My son is 20 months old and goes to daycare 2 days a week. He goes for full days and naps 2 to 3 hours while he is there. when I pick him up he is miserable for hours. Crys and fusses once we are home (he is fine during the ride home). He plays and is just fine while he is at daycare....has anyone experienced this w/there child? Thanks, W.
I understand he is napping, the other problem may be is that he misses playing with the other children. it is great that you are socializing him because children need that at an early age.
It also depends on what time his nap is and what time are you picking him up.
I go through the same thing. I'm not sure how your nap schedule works at Daycare, but my Daycare cuts out their AM nap when they move into the "Ones Room". My son naps for about 2 hours each day. I don't think that's enough. On the weekends we can't keep him up past 9:30am. He takes two naps whenever he's not at daycare. We've decided that we are going to nap him for about an hour when we get him home from daycare. It's not ideal, but it helps with his temper tantrums.
my 23 month old son gets this way when hasnt gotten enough sleep or attention. could this be an issue?
Sounds as if he is overstimulated later in the day and very tired.
W.,
What time does he wake from his nap and what time do you pick him up? could it be possible he has just gotten up from napping shortly before you arrive and he just isn't happy about leaving his friends?
He could also just be overstimulated. As his body relaxes on the way home during that down time, he may just become tired from all the activity.
Talk to the daycare and find out what his routine is each day, maybe they could switch something around to see if it makes a difference.
When you get home do you usually start get your dinner ready or do you spend some time with him first? Maybe that could be part of the problem, he feels lonely when he gets home.
Just some suggestions to help figure out what it could be.
You might check into how calm the daycare setting is. We had to temporarily use a place that blared loud adult dance music while some of the kids slept (not all of the babies slept at the same time). Our youngest son (then 6 months old) was completely fried when we picked him up. The lights were always on and there was no time EVER to calm down. Absolutely crazy! Look over the rooms carefully and make sure you understand what the daily schedule is like. Maybe he's not really getting a true nap (are the lights turned down? is it quiet?) or maybe they have him so hyper-stimulated when he is awake that his nerves are on end by the time he gets home. Do they engage in calm activities or is it always high energy fun? You might also check to see if they are feeding him anything you don't know about.
That said, with our older so, we had similar issues when he was a baby (at our normal daycare, which has a very calm program). At the time, my husband was a stay at home dad and we put our son in daycare for 2-4 hours a day so that my husband could have a break. We found that about 4 hours was the tolerance limit for him as a baby (once he was past 2, it didn't seem to bother him if he stayed longer). He would be really crabby if he stayed longer. This held true even after my husband went back to work.
In any case, I would predict that this is going to change as he gets just a few months older! Good luck!
sounds as if he is very tired!!!
Yes--he sounds tired to me. Do they have nap time for him there?
W.,
My son used to crash in the car on the way home from daycare, a 3 minute drive. Take a look at him and see if he looks tired in the car. Even though he took a 2 hour nap at daycare, he would wear himself out.
Also, when you pick him up, do you immediately leave or do you give him some time to say goodbye. On days I was late, my son would be a wreck, but on days I was early, I would let him help pick up things and say goodbye to his teachers and friends. He'd always say "I'll see you next time". The same helped in potty training. He says goodbye to his poop when he flushes it down the toilet. Just some thoughts.
Another question: Do you send him for socialization or are you working? The reason I ask is that if you are not working, perhaps you could try to pick him up an hour earlier. When my kids were in daycare, I noticed that around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, the activities started to wind down as the kids began to be picked up. I didn't get off of work until 5, so by the time I got there, there was my son (2) and a 7 year old boy and MAYBE another 3 year old or 2. When I was on maternity leave from my daughter, I still took him 3 days a week, but for 3/4 days so that he was still in the routine. Those days were so much better to pick him up on. He wasn't tired or cranky.
Good luck.
