Anonymous wrote:Our daycare is split between 3 - 8 months, 9-16 months, and 17-24. It was actually really nice because naps were much more in line with each other. But I think that set up is pretty unusual.

Wow, so children transition 3 times before they turn 2?

Our kid never napped much more than 20 minutes at daycare. She would be miserable and exhausted by the end of the day. That’s what happens with 10-12 babies in a room. It’s never really quiet so only some of the babies can actually nap the cries if the others. Day care nap schedules are a joke - they just put exhausted babies down and call it a nap .

Our young infant room follows the child's cues but the older infant room/young toddler room transitions them to 1 nap after lunch.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the daycares that I toured (this was downtown) had one set nap time in the infant room (12 weeks to one year) in the afternoon when the lights went out, but beyond that, two nappers (or three nappers I guess) would just nap in a busy room with all the lights on. My kid never would have tolerated that - it's the main reason we went with a nanny share.

If your daycare actually has two set nap times, I would say they're ahead of the curve.

Kids that go to daycares with that set up learn to sleep through anything. Ours seemed to have 2 times per day when they turned the lights off and they tried to get all the kids to nap, but kids could and did nap whenever. My kid can sleep through anything as a result.

This is one of the biggest advantages of daycare. So many kids learn crappy sleep at home, but daycare teaches them to be flexible.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the daycares that I toured (this was downtown) had one set nap time in the infant room (12 weeks to one year) in the afternoon when the lights went out, but beyond that, two nappers (or three nappers I guess) would just nap in a busy room with all the lights on. My kid never would have tolerated that - it's the main reason we went with a nanny share.

If your daycare actually has two set nap times, I would say they're ahead of the curve.

This was our experience. We even had that experience at a home day care, and had a rough month getting our 11 month old to transition from 2 naps to 1. It's much easier for the providers to have them nap at the same time.

Our daycare was similar. They said babies do their own schedules (so babies could nap if it wasn't nap time), but it was pretty clear the teachers guided onto a 2 nap schedule as babies got older. Once last last kid in the room turned 12 months, they switched to a one nap schedule (my kiddo was about 16 months at that point). That is earlier than a lot of stay at home or nanny kids do.

Our daycare is split between 3 - 8 months, 9-16 months, and 17-24. It was actually really nice because naps were much more in line with each other. But I think that set up is pretty unusual.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the daycares that I toured (this was downtown) had one set nap time in the infant room (12 weeks to one year) in the afternoon when the lights went out, but beyond that, two nappers (or three nappers I guess) would just nap in a busy room with all the lights on. My kid never would have tolerated that - it's the main reason we went with a nanny share.

If your daycare actually has two set nap times, I would say they're ahead of the curve.

Kids that go to daycares with that set up learn to sleep through anything. Ours seemed to have 2 times per day when they turned the lights off and they tried to get all the kids to nap, but kids could and did nap whenever. My kid can sleep through anything as a result.

A lot of the daycares that I toured (this was downtown) had one set nap time in the infant room (12 weeks to one year) in the afternoon when the lights went out, but beyond that, two nappers (or three nappers I guess) would just nap in a busy room with all the lights on. My kid never would have tolerated that - it's the main reason we went with a nanny share.

If your daycare actually has two set nap times, I would say they're ahead of the curve.

My daughter was in a room like that when she started daycare. She took 2 naps at daycare but also napped in the car on the way home. She started at 5 months as well. On a bad nap day she got about 90 minutes of sleep between the 3 naps. On a good nap day it was more like 3 hours, which was about what she got at home too. Typically she would have a couple bad nap days and a couple good nap days each week at daycare. She was fine overall and hit all her milestones on time or early so we didn't fuss about it.

How old is your daughter and how long has she been in this daycare? I had one good sleeper and one less good sleeper and both adjusted to daycare’s schedule. If you are worried she is not sleeping enough during the day, you could try asking them to try to get her to sleep more frequently. It might not be practical for the daycare, though. My not great sleeper often took longer to fall asleep than other kids and woke up earlier. She dropped her nap entirely at 3.

Curious to hear what other folks' daycares schedules are, particularly for their infant rooms (ours currently has kids from 5 months to 15 months). How many naps are your kids getting? Mine is one of the youngest in the classroom and they only do two naps a day. Is that normal and they assume they'll get one more at home? She's not a long napper usually, so only giving her the opportunity for two naps sometimes means she only naps for an hour the whole day.