Napping and bedtime

[Shannie]

I have a DCG who is almost 4. Her mom doesn't want her to nap, but says if she does to wake her after half hour as she has a hard time going to bed otherwise. This week she has been super grumpy and falling asleep as soon as quiet time starts. Her mom messaged yesterday and mentioned that she is having a hard time sleeping at night and it has been making her take cat naps which makes the next night's bedtime harder again. I'm not sure what I should do with this info. The DCG had a meltdown today and I told her to close her eyes and she was out instantly....so most definitely overtired. I wish that the parents would tell me these things at drop off. Usually at pick up I mention how she slept and mom says "oh her uncle was over last night, or oh her dad took her to a hockey game last night" Seriously?! she's 4 and those games start at 7:30pm.....what to do?

[Dreamalittledream]

I have raised 4 sons & can honestly say that the nights that they had sleep issues were when nap time was altered. My own almost 4 year old is the first to sleep and 2 1/2 hours later the last to wake @ nap time ...and sleeps a full night with no issues (8pm to 6am). I honestly believe that most sleep issues are a result of routines out of whack...as it sounds in this case. I do not wake my children (daycare children) before the 2 hour mark (& only then to fit in our snack/diapering routine/home time routine. My opinion is that if they are sleeping, they need it. As to what to say to Mom...she is grumpy, this disrupts my daycare routine, falls asleep immediately, my daycare policy is a mandatory rest period of .... hours...how can you control if she closes her eyes at all? Perhaps a bigger centre would be a better choice for her with staffing to allow for non-nappers?

[Shannie]

I agree with the scheduling. My daughter is 3.5 and naps 2 hours a day. she sleeps at night from 7:30-6 and when she doesn't nap....she has a terrible sleep, and is uber grumpy the next day. I wish parents would figure this out.

[gramma]

Parents IME are always quick to blame nap time. Over the years, I have had to "alter" the truth slightly and what happens usually is mom will say please dont give X a nap anymore because she wnont sleep at night. So for the next week or so I let mom believe tht X did not nap each day and lo and behold their nighttime problems seem to go away. Imagine that. Now I have only done this in cases where I truly felt that the child needed the nap. The other issue becomes if you want tohave kids in your care that do not nap. I know that there are some providers whose policy is that when they no longer need to nap they have outgrown the daycare. good luck with this one, parents who dont beleive their kids need to nap can be brutal to deal with

[cfred]

OMG, I used to have a couple parents who asked me not to let their child sleep because they were having trouble going down at night. I went along with this for a few weeks and it was awful!!! Then I just went back to normal naps and didn't mention it to the parents. There's no way I'm keeping kids awake if they're tired. Not only is it miserable for them, but for the rest of us too. Forget it.

I've mentioned this in another post, but - Back in school for ECE, a question on a test was 'What do you do if a child is tired, but parents have requested that he/she be kept up?" The answer - "Let the child sleep." Our first and only priority is to do what's best for the child, not the parent.

Nap time is mandatory here. I will never, ever have a non-napper here. 2.5 hours per day.....no compromise.

[apples and bananas]

I would tell the parent that quiet time is between 12 and 2:30. Everybody goes for quiet time. If she's outgrown her nap then she's outgrown my daycare. I don't believe in waking sleeping children. Her body knows what she needs and I would not mess with that.

Children who don't sleep well at night are usually over tired.

[Momof4]

If the child has a nice afternoon nap they are rested and ready to get through the rest of their day until bedtime without drifting off to sleep at dinner or being overtired and too grumpy to go to sleep at bedtime. Why can't some parents understand that fact? Thankfully, I believe most parents realize that their children need a nap.