To think 1pm is late to put them down for a nap?

[Liverpoolgirl50]

We have an 18mo who wakes between 5:30-6, naps around 11 for 2 hours and then goes to bed around 7 when she’s at home. She has breakfast at 7, a big snack at 10, lunch at 1 and dinner at half 5/6. She’s only been on this routine since Christmas, she was doing 2 naps til December.

She’s at nursery 3 days a week. They do lunch at 11:30 and a nap at 1, but they’ve been saying to me she’s so emotional in the mornings/rarely eats lunch because she’s upset. Which is likely because she’s doing a 6-7 hour stretch before a nap..

I’m just leaving them to crack on because I don’t really have any other choice, but they keep bringing up how emotional she is in the mornings. I have suggested an earlier nap but they all get put down at 1 🤷🏻‍♀️

Is that the norm? I’m guessing she will eventually just get used to it…

If she's just dropped her nap she may need an earlier bedtime for a while? Can you try getting her down for 6.30 or even 6??

If they do lunch at 11.30 they should be putting them down by 12.15/12.30 absolute latest

Normal in our nursery.....breakfast at 8, snack at 10, lunch at 12 and then napping by 1pm, snack at 2pm (later if they have a longer nap) tea at 4pm and then pickup by 6. We just found that our littles ones adapted but my youngest did sometimes have a catnap in the morning when they first dropped to one nap just to get them through till after lunch. then in bed by 6.30pm on a nursery night as they were always shattered!

I find it steange the all go at the same time. In my child’s setting each child has their own routine stuck too, and as they transition to a later nap a lot do go after lunch around 12.30/1 but no worries if they don’t or can’t make it.

Mist toddlers don't get up at 5.30am...

Mine never napped before 1pm. 11am is morning here. When he had one nap we ate together 12-1pm, then nap.

It will be the same at nursery. Realistically most people don’t eat lunch before 12. So they will start lunch around 12, and it probably take an hour to get loads of children to eat, changed etc and the earliest is 1pm nap.

Most nursery’s use same schedule of 7-9am is settling in, breakfast, change. 9-12am is outside, activities, something like music time. You can’t have 1-1 staff talking random children for naps at all different times. At ours only 1 staff member usually stays to settle napping children in one room after lunch, there’s only around 4-5 children who nap. They other staff are needed for all the other children who don’t nap and need entertaining still

I'd probably try and switch home timings to the same as nursery's then, as it will likely result in her eventually sleeping later in the mornings and getting used to a later nap.

Mine used to nap at 12/12.30 for about 2 hours so 1 doesn't seem so bad.

The nurseries likely keep to this schedule for all the other children too. I would adjust as they have been doing. Maybe she'll sleep longer than 5:30am then, that must be a killer

Hmm … many do though. I doubt the OP is wanting this!

It does seem late to me. It was 12-1230 when my son had a nap.

We follow the child's home nap schedule in our baby 0-2yr room so we would put a child down to nap in the morning and save their lunch for when they wake up if needed.

Thanks everyone - yes we don't love the 5:30 wake ups! She's been going til 6:30 the last week or so actually, so maybe it is pushing her in the right direction.

It seems late to me! My 18 month old would sleep 1 - 3 as does a 2 hour nap but then would need a 5 hour wake window to finish the day making her bedtime 8pm!

I have an 18month old plus a lot of friends with babies that age at all different nurseries and none of them have a schedule for the whole group of children! There's a separate nap room of cots and floor beds/mats and they take their child into the room and put them down for a nap when they're tired/their parents request them. The food is done on a schedule (breakfast served until 8.30, snack at 10, lunch 11.30, dinner 3.30) but if a child was napping during that time they would keep food aside and give it to them when they woke.

How do they get the whole room to nap at the same time?! Do all the staff just sit alone for 2 hours?

My 18month old does 7am wake up, 12-2 nap, in bed by 7.15, asleep by 7.30pm