dreadful 2-to-1 Nap Transition
“My kid has stopped napping!”
Most parents find their baby’s 3-to-2 nap transition to be easy-peasy. It usually happens around 8 months of age when your little one starts to fight the 3rd nap in the afternoon. No fuss. No muss.
But, when it comes to the 2-to-1 nap transition, many parents struggle with the fluctuating nap onset time and the disappearing morning or afternoon nap.
Here are the common signs that show your little one is ready for the transition:
o Plays through morning naps consistently.
Or
o Still takes mid-morning naps as before but refuses to nap in the afternoon.
Or
o Takes a late afternoon nap (around 2PM) because there was no nap before that.
The first two situations will increase your child’s wake window between nap time and bedtime much longer than before, which will make him/her overtired and very fussy before 5PM. The last sign will push your child’s bedtime much later.
As a result, parents’ schedules get thrown off. Your child’s over-tiredness might lead to more nighttime wakings or early wakings the next morning.
I know. So dreadful.
But don’t panic. Help is on the way!
Why is the 2-to-1 nap transition so difficult for children to master?
The average age for babies to transition to one nap is 15-18 months but can vary greatly. During this phase, their bodies are getting used to much longer wake times. The process of consolidating all of the time they need to rest their brains into one single nap can take a long time. Sometimes the transition can take 4-6 weeks to complete. Each baby is different so this transition will show up in different patterns.
Here is a useful list of Do’s and Don'ts to help you navigate this big nap transition.
Do’s
o Watch closely for your little one’s signs (listed above)
o Offer him/her an early bedtime when afternoon naps disappear and when the wake window between nap and bedtime is over 4 hours.
o Get the whole family mentally prepared for this transition. Remain calm and patient. Remember, your child doesn’t choose to play through naps; the transition is biologically appropriate.
o Keep a nap log so you can track when there is a consistent nap pattern showing up.
Don’ts
o Do not transition your child to 1 nap a day just because your daycare teacher or your parents or your friends say to do so.
o Do not shift your child’s daytime schedule abruptly. At the beginning of this transition, some parents might decide to completely change play and feeding schedules because their child refuses to nap in the morning. It might cause more overtiredness in the child and the family will find that no schedule can be followed.
o Do not take your baby out for a drive on a regular basis, hoping for a car-ride nap. Napping in the car is not restorative for your little one.
With this list of Do’s and Don’ts in mind, I categorized 3 common groups and designed effective solutions for each one to help you survive your child’s 2-to-1 nap transition.
Group 1: Kids who are early risers and don’t get a full night of sleep.
A. When children persistently wake up before 6AM and typically have a tough time falling or staying asleep at night, they usually get very sleepy around 9AM. That’s when parents struggle to keep their child awake to hit the midday nap mark. For those kids, we have to slowly shorten their morning naps so that we can bring back the afternoon nap. To do so, I recommend that parents implement 15-minute interval shifts. For example, if your child naps between 8:45AM and 10:30AM, first let’s end the nap at 10:15AM, then bring up the ending time 15 minutes earlier every 3 days. When your child still fights the afternoon nap when the morning nap is less than an hour, then he/she is ready to make the big transition.
B. Once your child is ready for the 2-to-1 nap transition, slowly push morning naps to start at 11AM. Then, shift the onset time 15 minutes later every 3 days until the nap starts between 12:30PM and 1PM.
Group 2 : Kids who are usually well-rested and wake up after 6AM or even later.
We can start with getting your child to nap at 10AM, then implement the 15-minute interval shifts every 3 days until the nap starts between 12:30PM and 1PM.
Group 3: Kids who just won’t nap in the morning whatsoever but crash around 2PM.
When children take a nap later in the afternoon, they usually don’t get the rest they need because the nap happens on the tail end of their sleep wave and is not as restorative. Then, they tend to have a harder time falling asleep at bedtime. For this group, the interval shifts go backwards. We start the nap at 2PM, then shift the whole nap 15 minutes earlier. For example, if your little one takes a nap between 2PM and 4PM, for the first 3 days, start the nap at 1:45PM and end it at 3:45PM, until the naps fall in place between around 12:30PM and 2:30PM (1PM to 3PM is good as well).
No matter which group fits your child’s situation during the shifts, please offer an early bedtime to prevent him/her from getting overtired. (Read my blog post here to know more about early bedtime.)
As I mentioned earlier in this post, 2-to-1 nap transitions can be hard and children can take a long time to adjust. It’s very likely that your toddler will take some short naps, have unexplainable night wakings or even throw temper tantrums due to frustration and exhaustion.
Remember, consistency is the key. As long as you follow through, it will all come together.
Good luck! Feel free to email me or schedule a free 15-minute consultation. You are not alone 😘
