When a child needs 2 naps?

Hello Everyone!

I currently have one daycare child and do not have another one starting for some time as I am expecting my own baby :)

Anyway, I originally had 1 nap time from 12-2:30pm. However, once this child began to walk he really seemed to need a morning nap as well-again (he had only dropped it for about a month).

My question is: I am inclined to allow the morning nap as long as he is still having his afternoon nap-especially since right now there are no other children to accommodate. And having a child basically cry their way through our morning routine is difficult on everyone!!

Any advice would be great-how do you all handle nap transition? And at what age do you find they will naturally drop the morning nap?
Thx!

Most children outgrow morning naps quickly once they start daycare. They notice that no one else is going down and they don't want to miss anything. If this child is miserable all morning without a nap, then make life easy on yourself and let them nap. As long as they are still sleeping in the afternoon, it just makes it easier on you and more pleasant for the child. If you start having trouble getting him to sleep in the afternoon, gradually make morning naps shorter and shorter.

I would put him down the minute he gets to your house for a short half hour nap in the morning.

Thank you for the help ladies. And I agree with BOTH statements! I have been putting him down for morning nap pretty immediately-since I don't want the morning nap to be too close to the afternoon nap.

I have a child that naps from 9-10 in the morning and occassionally down closer to 8:30 but comes at 6:30 in the morning so ready by 8:30. She is almost 14 months. We take advantage of this time to do our games,activities, crafts that aren't baby appropriate. She then goes down for afternoon nap about half an hour after the other kids do as in I get them settled and then do a one on one story, fingerplay time with her and then back into bed. She does 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon where the others do 2 so all up at the same time.

On days I have tried no nap she doesn't make it through till lunch without being super whiney, then doesn't eat a proper lunch, and the day gets progressively worse. Give her an hour reprieve from the group to regroup and she is a dream for the rest of the day.

Playfelt- thanks for the info-and I pretty much have the same situation-without a nappy it is a long morning of trying to keep the little one awake-so I am going to keep the morning nap - because he still sleeps in afternoon as well as of right now :)

I have had kids be almost 2 and still need a morning nap even if it was just a 20 minute break from reality. A lot has to do with the parents and bedtime. For a child to get 10-12 hours of sleep overnight they would have to be put to bed before they have finished eating their supper. Which means the morning nap is really about finishing the overnight sleep. The afternoon nap is the normal all kids need a revival rest.