I am a day care provider, and this question is about one of my day care kids. This has been happening every day for weeks, and I'm seriously at my wits' end. I have six kids in the house, and all but one (my oldest son) nap. I don't have a lot of choices of places to put kids, so I'm thinking about moving E (the one I'm having trouble with), but that's not the most practical solution.
Every day, she goes down for a nap in the same room as my 2-year-old. They get a story and a good night, and I leave to go clean up from lunch and settle the baby down for his nap. And almost every day, about 15 minutes later, just as I'm sitting down with the baby and his bottle, I hear her sobbing in the bedroom (which is just in the next room). I call out to her that if she needs to go potty, she should just go, and she says okay. She keeps crying, and I either finish feeding the baby or go in. But either way, she announces when I get in there that she has to go potty. The thing is that now my 2-year-old is screaming and extra hard to get to sleep, since she's been screaming and I'm in and out. And the baby is probably screaming because he hasn't been settling down during all this. And this happens every day. And every day I tell her that if she needs to go, just go. She's been potty trained for more than a year, and she usually doesn't tell me when she has to go; she just goes. It's just during naps.
We also have trouble when she wakes up and wakes everyone up by opening and closing the door, often crying by herself, when I tell her every day to come get me (I may be in another part of the house by that time, with my oldest, who isn't napping). It's possible that she's still waking up at that time and confused, but she used to come get me; it's just since my oldest stopped napping that she doesn't.
Nap time has become the hardest part of my day, with this feeling that I can explain it a million times, and she'll still sit on her bed and cry when she has to go potty, and she'll still wake everyone going in and out of the bedroom when she wakes up. Any suggestions for getting through this would be great!
Even though it isn't the most practical, I'd move her to a different napping location and 'start fresh' with her there. I'd have a little conference with her before her nap that first day in the new location and have her practice what she will do if she has to go potty or what she will do when she wakes up and if she does what you want her to, give her tons of praise. And make the move + for her...because she is 3 and can go to the potty by herself she gets to sleep in a new place, etc. Nap time is important for everyone!
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T.S.
answers from
Minneapolis
on
Have you asked her parents if there's been any changes recently at home? How does she nap on the weekends? I'm taking it she cries, but doesn't say why? Are her parents attempting to help identify the issue leading to the change? Have there been any major changes at daycare? I found with my son who was almost 2 at the time that when we fished the basement and moved things downstairs, his sleep at night went from great to bad. It took us a couple of days to realize it, but he thought we were leaving him, because there was no longer the sound of TV and mommy and daddy talking outside the room. As soon as we identified that we found a way to create the noise he was used to (for a bit until he got used to us being downstairs) and sleep returned to normal.
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J.
answers from
Minneapolis
on
I worked at an in-home daycare center and the daycare provider sat in the room until the kids went to sleep. It usually didn't take very long. I would suggest trying to give the baby his bottle in the room where they nap.
Otherwise I would suggest moving the child to a different location.
Good luck.
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B.H.
answers from
Minneapolis
on
I worked at a inhome daycare. The owner and myself did it. This is how our nap time went. Anyone under 4-5 years old had to take a nap. We had them run around outside EVERYDAY snow,sun didn't matter they had to burn off their energy. We ate lunch, one of us cleaned up and one of did diapers, potty breaks. Everyone had to try to go potty. Then we settled down with books on the couch all the kids crowded around. Then I stayed in the play area on the couch with baby and fed the baby or rocked her to sleep or whatever. My boss had the kids mats spread out all over the floor in the kitchen and dining area, made it dark in there and spread the kids out so they couldn't touch eachother but were all in the same room. Then it was last call for potty breaks. Everyone climbed in bed and she told them a story or read a story, She went around and sang a good night song to each kid indivually so they all got attention and she sat there in the dark for about 10min. If anyone made a peep or squeak she would say strike 1 and so on. If they got to many strikes at nap time they didn't get a fun treat at snack time after nap. Fun treats were cookies, candy, stuff like that. Otherwise they got a boring treat like Cheese It's or crackers. This worked really really good for us. There was alot of days they got to many strikes but there was alot of days they got no strikes at all. Then when all the kids were out we got our 2 hour break. aaaahhh... but it wasn't relaxing break everyday we had kids wake up screaming, this or that my daughter talked in her sleep and woke everyone up a few times. We'd tip toe back in there and rub their backs or something. Granted we did have 2 adults but it is hard. Working daycare is very hard I got burnt out fast. Good Luck
