Are nurseries not allowed to wake babies from naps?

[Maternityleavelady]

Is there a new (or indeed old) rule/guideline/policy from government/dept of education/ofsted or some other official body that says that nursery workers may not wake a sleeping baby aged under 2?

I have always asked nurseries to cap my children’s naps after a certain time, to ensure they sleep easily at night, but now my nursery is telling me they aren’t allowed to do this!

if anyone can point me in the direction of the relevant policy/rule please I would be very grateful. Thanks

It won’t be an official rule, just nursery policy.

Ofsted don't really like it, or indeed preventing children from napping altogether.

hey Childminder here so same rules as nurseries (practically)

It’s not advised to cut a child (under2) nap. All children are different and some sleep better at night but most don’t. Yes they may go to bed earlier and easier, but because they are over tired the sleep quality is poor, usually waking 2-3 times.

There will also be the issue, that the nursery probably don’t want you to know, that waking children will affect the ratios and potentially mean that more Staff members need to be present and not on their lunch break. Lunchtime sleeps are when the majority of the staff go to lunch so if a child needs waking up earlier it can affect that.

All in all though, it’s your choice if you want your child to be woken, they should do that.

My DD's nursery does wake them up. I was there at settling in session and one boy was sleeping and they woke him up as they had to change room.

It is very hard to wake up a sleeping baby who wants to sleep longer so it is probably best not attempted.

Don't wake a sleeping baby

Depriving a tired baby or child of sleep is not the best care for that child. The needs of the child must take priority.

If a baby wakes easily and has had enough sleep then waking them after a set time is OK. If the baby is still tired and won't wake easily or needs to repeatedly be kept awake, then the child needs more sleep.

@KateyCuckoo do you know where I can find the ofsted info about this in writing online please? Thanks

My 19 month old is a bit unusual and we have learnt from experience that she only needs a short lunchtime nap. If she sleeps more than an hour at lunchtime, or wakes later than 1pm, she won’t go to sleep until around 9pm and then wakes several times during the night. We still need to get her up by 7.30am latest the next day so she then doesn’t get enough sleep and the vicious circle of wanting a 2 hour lunchtime nap continues. When she is at home with a 1 hour lunch nap she goes to sleep at 7.30pm, doesn’t wake during the night, and sleeps until 7-7.30am. It’s much better for her - and the rest of the family - to cap her lunchtime naps.

As all babies are different (her older sister needed a long lunchtime nap for much longer) and we know our baby best we want nursery to follow the schedule which works best for our baby and family.

@Lindy2 she does indeed wake easily after one sleep cycle (around 45-50 mins) by gently saying her name. At home we watch her on the monitor and go in when she is stirring.

(Obviously if she is ill we let her sleep longer).

Strange.
I work in many nurseries as an agency worker and lots of children have written next to their name in the sleep chart;
"Max 1hr"
"No sleep after 2pm"

These are little new people. Nursery is going to be huge stimulation for them. They choose what time to sleep, they often conk out when they're ready. If my under 2 had had a full on day at nursery, I'd struggle to even feed them before bed time. I've got a pic of my then 4 year old after a day at school. Came out of kitchen with a bit if tea and she's sparko on top of the table 🤣 Went to bed, slept all night.

@Toonali8 thanks - and I am not surprised about the staff lunch break issue.

It's not in writing, it will be said to settings during their inspections and they will be marked down for it. In line with other practices such as force feeding, it's not Child led behaviour.

There's nothing official about limiting sleep, it's just a nursery policy.

Inspections are quite subjective so a particular Ofsted inspector may question why a child is being woken and if it is in the child's best interests, for example if the child is distressed about being woken.
If Ofsted observed a child being disturbed from sleep the nursery would have to be able to justify it.

There used to be something in the EYFS welfare requirements about providing children opportunities to rest but I think it may have been removed from the more recent versions.

If y nursery/childminder had refused to support my routine with my youngest then I'd have genuinely pulled him out of there.

He's the youngest of 4 and the rest were great sleepers, nothing really affected their night time sleep. The youngest stopped day time naps at 13 months old (I was gutted!). If he even had a 15 minute lunch time nap he was up until gone midnight. He's still the same now at 6 years old. If he falls asleep because he's got a headache then I know I'm up until 1/2am.

I told this to my childminder and on the whole she followed my request not to allow him to sleep, you just had to keep him engaged in an activity. One day he came home and wouldn't sleep until midnight so I knew she'd let him nap. I said this can't happen again, it affects the whole family and he still needs to be up for 7am. She listened to me thankfully because I would've made it my hard boundary and pulled him out.

Tbh if her naps are that short, and have that much of an effect on her bedtime sleep, then she probably isn't going to need them much longer, or can get away with a 10min cat nap if desperate, then a slightly earlier bedtime.

I think you will probably struggle to find a baby unit that is prepared to restrict sleep so severely.

I'm a childminder and we are out and about and sometimes children fall asleep in the car, I can't stop them! How sad that you'd be prepared to move your child over this and would feel 'not supported'.

They will be referring to the rights of a child, I think its article 31 of the UNCRC. Oftsted, Care Inspectorate frown upon children being deprived of their sleep so will be why the nursery is reluctant.
I'm a childminder & explain to parents rather than a blanket refusal, I can try to gently waken their child - open curtains/blinds, gently disturb rtc but if they are clearly still unable to waken then I will leave them another 20mins or so & try again.
Sleep cycles are around 45 mins so it's often possible to waken gently at the end of a cycle.
There is a lot of evidence though that a young child who is sleep deprived will actually sleep at night less well, so limiting naps often backfires & makes night sleep even worse.

What a frustrating policy. Ours have always woken our DC when asked.

Interesting, my dd is similar, has been having 2-3 hour naps on nursery days then she's bouncing off the ceiling until about 9.30 because she isn't tired. Goes fairly well to bed at 7 and sleeps through to 6 on non nursery days.

I feel 1hr30 would be plenty and is more than the hour she ever manages at home. Nursery have agreed they'll try to wake her up when she stirs if she's had more than that.

It sounds like she'd be better off having an unrestricted nap and then waking up earlier in the morning. An hour max is nothing on a busy nursery day at her age.

My nursery was useless with naps about 7-8 years ago. Ds2 used to have a late afternoon nap then be up til 10 or 11pm! If there was no nap he'd go down 7/ 730ish generally slept all night either way.

It might just be 20mins falling asleep in his supper. I'd be able to keep him up when he was with me but it suited nursery to let him sleep. They didn't listen to me explaining ds was getting less sleep as a result of the nap. He was still up at 7am. It was the difference between 9 hous sleep with a short nap or 11-12 hours without a nap. My nursery had been taken over by the NW "kids planet" chain and it got worse but it was too late to change.

I can't blame the nursery workers wanting one less child to deal with at the tail end of the day but the nap thing was probably the worst thing about nursery.

Mine wouldn't cap naps in the baby room, but they would once they were in the toddler room. They would also often ring me and say she's falling asleep after 3pm, and you say she can't sleep after 3pm, what would you like us to do etc.