How do naps at daycare work?

[Anonymous]

My 7 month old is starting daycare soon at a daycare center. We toured the facility and really liked it and the care providers. The infant room has about 7 babies under the age of 1 with 3 care providers looking after them. My LO still needs to be rocked to sleep, with white noise. On especially tough nap days, I sometimes nurse her until she's drowsy. I'm now panicking that she just won't ever nap at daycare because they won't be able to do the same for her to get her down. Does anyone have any experience on how to help this situation?

[Anonymous]

There will be a transition period but eventually it will all work out. Don’t worry. You pick the best provider you can and then trust them. They won’t do it just like you, but it will be okay.

It’s so hard to turn a 7 month old over to anyone else. The nap thing is going to be hard on you more than the baby probably. Remember that it’s totally normal to be both really, really upset about things like nap procedure and also to know that the right thing to do is to let it go. Your emotions m/instincts won’t necessarily match the right course of action and that is really draining because you’re also doing that at work, etc. Cut yourself a lot of slack and do the best you can.

[Anonymous]

At my kid's daycare, they definitely soothe them for naps. Teachers will pat or rub backs; my kid had a paci for naps until age 2 or so. I'm a strict sleep training type but I liked that they would soothe them (and it's a necessity in a room where one non-napper could wake up all the other kids). In my kid's current room they have sort of a side area where a teacher will take the kids who refuse to nap and they quietly read.

There will likely be an adjustment for a week or two where she has trouble napping. Don't let it get you down.

[Anonymous]

DD was a bad napper. At the time she started daycare at 5 months we were really struggling, trying "fuss it out" (letting the baby cry for a limited period of time) at home, but with limited success.

She had a lot of trouble with naps at daycare. They ended up feeding her to sleep often and she didn't nap a lot. I don't know that it was as horrible for her as I thought given that she wasn't especially fussy and slept well at night. I think looking back two things would have helped:

1. Committing to nap training (extinction) at 6 months
2. Following the 2-3-4 schedule (2 hours of wake time in the morning, 3 after morning nap and 4 after the afternoon nap) - this means 2 naps per day. We were still trying for 3 naps which was stupid because DD did not need that much sleep.

[Anonymous]

I mean, your 7 month old needs to learn to put herself to sleep. Daycare will do her a favor teaching her that.

My kid started at 6 months and day 2 I came in to nurse (he was at my work daycare) and kid was so firmly napping I had to come back later. My kid is 3 now and still naps better at preschool than he does at home.

[Anonymous]

They’ll probably let her cry herself to sleep. Every daycare I’ve been in is noisy and lots of commotion most of the time. While the commotion may not be in the infant room the noise travels and sometimes teachers have to switch areas, etc. If you want her to fall asleep as she does now daycare is probably not the place for that. You’d have to hire a nanny or find someone that just looks after 1-2 kids or stay at home with her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’ll probably let her cry herself to sleep. Every daycare I’ve been in is noisy and lots of commotion most of the time. While the commotion may not be in the infant room the noise travels and sometimes teachers have to switch areas, etc. If you want her to fall asleep as she does now daycare is probably not the place for that. You’d have to hire a nanny or find someone that just looks after 1-2 kids or stay at home with her.

Incorrect. Many daycares will not let a child cry themselves to sleep nor is there commotion during Nap because all the kids have nap or quiet time in the after noon or the big kids are outdoors when the littl ones have AM nap.

[Anonymous]

My kids just never slept at daycare. They were strung out messes at the end of the day with red bleary eyes and miserable temperaments. We tried it for a year and a half before getting a nanny. Our lives got so much better once they started napping daily in their own beds.

[Anonymous]

We were at an in-home at that age. There was DD and one more infant. DD was usually good at putting herself to sleep but they would rock her if needed.

[Anonymous]

My DD was a terrible sleeper at daycare, while she was in the infant room. There was too much stimulation, and she only liked to nap while being held. She adapted, and slept during the car ride home, and did well with it, even though it was so close to bed time. Once she moved to Infant 2, where the entire room napped at the same time for 2 hours with lights out, she became a much better napper.

[Anonymous]

You are doing your child a great disservice by not helping them transition well during nap. Take care obviously won’t be able to breast-feed them. So you should try from now until they start daycare for your child to get used to either not being rocked or nursed to sleep. take care will obviously have to handle it but it will be tough for your child.

[Anonymous]

Just FYI, Zipadee zip was a total nap game changer for my kid. He napped so well in that thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 7 month old is starting daycare soon at a daycare center. We toured the facility and really liked it and the care providers. The infant room has about 7 babies under the age of 1 with 3 care providers looking after them. My LO still needs to be rocked to sleep, with white noise. On especially tough nap days, I sometimes nurse her until she's drowsy. I'm now panicking that she just won't ever nap at daycare because they won't be able to do the same for her to get her down. Does anyone have any experience on how to help this situation?

There will be a transition. Daycare most likely will not be able to rock her to sleep but they also don’t want her crying and waking up the other babies. They’ll handle it and then you should follow their method on weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are doing your child a great disservice by not helping them transition well during nap. Take care obviously won’t be able to breast-feed them. So you should try from now until they start daycare for your child to get used to either not being rocked or nursed to sleep. take care will obviously have to handle it but it will be tough for your child.

+1. Start the daycare routine now. Ask the providers how and when they put the babies down for a nap and start doing it before she starts. Yes, daycare can handle it but why stress your baby more than you have to.

[Anonymous]

I mean, sleep train? Your 7 month old should be able to put herself to sleep by now.