New child at naptime

Hi everyone,

I am new here and also a brand new home daycare provider. I have 3 kids of my own (15, 2.5 and 8 months). I just started with my first daycare child who is 15 months old and only 2 days a week for now (she''ll go full-time soon).
My question is, what do the rest of you do at naptime? Do you rock a child who won't settle or do you leave them to cry? I don't want to start bad habits, but I also feel that a new child may not feel secure enough to fall asleep on his/her own. Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks!

I have a part-timer two days per week. He screams, so I just rock him to sleep after the other one goes to sleep. He's usually out within 5 minutes of me rocking him in the glider.

If he did become a f/t child, I would prob develop a routine of reading a couple of books to him while rocking, then putting him down in the playpen. The other child I have, I used to rock her as well, but now all I do is put her on the bed and cover her. We say night night, and I close the door.

Each child is different, so trying different things to see if they work. I know this little guy gives his mom a hard time, but with his dad, he knows daddy is boss!!! :)

I will rock a child for the first few days/week (or if they are parttime I will rock them until they become fulltime...had a few of those). Then, they simply have to get used to falling asleep on their own. I will let a child fuss but not scream. Children who scream get calmed down in their playpen and I'll pat their back until they calm enough to sleep.

But, my day simply isn't long enough to rock every child to sleep and still have a quiet break for myself too. It doesn't usually take longer than a couple of weeks to get into the nap routine...which is great considering most of the kids are/will be with me for years.

I have rock/ pat to soothe a fussy baby but only for a few days . Some need a favourite blanket to lie on or a teddy to clutch. This helps but I have to make sure I remove the teddy as soon as they fall asleep.

I started with a 9 month old almost 2 months ago, I at first rocked her, I felt that being in a strange surrounding, it should be okay, until she was comfortable with me, after a few days when she ws comfortable with me, I put her down kinda drowsy to see what would happen, she cried a bit, then got more and more upset so I would go in and out to calm her down and eventually she went to sleep. I then discussed with her mom what they do at home, what she would like me to do here, keeping in mind that I'm not going to continue to rock her everyday!!! And she was okay with the alowing her to cry but to go in to sooth her if she got really upset. Took about 2 weeks and it got to the point where she would cry for about 5 minutes and boom, she'd go to sleep. Now she'll cry when I first put her into the playpen, but stops as soon as I leave the room, and although she sometimes doesnt go to sleep right away, she only babbles a bit instead of crying, before she goes to sleep.

I ended up talking to some seasoned providers in my neighbourhood who advised me to just put her in her bed and let her put herself to sleep. The first day she cried on and off for about a half hour (but there were many periods of quiet...it wasn't 30 minutes of straight crying). The next day she cried for about 20 seconds, and today she cried momentarily until I was out of the room. I am so thankful I did this before establishing a bad habit, because naptime was becoming very stressful and I have another child starting next week! I let my own 8 month old cry to sleep at naptime if need be as well and she never cries much.

I am glad you found something that worked for you!

There is a discussion on a couple other places about teaching a child to self soothe and what to do and you have seen the wisdom in letting the child teach themselves. Some lessons aren't for the adult to teach but the child to learn. They will learn if we let them. If you had gone into the child continuously the child would have learned that you were coming and cried or waited for you. Once they figured out you weren't coming back they took responsibility for going to sleep and everyone got a rest time.

[QUOTE=playfelt;1345] Some lessons aren't for the adult to teach but the child to learn. They will learn if we let them. QUOTE]

Well written!!! I totally agree.

I wouldn't want to start any bad habits that I wasn't planning on continuing, kwim? So if I couldn't rock the child every day, I wouldn't start out that way. Best way in my opinion is just to let them learn from day one. Sounds mean, especially a p/t child, but they learn to comfort themselves and end up sleeping better because of it.