Sleep at childminder

[Mummysarah12]

My LO will be 14 months in June when he will start at his childminder. He has a 2 hr nap in the middle of the day but I have to settle him with me by cuddling him for a good 10 minutes before he drops off, or I walk him in the pram. I am worried how on Earth he will sleep at the childminder as he can’t self settle. I have discussed with my childminder but I didn’t feel reassured, particularly as she said she’s not allowed to take the children out of the house during the lockdown. Can anyone offer any advice on how children sleep at a childminder? This must be a common problem?? TIA

So can she cuddle him on the sofa and carry him up to bed when he’s nodded off?

My DM has been a childminder for 20years, babies do one thing for their parents and another with her 😂 there are initial settling in issues. However, Childminders put the new baby down to sleep after a feed, clean their bum and a bottle/pacifier with the other children and new baby will follow suit with the crowd.
For context my mum also babysits if the parents ask, the parents often moan how hard it is to put the kids to bed every night and low and behold, they are little sleeping angels for her! Absolute baby whisperer, Childminders have a wealth of experience. You may be the parent, but it doesn't mean you know routine best. Please don't let this worry you, your baby will be fine. You have chosen a professional who should (you interviewed them) know what they are doing :)

Try not to worry too much. I've been childminding for 9 years now and can honestly say I've never had a child of napping age not having some form of nap. The children are so quick at picking up that it's a different place & tend to go with the flow. Especially if other children are napping and your child sees this. Honestly it really is so much easier putting a child that isn't mine down for a nap. The same cannot be said for when I put my own two down for naps as babies!

The children I have looked after if they needed cuddles at home then that's what we do at first, slowly decreases the length & transferring them into a cot. Eventually I'm able to pop them into travel cots & say goodnight. A little pat and then they go quiet and I watch on the monitor and they nod off.

Also being in a new places with lots of different things to look at and play with they all seem more ready to sleep after a fun morning and a nice lunch.

Ah thanks for the reassuring comments. I’m hoping it will be fine & im just being nervous with my return to work now imminent. I’m just worried as her own kids are a bit older than my LO & she is only opening me as I’m a critical worker so initially there won’t be the other kids there. 🤞all will work out.

Hi, I am a childminder and I find initially the new child’s nap patterns change, they may not sleep as long as childcare as it’s all new to them and sometimes it’s to fun to sleep. But within a few weeks they settle in and sleep normally. I cuddle younger ones to sleep if needed and then put them down but I do not hold while asleep I also don’t walk them to sleep as I have other children to care for and all of mine seem to nap after lunch together. It’s unfair to accept other toddlers to walk around the town just to get baby to sleep when they could be asleep or playing. I would try to establish your child into self soothing Routine before they start with the childminder as this will not only help hi. To sleep but also if he becomes upset

The last baby I started with couldn’t get himself to sleep at all. He started end of November and would only nap in his mums arms and by the time he finished because of the lockdown, he was completely happy To be put down in the buggy, in a different room to me and would sleep for 2 hours. It was a slow process but We got there.

It’s sometimes a long process and can be trickier with some babies than others, but a good childminder will be able to sort it and I’ve also found that once the childminder has sorted a regular daily nap, night time sleep seems to improve too, which is a massive benefit for the parents. I would never agree to take a child out on a daily walk to get them to sleep, even at the moment if I only had one child as going forward it wouldn’t be wouldn’t be practical when I was back to full numbers, but it is a benefit for your baby that they will be the only one in at the moment as the cm can spend time settling them in really well and establishing a really good bond between them.

Babies seem to adjust really well I use gradual withdrawal generally within a week they are sleeping

Mine would only nap on me, for 45 mins max when she started at the CM. Within 6 weeks she was doing 2 decent length (1-2 hours, sometimes 3!!) naps in a pram with no rocking or cuddling or anything to get her off!! She’s a magician I tell you.

Witchcraft. All childcare workers seem to have baby sleeping witchcraft as standard.

I think it's a combination of things...baby learns how they sleep feed etc with each person so expect that routine with that person. They also pick up on stress and anxiety which makes changes harder with those people your anxious it wont work or desperate for it to work a new person dosent have that stress.

As others said how a child behaves for a cm or nanny is different for parent

Obv then won’t leave them crying but they will learn to self settle

If you can start that now by doing gradual retreat and laying by him. Then sitting and patting etx it will help your child

My toddler has to sleep in the pushchair at home with a very specific milk and white noise regime. At nursery they shove him in a corner on a mat on the floor and he sleeps like an angel. I’ve given up trying to work out how.

As a PP mentioned kids will do one thing for their parents and the opposite for someone else.
When mine started nursery we used to have to rock to get to sleep, both nap time and bedtime, and them put in the cot once fully asleep, at nursery anywhere became a bed and he would just get down at naptime and go for it...no dummy either..which he used to wake up for at home!

I've found they tend to find their own routine in childcare, which often goes with the flow of where they are, and at home their routine stays as was.

I'm sure everything will be fine, and good luck going back to work, I fretted for ages with my eldest about going back, once there it felt like I hadn't been away, and was nice in way.

My lovely childminder pushed DS round in a pram every nap time for a year (he was the one child her sleep witchcraft didn't work on). I think she was more relieved than me when he dropped his nap.

Will she be doing school drop off / pick ups, DS's naps were mostly on the journey, but a walk up and down her garden until he was asleep also worked.

I happily pop little ones in a sling to go to sleep at first then within a few weeks they will settle beautifully for me.

Don't worry, your baby will be really well looked after and they'll be settled bin no time at all.