Afternoon sleep at nursery......

[scully]

My dd is 3 this week, and has recently moved from the toddler room up to preschool (she goes to a chain nursery). In the toddler room they would have a sleep after lunch of between 30min to 1.5hrs, depending on the child. Now she is in the preschool room there is no daytime sleep at all. They have quiet time after lunch but there are no facilities to sleep at all. Consequently when I collect her at 5.15pm, she is falling asleep in the car on the way home (we have a 25 min drive home) and is then hysterical when I have to wake her up. The nursery says that they don't have sleeps in the preschool room to prepare children to go to school. This doesn't work for my dd though, as she still really benefits from even a 30min nap after lunch. I've raised my unhappiness with this arrangement with the nursery head, her room head and various teachers but as it's policy they don't seem willing to be flexible at all. I just can't believe that she is the only barely 3 year old there who isn't getting home exhausted and over tired. Has anyone else experienced this? Any thoughts?

[Mum2girls]

In my DD1's nursery, they still permit sleeps for 4yo if required. Children are all different FGS, you should insist that they accommodate her needs.

[morningpaper]

That a bit crap - why can't she join a younger room at lunchtime?

[carras]

Not sure what the sleep policy is in my ds2 nursery, he is 18mths so long way off preschool, but maybe suggest your dd could pop back into the toddler room for her lunchtime nap. They must be able to be more helpful.

[honeypot01]

hi Scully,

My son went into the pre-school room in Oct, was 3 in Sept, also at a chain nursery. They don't do sleeptime down there, as my son is the yougest, he wont be starting school til Sept 06, when the children upstairs in younger class have their sleep they sometimes take my son for a sleep, he goes 3 days a week, 8-6pm. Surely your nursery could do something like that. He regularly has a sleep, i don't give him a sleep during the day when im off work thou.

[scully]

The nursery head did suggest she could join the toddler room for an afternoon sleep, but I wasn't sure if that was the best solution. They make a big deal of moving upstairs to preschool and if she then needs to then go downstairs for a rest each day? I may have to try it though if she doesn't improve. The poor little thing is so tired when I bring her home now, it's awful to see.
Think I'll be raising it with them again this afternoon, as the last 2 days have been awful, when I've tried to wake her up.

[scully]

& he doesn't mind going to the younger room for a sleep honeypot? maybe that's worth a try. dd is at nursery from 7am to 5.00pm so it's a long day, and her tiredness now isn't helping my guilt over the arrangement. don't think it helps that I'm newly pregnant and rather emotional at the moment

[chipmonkey]

We had this with ds1. We were told he didn't "want" to sleep at naptime, odd as he always did at home. TBH it only got better when we moved house and used a new creche. The new creche had "quiet time" where younger children went to their cots. Older children were given a cushion and a blanket and had to lie down. Those who needed a sleep could have one, those who didn't could look at books but not make any noise. It worked for ds1! The owner of the creche had children herself so was sympathetic to the fact that some children need more sleep than others!

[PrettyCandles]

What nonsense not allowinga 3yo to sleep 'in preparation for school'! Of course if she needs to sleep then they need to accommodate her. I don't see anything wrong with putting her down with the younger ones for her nap.

In my ds's nursery the younger children used to nap and the older children had 'quiet time', but if an older child needed a nap s/he would be put to nap with the younger children, no hassle no issues. Since they started taking children from teh age of 18m they have rearranged their day's schedule and now all the children lie down on a bed in the napping room for at least 30m, but none are made to stay in bed longer than they want. This means that some will rest quietly for 30m, whereas others will sleep soundly for 2h.

Even children whose parents said that they had outgrown the nap are now sleeping in the afternoon!

[mumeeee]

In the nursery where I work any child is allowed to have a sleep. They sleep on big floor cushions in the quiet room. We take them from 2 and last yesr there was a four year old who often had a 30 minute nap.

[JulieF]

DD is at a school nursery. She dropped her afternoon nap when she moved from a cot to a bed at age 3 but very occasionally she will ask for a nap.

At nursery they have cushions if any child is tired, in fact they ask you on your application form if your child usually needs a sleep in the day. I have often seen the odd child flaked out whilst the rest of them continue to play.

[dropinthe]

I had exactly the same problem but insisted on taking my ds1s dummyand special pillow in and telling them to put him in for a kip in the rainbow(toddler)room-he is 3 and 3 months and is only now refusing his sleep because there is so muh going on in the pre school room that he desnt want to miss-but he too is knackered when he comes home at 4.30 and quite often misses his tea and is usually asleep by 7 oclock!

[bobbybob]

My ds's preschool goes from 6 weeks until 6 years and they all have a sleep after lunch if they want it (or a lie down with a book if they don't).

[Hulababy]

In DD's nursery all children, regardless of age, are allowed to have a nap if they want. There is no set nap time. There are, for the over 2s, a few mattress type things in the quiet room where children can go and lay down for a nap or a rest when they need to.

DD has just turned three and she will, every so often, have a brief 30/40 minute nap at nursery. I can always tell when she has as she isn't as grumpy and tired - nursery is a long day and some kiddies need a little rest to recoup for the afternoon IMO.

