Anyone else's LO not sleeping at childminder/nursery?

[SoupDragon]

My almost 11-month-old DD has been at her childminder's for 2.5 weeks full time, and 2 weeks part time prior to that. She loves it and is well looked after. But she will.not.nap! It's a great day when she has one 30-minute sleep in the day, and I don't think that's enough. The other day she didn't sleep AT ALL from 6am to 8pm

I get her home just after 4 and some days she's so clingy and cranky and she needs to sleep but is so tired that she's gone all hyperactive, won't sit still, and can't calm down, no matter what I try. Those nights she usually goes to bed with no fuss, though.

She's still not sttn, but I wouldn't necessarily expect it yet, at this age. At night she goes up to bed at 7, usually asleep by 7.30, and will go through to sometime between 1 and 4am before wanting milk or water, and will maybe faff around a bit and have a chat to herself before dropping off again til around 5.30 or 6, when we all get up together. I cosleep with her after she wakes up in the night.

When she's home with us at the weekends or on a day off, she has much longer naps, e.g. this morning I took her out for a walk into town in her buggy, and she fell asleep on the way home. 1 hour and 40 minutes later, she's still sound asleep. She will probably do another shorter nap later on this afternoon, as well.

Obviously it's a much busier environment at the childminder than it is at home, and she's much more stimulated by all the other kids running around (it's 2 childminders working together so twice the number of kids) and all the new toys etc. It's a lot calmer at home as she doesn't have any siblings. The childminder takes her into a quieter room to sleep but she often wakes up after as little as 10 minutes, and won't be coaxed back to sleep.

Do I need to worry about this? I was under the impression that littlies need 2 naps a day until sometime after their first birthday, and then they usually keep a decent length single nap for a couple of years? Certainly the toddlers and preschoolers at the childminder's are often happily sprawled out sleeping when I pick DD up early.

Ok, sorry for the novel...but I'd be very glad of any insight and experience from mums of babies who do similar!

 

[Ashley1021]

I am in the same position. My son goes to daycare four days a week, full time and he refuses to nap for more than one half hour nap. He's been going since 3 months old. If we're at home he will happily take a two hour morning nap and usually an hour to an hour and a half afternoon nap. He will be one the 21st of this month. Just this week he has started sleeping through the night. And is almost always in bed by 7, due to over tiredness!

 

[MindUtopia]

In terms of the initial adjustment period, no I wouldn't be too worried about her not sleeping. It sounds like she is still just getting used to it and they are getting used to her. But I would be concerned if it comes to be a pattern. Any childcare provider ought to be making sure each child is getting what they need and following the expectations you've laid out for them, and they have to be sure they don't have so many kids in their care that they can't do what they ought to do for any one child (actually this is why I am a big fan of nurseries, more hands on deck for these situations). My daughter started at 9 months and they did whatever they had to do to make sure she slept. For the first month, she pretty much slept on someone (they have 5-6 staff there on any given day, so there was always someone with a free lap for an hour). If they were outside playing when she neededc a nap, she could sleep in the pushchair. But they tried all sorts of things to help her be comfortable sleeping on her own to make sure she got her nap in. So in the short term, it's probably fine, but I would make sure they know that they need to figure out what works for her so that in the long-term she's getting enough sleep during the day. Sharing tips from what you do at home might help, bringing a special toy or sleeping bag might also help. But yeah, basically, I would expect them to eventually work it out and find a gentle solution to help her sleep comfortably there. In the meantime, I'd just get her to bed earlier if she's tired until everything works itself out.