How do babies nap at daycare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The truth: not well if at all. Being in a bright room with loud noises and 8-14 other screaming infants just doesn’t work well for naps. What happens more is kids pass out and have crap naps from exhaustion and then are totally beat by the end of the day. At least while they are infants.

This sounds like a terrible daycare. Every place I have seen had a separate nap area that was darkened, with white noise or quiet music playing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The truth: not well if at all. Being in a bright room with loud noises and 8-14 other screaming infants just doesn’t work well for naps. What happens more is kids pass out and have crap naps from exhaustion and then are totally beat by the end of the day. At least while they are infants.

I worked at a daycare center and this is the truth. Except, the infant room was always kept dark. Babies cried all day long. Yes, they were changed and fed but overall they cried in their mini cribs a lot. And I worked at a very nice and well-staffed center. It's the reason I decided to become a SAHM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth: not well if at all. Being in a bright room with loud noises and 8-14 other screaming infants just doesn’t work well for naps. What happens more is kids pass out and have crap naps from exhaustion and then are totally beat by the end of the day. At least while they are infants.

I worked at a daycare center and this is the truth. Except, the infant room was always kept dark. Babies cried all day long. Yes, they were changed and fed but overall they cried in their mini cribs a lot. And I worked at a very nice and well-staffed center. It's the reason I decided to become a SAHM.

This wasn't my experience at my son's daycare at all. They had a separate darkened area for sleeping but the play area was by the windows and well lit. The babies didn't cry much at all (I was in there an unusual amount because I nursed for a stretch because I had trouble pumping after mastitis, I am lucky to work a flexible schedule and have an in building daycare).

[Anonymous]

This is why I think if you find a gem of a small in home (they exist, for sure) or nanny share you do what it takes to hold on to the spot. This setup is usually small enough they can nap peacefully but still get interaction with another kid(s) outside their household as they grow up.

[Anonymous]

I worried a lot about this (I'm a sleep control-freak) -- would she nap, how would she deal with other kids' noise, would the teachers patting her back mess up her sleep training? But after a week or two of adjustment, she napped perfectly fine at daycare. They get used to it. She occasionally has a bad nap day but it's rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth: not well if at all. Being in a bright room with loud noises and 8-14 other screaming infants just doesn’t work well for naps. What happens more is kids pass out and have crap naps from exhaustion and then are totally beat by the end of the day. At least while they are infants.

I worked at a daycare center and this is the truth. Except, the infant room was always kept dark. Babies cried all day long. Yes, they were changed and fed but overall they cried in their mini cribs a lot. And I worked at a very nice and well-staffed center. It's the reason I decided to become a SAHM.

Sorry you worked at some shitty La Petite. This was not my experience at either Bright Horizons or a privately owned center in Maryland, either as a staff member or as a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth: not well if at all. Being in a bright room with loud noises and 8-14 other screaming infants just doesn’t work well for naps. What happens more is kids pass out and have crap naps from exhaustion and then are totally beat by the end of the day. At least while they are infants.

I worked at a daycare center and this is the truth. Except, the infant room was always kept dark. Babies cried all day long. Yes, they were changed and fed but overall they cried in their mini cribs a lot. And I worked at a very nice and well-staffed center. It's the reason I decided to become a SAHM.

I didn't work at a daycare but have experience taking care of my own kids. When I had my second child, he cried and fought naps all day long. He was just terrible at naps and going to sleep in general. My first child was also like this until around 6 months but I had a relative help care for him so I didn't have to send him anywhere. To be honest, I became annoyed at my own child. Waking up after 10-15 mins, and requiring a lot of burps. Feeding and burping took like an hour. Trying to put him to sleep took another 30 mins (if I'm lucky) to an hour. I thought to myself, if I am this frustrated and exhausted taking care of 1 infant, imagine someone else. And that person has to take care of other kids too. This led me to quit my job.

I don't know why there are posters who don't believe your story, because I do. It makes sense. Yes, some kids are easier than others, but not a single child was screaming? I believe you when you say they were screaming all day - maybe not 1 child the whole time, but this one screams at this time, and then this one at that time, and then the other one at another time... But all the infants just quiet all day long sleeping on schedule no problems with feeding?? Not a single child had ANY of the common issues that would cause them to cry? No infant ever got woken up because another kid started screaming? Wow!! Sounds like a miracle to me, and these people need to start selling whatever method they are using because there are many sleep deprived mothers who would pay big bucks for the secret, including me.

[Anonymous]

At my older DD’s daycare, parents were required to periodically volunteer. I loved to volunteer for nap watch because everyone was asleep in the younger rooms. My DD would nap well. In the classroom before kindergarten many children had dropped naps and would do stickers or look at books. We moved and my younger DD went to a different daycare I didn’t see as often. But both places had a separate dark room for babies with noise machines. My older daughter napped to 5.5 and my younger daughter dropped her nap at about 2 3/4 so she’s just never been as much of a napper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why I think if you find a gem of a small in home (they exist, for sure) or nanny share you do what it takes to hold on to the spot. This setup is usually small enough they can nap peacefully but still get interaction with another kid(s) outside their household as they grow up.

Yeah we had our kids at an in-home daycare that had a separate sleeping area for infants and they slept well there. They even slept well at the toddler age because again, the infants were elsewhere so it was a smaller group in the main area and they darkened the room and used white noise. Once they moved to a preschool aged center their naps declined. In hindsight I wish I had kept my youngest at the in-home a bit longer in part because of that, but we weren't sure we could get a spot at the center later on.

[Anonymous]

I had one who was terrible at sleeping at daycare, and one who just conked right out.

YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had one who was terrible at sleeping at daycare, and one who just conked right out.

YMMV.

+1. One crap sleeper there but an angel at home and another the opposite.