One or two naps for 1 yr old?

Hi Mummybee,

My boy is 15 months old and yes, i've noticed that he doesn't really need his morning nap now either, although he does get cranky towards 11am (which was when he used to have a morning nap), so I decided to prolong his "awake time" till after lunch. It took about 3 days, but he's used to it by now, I just have to put up with his crankiness for the first 3 days. Now he goes to sleep only once, after lunch for a couple of hours, then is awake till around 8pm.

He does not wake up for night feeds though since he started having full dinners, actually all the kids from my Mothers Group (in Australia) do not wake up anymore for night feeds. If your daughter ate more at dinner, do you think she'll wake up for night feeds? Also I give my son a full bottle of milk (around 300mls) just before bedtime and that ties him over. I sympathise with you cos I cannot stand waking up at night, it throws my next day off. Maybe you'd like to try giving your daughter a bottle (unless you're still breastfeeding) before bedtime to tie her over to the next morning? Sometimes it's also just routine for them and they are not really hungry, in which case we have to not give them the feed and persist in putting them back to bed, it's difficult initially. Good luck!

Right when my daughter turned one, she lost her morning nap and would take one 2 hour nap from 12:30-2:30. Her day started at 7 AM and she was in bed by 7 AM with no wakeups in between. I would say the night time feeds are due more to habit than anything else - and not necessarily due to being hungry or "needing" to be fed. (just my humble opinion.)


You COULD try eliminating the night time feeds if you so desired - try boiled water instead of milk if you don't want to do something more drastic. you can try and reduce the time feeding - or just try and see what happens if you don't go to her. (does she cry or is it really just a brief fuss that she could get over?)



Otherwise you could try bringing her day forward (earlier wakeups) by shifting times 15 minutes a day. I feel like if she woke up at 11:00 PM for a feed you would be able to manage it better. So if she was waking at 7:30 and still continued with two wakeups, logically she would wake up at 11:00 instead of 12:00.


Sleep research indicates that 1 year olds need between 13-14 hours of sleep, 11-12 at night and 1-2 during the day.

I seem to remember there always being problems around the time each nap was being dropped for my daughter. There's a transition period when neither option is really satisfactory. You might go back to what you did before, when the new routine has too many drawbacks. Then wait until the drawbacks of the old routine seem to outweigh those of the new.


If you decide to stick with two naps for a little longer, you could try changing the timing or length of them to see if that helps.


It's certainly not abnormal for babies to transition to one nap much later than a year. I think mine was about 14mo, but it can vary a lot between babies. I wouldn't be in a hurry to get rid of them! Although I remember one nap made outings less complicated. But from anecdotal evidence of my friends, the sooner you go from two naps to one nap, the sooner they want to drop the one nap altogether, and you want to delay that day as long as you can, believe me!

Hi Mummybee,

When you say "huge dinner", how big is "huge"? My son, since he was about 1 year old till now, takes about 3-4 tablespoons of food (depending on his mood and what I'm cooking :) ) for dinner, and a piece of fruit after. I also looked up this book by a famous "baby whisperer", Tracy Hogg in UK, and she suggested for a 1 year old, roughly about 1 cup of food for dinner plus 4-6 ounces of milk, and then another 4-8ounces of milk before bedtime (of course depending on how much the child can and would eat). As for my boy, his schedule is roughly like this:

8am - wake up, has 250ml of milk

9am - has his toast and fruit

12.30 - lunch

1pm - nap for about 1 hour, sometimes 2 hours

4pm - afternoon tea

6.45pm - dinner

7.15pm - bath

8pm - milk

8.30 - bedtime


I must admit when I was trying to wean him off his night feeds, initially he didn't take 300mls at bedtime, it was roughly 150ml, then i increased the milk gradually over about 3 weeks, by about 20mls each time. We also realised that when we feed him in his darkened room, he falls asleep too without taking the full bottle, so now he has his bottle in the living room with all the lights on, and he has to brush his teeth before going to bed, that kept him awake to finish his whole bottle. May I ask if you are feeding your daughter in her bed in a dark room, which might be conducive to her falling asleep?

Hi Mummybee,

Wow, I must say that is A LOT of food your bub takes!!!! I'd love it if my bub would eat that much! But will be lucky if he takes down 4-6 heaped tablespoonfuls.....

If she's really not ready for her single nap, do what you and her feel comfortable with.

Good luck on your trip back to Oz!

Hi mummybee,

When my two year old switched we basically did about two months of alternating two and one nap a day.

This worked well to help bubs get enough sleep to cope well and get all his food in. When a baby is tired you cannot expect them to feed.

Sounds like your bubba is getting plenty of food anyway and doesn't need the milk on top of a big dinner.

I do agree that it is possible bubs is waking for comfort. Bring nighttime earlier, there are many studies that show bedtime between 7 and 8.30pm is the best for getting babies to sleep through the night. This is because of how sleep cycles work and putting baby in bed BEFORE they are already overtired and they learn better to self soothe and fall asleep on their own if they aren't already distressed by exhaustion.

Be prepared to do the one nap earlier in the day, it is normal to have an 11 o'clock nap till bubs is more ready for one big afternoon nap. Caleb used to do 11 till 2pm then would go to bed by 6.30pm and sleep thru till 6.30am.

Lunch after nap usually.

Good Luck