18mo not settling at childminder… where next?

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DD has been going to the childminder since she was 15mo. Sometimes she goes in happily but sometimes she’ll cry at the handover and I’m told she’ll take 15-20 mins to resettle.

Generally through the day she’s been fine, but since half term she has been distressed in the day and at pick up. It seems she’s not very happy there so we are considering our options.

But, where do we go from here? A lot of threads on here are about babies not being able to settle at nursery and the advice is to try a childminder! What happens if they aren’t settling at a childminder?

So is your childminder term time only? Mine has settled better at nursery with going more days we increased them since January to 3 days and she is much better now. Personally I’d persevere with it, Im not sure it’ll be any easier going somewhere new.

I had this experience with Dd. She ended up barely sleeping during the day with the childminder. I moved her to another childminder and she settled much better. The first childminder was lovely, but had a lot going on with her own child.

I would suggest looking into other childminders.

Where did she go previously? What are the differences?

Yes, she is term time only, 3.5 days a week.

She’s been with this childminder since I went back to work.

So her first experience of any childcare setting was at 15 months? That will have been a hard adjustment in any childcare setting. But like any issue, it’s worth trying an alternative. I would look at another childminder first. She might just gel with someone else better.

I’d personally say this is causing the issue, she will keep forgetting about it over the school
holidays. It’s taken my 16 month old about 4
months to really settle and thats in a year-round nursery. But I think that’s normal.

What does the childminder say?
Is it a small/big setting?
Are there any other providers with space available to you?

How is she at home generally? Is she happy to be left with friends and family?

She’s great at home. Happy and settled. She’s been left with grandparents for an hour here and there and she’s been fine.

My DC started going to a childminder at 12 months when I went back to work - 3 days a week, not just term time. We had 2.5 months of no naps, barely eating, very unhappy. Suddenly he had his first nap there and he started to settle.

However DC still cried every morning at drop off for over a year. Even now at just turned 3 he sometimes cries on the way because he likes being at home better.

It's really difficult as everyone else's children seem to love childcare and skip in without a backwards glance! Some children just need a lot of support to settle in. I'm so glad we hadn't gone with a nursery as I think he would have absolutely hated it.