Little starts crying when its sleep time, advice please

[MUM2BLESS]

I am a childminder, when its time for the little one to settle down to sleep she starts crying,

I do not want to start rocking her to sleep as it may become a habbit. I had to be very firm with my voice. She did evenutually go to sleep. She is with me too long for her not to sleep.

How do you handle crying minded children? she is only just 24 months.

Sorry topic should be little one starts crying when its sleep time, advice please

I have the same aged mindee and she cries for short time before she sleeps. She's just one of those who has to have this little cry then off she goes (sometimes she forgets to cry and then suddenly puts on the cry when she remembers, you can tell the difference between her real and fake cry She's the same at home. She'd NEVER sleep if we waited until she didn't cry. And she's now beyond rocking to sleep anyway.

Just a thought but mine stopped crying properly (i.e. turned to the pretend cry) once I gave her a teddy that she had for HER naptimes and a little blanket (even if warm). I started by putting her down and stroking her face then walking out and coming back in every few mins so she knew I was still there.

Some do cry a little before sleep and do this at home too. Some things do help like a blanket, soft toy we put a classical DVD on for one mindee that does the trick also having a regular routine helps for some so that they get used to the timing.

Thanks for your replies. The little one also cries at home too. I think maybe I deal with it differently to how the parents do.

I will try to be more understanding, but if I need to be firm I will be.

Maybe I need to keep her in the same room as myself, so she can see me. When she sleeps maybe I could put her in another room.

One of my mindees used to sleep with a dummy and parents decided that they did not want mindee to any longer so replaced this with a teddy. Mindee was then 14 months. This obviously caused major probs with setting mindee but now a couple of months later mindee settles usually within 20-30 minutes. I find if I use a firm voice with this particular mindee makes mindee worse so I use a very gentle, soft tone of voice and stroke mindees hair but would never pick up out of cot (unless ill or really really upset).

Do you think reading a story before nap time would make any difference to her settling?

I am not sure, could try that. I think it could be because I leave her in a quite room by herself. I think I will stay with her until she sleeps.