[bubble99]

I think it might be worth reminding the manager that your child is more than a 'commodity'. To say that they don't have sleeps to prepare the children for school is absolute rubbish. A full day at nursery is much longer than a school reception class day. Unfortunately many of the chain nurseries stick rigidly to policies which are written with use of their resources (in this case staff) in mind. I wonder if they have enough staff to supervise an after lunch sleeper in the pre-school room. As earlier posters have pointed out there is no reason why your DD couldn't curl up on a cushion in the home corner or in the reading corner while the other children are having quiet time. Our DS2 went to a chain nursery for a (very short) while. I went in early and unannounced to collect him after lunch and found him asleep, on his own, on the floor in a storeroom. He was in the preschool room and I was told exactly the same, that they don't have facilities for preschool sleepers.

[scully]

Thx everyone. No sleep yesterday either but I managed to keep her awake in the car on the way home and she was a different child - tired but happy and chatty and went to bed at 8.00pm as usual, after 30 minutes of reading stories. So she either needs to have a little rest in the afternoon or I need to become better at driving and keeping her awake at the sametime!
I will have another chat with them and let you know the outcome.

[Blu]

Scully - DS is almost 4 and is only just growing out of needing a sleep. I can't for the life of me think why they need to be 'prepared for school' more than a year in advance! You may find that she goes through a long phase of needing a sleep some days but not others...at DS's nursery the pre-schoolers can lie down on a mat and have a rest, either in thier own room or with younger children, and it seems to work well.
The problem I found with the teatime nap is that sleep at bedtime gets delayed and then they end up even tireder the next day.

[bundle]

the children at our nursery in the 3+ room have a rest and quiet time with books/big cushions, and those who need it have a snooze. can't they try that?

[Bozza]

3 yo is very different to 4.5 yo (ie school age) and agree about length of nursery day. DS who is 4.2 now doesn't really need a nap at all at nursery but was still having one at 3yo which he eventually dropped. At our nursery the over 2s are all together at the after lunch period although usually the 2yos are a seperate group (tweenies) to the 3+yos (pre-school). The ones who need to sleep go into the tweenies room have little camp beds while the others are in the pre-school room having stories, quiet time.

DD is about to move from baby room to toddler room and while in the baby room they have naps as and when the toddler room is on a routine of naps after an early lunch on big cushions. However they have a couple of cots for the younger ones who are not yet ready for this routine and might still need an extra sleep.

Think I would suggest your dd goes back to the toddler room for her nap and see how she goes with that.

[scully]

Just a little update....from this week they have started to take her back to toddlers to have a sleep after lunch. But of course my darling dd isn't closing her eyes and co-operating, as yet. Hopefully when the novelty wears off, she will start sleeping again......

[tew]

Funnily enough I was about to start a new thread on exactly this. My dd is only 8 months old. She was a great sleeper till she started nursery at 5 months. But as she's such a party animal she will only sleep for a max of 30 mins during the whole day, which means she falls asleep on the 10 min walk home, crys when I try and wake her up and is very unhappy. Doesn't take enough of her bottle, therefore has started waking in the night, most unlike her. She only does 3 days a week at nursery thank goodness, as by Thu she's exhausted. Any tips much appreciated! Thx.

[scully]

Well we had success yesterday, she had an hour's sleep and was a different child. The difference was astounding. Fingers crossed she can manage it again today
Tew, not sure for an 8mth old - does the nursery have a separate sleep area that is quiet or is she being disturbed by slightly older children who don't want to sleep? Know exactly how you feel though......

[bundle]

tew, my experience was totally the opposite, dd1 hardly ever slept in the day until she went to nursery and they got her into a fabulous routine sleeping around 1-2 hrs after lunch. do the other children sleep? does she have to sleep at a specific time?

[patch]

Dd was 4 last August and started school full time last September, and has fallen asleep at the after school club at school. At her nursery they tried to stop her having an afternoon nap - but sometimes she would just fall asleep, she will sleep anywhere at a table doing writing, on a wooden floor. At school they said that if they noticed that she was going to sleep, they would take her to pre-reception to sleep in the quiet.

Even now she will sometimes sleep on the way home from school, but I think that as she gets up at 6.30am and is at school 8am to 5.15pm if she needs a 10 minute nap what is wrong in that, but if it gets to 30 mins then I will wake her to make sure she goes to bed. Everyone needs different amounts of sleep, most nights she goes to sleep at about 9.30pm (even without a nap, it is 10pm with) and we are lucky if it is before 9pm, but we have no problems waking her up at 6.30 sometimes she is up before hand naturally.

Not much help, but as long as you are happy, let your dd sleep where ever and when ever suits you.

[fifilala]

my ds has just moved to preschool - went throught eh same thing with falling asleep in the car etc but he has now got used to it.......still occasionally does it especially if he has had a bad night the night before, hopefully will improve - I did find that if I managed to get him into the house without waking andlet him sleep for about 30mins he ate a meal better as he was a bit more refreshed and still managed to go to bed at his normal....hope things improve, maybe just an aea with soft cushions maybe helpful for quiet time after lunch????