Naps at Day-care

It's only been two weeks. Give it some more time. I am a mother of two boys. One whom went to day care imediately after my 6 weeks off and the other who stayed at home with dad for about 7 months before starting day care. It took us a good month to work out all the kinks of going to day care. I just made sure we were all on the same page of sceduling as much as possible. It also helped once AJ was moving around. He was exhausted chasing the other kids at day care and finally started taking one 20min nap in the morning and a two hour nap in the afternoon after lunch. Good Luck!

Here are suggestions that may help your both of you get a few more zzz's, courtesy of the Nemours Foundation:

When you feed or change your baby at night, keep the room quiet and dim. Avoid turning on all of the lights, or if there's a dimmer, turning them on at full blast. Also avoid singing, talking and play at this time.
Make sure your infant naps during the day, as she may have more trouble getting to sleep at night if she is overtired.
Don't encourage playtime at night when getting baby ready for bed. She will learn that nighttime is for sleeping, and daytime is for playing.
Establish a bedtime routine to get her ready for sleep.

Here are some questions that might help you clarify why she isn't sleeping longer at daycare...

Is there a lot of noise a the day care facility during her naptimes? Is there similar noise levels at home during her naptimes at home? If there is a difference, it is easier to up the level of noise at home during her naps than quiet the noise level at day care. Turn on the radio, don't shy away from running the vacuum cleaner or such noisey appliances. She probably isn't used to a lot of noise surrounding her during naptime. Being the only baby in the household, the first is usually more noise sensative. Good Luck.

My daughter had a hard time adjusting to daycare because it was noisy with other kids (can't make them all sleep at the same time at that age). After a couple of months though she was back to taking a 2-3 hour nap. Give it more time, i'm sure she will adjust

Hi P.,
I'd actually suggest that the issue may be that your daughter is going to bed too late and then is overly tired at day care. This actually makes it harder for them to get good sleep, if you can believe it. Especially in a more noisy environment. I read several in-depth books about sleep and they all suggested a bed time no later than 8pm but more ideally 6:30/7pm for a baby so young. Most 6 month olds I think still have 3 naps -- 2 longer and then a shortie in the afternoon. Perhaps you could try a more "scheduled" approach for a week and see if she sleeps any longer? Oh and the books also suggested a consistent wake-up time. So perhaps something like:
7am wake-up
9am nap
Nap right after lunchtime (12/12:30-ish)
3:30/4pm nap
6:30/7pm bedtime

I found a good book for reading about things to try and also average sleep was "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child".
Good luck!

Regards,
E.

As`a experienced daycare provider and mother of three. Your provider needs to keep the babys schedule consistant. If baby is attending daycare atleast 3 days a week, It will take atleast 5-6 weeks for the baby to get used to napping schedule. for example in my daycare I just finished training a six month who comes 5 days a week to automatically go to sleep when it's naptime. 1. All my daycare children go down for nap/quite time at the same time everyday, 2. Baby sleeps only in crib (crib is never used for anything else than sleeping), 3. Always give baby the same blanket if baby uses pacifer only give it at nap time (Reason is they figure out blanket, pacifer, naptime!! they really do figure it out you just have to make sure they don't get pacifer any other time at daycare, it's very convient for providers to use it as a babysitter to pacify babies. I feel that I get paid to entertain and care for baby.babies will naturally cry sometimes up to 1 hour, but it's not really a cry more of a whine, that is the most difficult thing about caring and trining a baby, however the end result after a few weeks is a happy baby who goes to sleep at nap time and a happy provider who gets a break. This is how I do it!! If your baby attends daycare early allow baby to only nap for 45 minutes at 9:00 so that she naps at 12:00 for atleast 2-21/2 hours. If your provider complains that your baby isn't napping it's her responsibility to know enough about infant development that it takes time and patience, that is what we get paid to do or atleast thats how I feel.

I have a 7 month old and if she doesn't get 14 hours in a day , she is cranky. When she naps poorly, she doesn't sleep well at night and vice-versa. I would try to put her to bed earlier; work your way to 7.30pm so she is more rested in the am and ready for her morning nap. Good luck.

Hi P.,

Try sending something from home like a blankie or a stuffed doll. Something that will remind her of home.

So, I think I misunderstood your question. In it, you say she already takes two 20-minute naps between 7a and 4 p. So, my answer would be if she isn't, then the day care providers are giving her what she needs to fall asleep. If she is, then that sounds like a schedule I wish I could be on!

Seriously, when a child isn't napping at day care, sometimes it's just a matter of the baby getting used to falling asleep in a new place. If the place is small enough for her to be rocked (before being put down), then that is great. If it is too big for that, then maybe she just needs to be put in the same atmosphere as she is when she is at home i.e. a blanket wrapped tight, dark or soft music, whichever works at home will work at day care too.

Hope this helped.

i know this isn't the best of help, but, i bet your daughter just isn't comfortable yet! she's probably used to her own home and the comfort of her own home when she naps, that now she's in daycare, it's a whole different thing. it will probably take some time, but she will adjust just fine! i have a 3.5 year old and an 18 month old(both girls) and i remember just when we moved from a different house, my oldest daughter at 5 months wouldn't nap at all! then she got used to her new home. children are very smart. i know it's probably frustrating, but, she'll adjust! hopefully this helps a little for you! take care!

I think if it's new to her(going to daycare)she'll probably just adjusting. Or maybe she's just going to need one good nap a day. Kids are so different. My son started with two naps a day, then went to one. But both my sister's kids never took naps. Don't worry. She's probably just adjusting to her surroundings and to the changes. Sorry, I'm not much help. Good luck!

As a preschool teacher for many years, my best advice is to just give her time. Two weeks isn't very long really for her to adjust to whatever noises are going on around her. Give her time to get used to what's "normal" in this new environment so her sleeping brain can filter out what doesn't need to wake her up. If she's not adjusting in a few more weeks, talk to the teacher and see what kind of distractions are going on in the classroom; perhaps there's another especially loud child who's also having a hard time adjusting. See if the teacher has any suggestions for helping her sleep better. If your child just doesn't adjust to day care, perhaps having a in-home caregiver would work better for you.

Hope this helps, A.