Nursery settling in

[kirinm]

My DD starts nursery soon she's two. She is with a childminder at the moment but needs a bit more room and stimulation so we are going to be doing a mixture of the two until the nursery has the days we need.

Has anyone started nursery post lockdown? What is the settling in process now? Is it turn up and say goodbye even on the first day? If so, how did it go and how long did it take for your DC to settle?

P.S I have emailed the nursery for details just not heard back yet.

Sadly yes, turn up and goodbye at the door.
We aren't allowed inside at all. Day 1 started with just an hour or so, building up to a full day over a few weeks. I'd say it has taken probably a month for my DS 16m not to cry at either drop off or pick up. Naps are still a problem in that he will fall asleep there but usually for only 30 minutes or so (whereas he usually does at least 1hr at home). Initially he would only pick at the food too, but now will eat a proper meal when offered. I tried to be as consistent as possible e.g said good bye love you I'm coming back to pick you up etc. Didn't make too much fuss as I found this made it worse on those occasions. He'd usually stop crying within a few mins if I just let him get on with it. Nursery said all very normal behaviours.

Good luck with it!

@SEE123

Sadly yes, turn up and goodbye at the door. We aren't allowed inside at all. Day 1 started with just an hour or so, building up to a full day over a few weeks. I'd say it has taken probably a month for my DS 16m not to cry at either drop off or pick up. Naps are still a problem in that he will fall asleep there but usually for only 30 minutes or so (whereas he usually does at least 1hr at home). Initially he would only pick at the food too, but now will eat a proper meal when offered. I tried to be as consistent as possible e.g said good bye love you I'm coming back to pick you up etc. Didn't make too much fuss as I found this made it worse on those occasions. He'd usually stop crying within a few mins if I just let him get on with it. Nursery said all very normal behaviours.

Good luck with it!

Ah poor you, I know it's so hard to see them upset even though you know they're fine after a while. It took my daughter a good few weeks to resettle with her childminders after lockdown and she knows her!

Not looking forward to it!

It was more the unknown that bothered me. I also started mirroring their routine on the days he wasn't at nursery, so breakfast and lunch at the time time as they would have, naps etc
I did contemplate a nanny but he genuinely loves it now, so think it's a really great environment for him. Prepare yourself for the few weeks of lergies 🤕🤒😷 toddlers are a bit gross 😂😂😂

She's been in childcare for a while (her childminder looks after more than 3 kids as she has an assistant) and catches everything going but I appreciate that with nursery there may be more to catch. I think I'm going to get the chicken pox vaccination as i would really like to avoid that. And impetigo - I know you can't avoid that but that one seems so grim!

Ours is letting parents go inside for a 30min session then doing an hour, 2, 4 before they start. If still not settled can do more sessions until
Parents happy

I work in an outdoor nursery so we have allowed parents to come into our area as long as they stay with their own child. When it was felt the child was ok, mum or dad went and sat on the bench outside the gate. To be honest it's been quite easy to settle compare to indoors in previous settings. Most have settled well in a shorter than expected time.

@Groovee

I work in an outdoor nursery so we have allowed parents to come into our area as long as they stay with their own child. When it was felt the child was ok, mum or dad went and sat on the bench outside the gate. To be honest it's been quite easy to settle compare to indoors in previous settings. Most have settled well in a shorter than expected time.

They do have a big garden with free flow so I might be able to go into there if I'm not allowed inside. We did actually consider a forest school but there aren't any near by.

DD started nursery in August at 27 m. Her keyworker did a home visit where she began to interact with dd, then dd had one settling in visit when I could come into her room and sit for an hour (wearing a mask the whole time), then she stayed for another hour. The guidance says that nurseries should not allow parents into the building if possible, but her nursery insisted it simply wasn't possible without putting the dc's emotional wellbeing at risk. So different nurseries will have their own policies.

She had further settling in sessions where I dropped her at the front door, increasing the amount of time spent each day. And I drop her and collect her at the front door, wearing a mask every day. She's never cried when leaving her and she naps for 70-120 min (bit shorter than at home), and she loves the food there.

@cooltyre

DD started nursery in August at 27 m. Her keyworker did a home visit where she began to interact with dd, then dd had one settling in visit when I could come into her room and sit for an hour (wearing a mask the whole time), then she stayed for another hour. The guidance says that nurseries should not allow parents into the building if possible, but her nursery insisted it simply wasn't possible without putting the dc's emotional wellbeing at risk. So different nurseries will have their own policies.

She had further settling in sessions where I dropped her at the front door, increasing the amount of time spent each day. And I drop her and collect her at the front door, wearing a mask every day. She's never cried when leaving her and she naps for 70-120 min (bit shorter than at home), and she loves the food there.

That's good. I don't think I would want to be there for much longer than an hour but because it is a completely new place to her, I think she could do with me being around for a little while at least on the first day. I don't want to drop her and leave and then she completely freak out.

I'm not worried about her napping - I am 99.9% sure she won't. She is basically trying to drop her nap and the only way I can get her to sleep is in the car. She naps for her childminder but that is hit and miss.

My baby will be 7 months when he starts nursery. I know he's going to cry and the thought of not even being able to settle him on his first session breaks my heart.
Of course it's even worse because he's not used to other people as not many people have been round due to lockdown and restricted numbers meeting up.

@Rosebel

My baby will be 7 months when he starts nursery. I know he's going to cry and the thought of not even being able to settle him on his first session breaks my heart. Of course it's even worse because he's not used to other people as not many people have been round due to lockdown and restricted numbers meeting up.

I had friends who went back to work when their babies were about 7 months old and we were talking about settling in a couple of weeks ago. They both agreed that settling in as a toddler (after lockdown) seemed to be much more difficult than when their toddlers were babies. I think at 7 months they don't really understand what is going on. My DD took less time to settle in when she first went to her childminders (at 12 months) than she did after lockdown at 22 months.