Naps at nursery

[Lotty1985123]

Hello

Just some advice. I've just dropped of my 18 month old at nursery, he has just gone from the baby room to the toddler room and I explained that he has a morning nap around 10ish. They said that they don't do morning naps as it's not the baby room and would only facilitate a afternoon nap! By then my child would be exhausted.
I'm not sure what to do or if this is right? Any thoughts

18m is young for the toddler room. At my place we move children up on their second birthday. And by then the morning sleep is usually dropped any way.

Could you find a different nursery?

Hopefully when he gets completely overtired and overstimulated and has a full on meltdown they'll realise they're being dicks. My little one was still on 2 naps at this age so seems strange to me that they expect him to just do without. Have you spoken to the manager and explained your concerns. If they won't help is there another nursery, though I know probably not. Would a childminder setting be better?

DC2 went to the 18m-3 year room at 15months as that was the only place they had space. Naps were after lunch.

He was absolutely fine, even though he would have had a nap at home.

They can’t run nap schedules to individual kids, somehow they all adapt fine.

This isn't true. The nursery mine is in follows a baby/child led approach. They let the kids sleep when they need it and follow their cues. Mine has recently dropped to one nap, and it's around 11.30 am, and they let her sleep. I tend to only let her nap 1.5 hours hut they refuse to wake a sleeping baby (unless there is a medical need to), so she will sleep for around 1.75 to 2 hrs there. They will also put her down for a nap anywhere from 10.30 to 12.15. She will push through if there's food or something interesting to do.

For instance, when she first started, they let her have up to 4 naps a day while she was settling and overwhelmed. It was a bloody nightmare, but it got her settled and feeling comfortable there. She now will go and independently nap if there's a blanket on the floor (nursery pallet style) she will put herself to sleep if needed.

Each nursery follows its own "approach." we specifically chose a baby led one. As we had the same issue with dc1 and not letting them sleep when it was needed.

Babies will also adapt eventually and sometimes not very easily. If yours doesn't and it's causing problems, I would find a new nursery and one that is baby led.

Don't panic, he will adjust! Most 18 month olds are on one nap a day.

I'd see how he gets on the next few days and then decide what to do.

It's pretty poor, but that is the nature of group childcare unfortunately. There has to be an element of fitting in with the routine.

Sounds normal to me. 15 months is the average age for the 2->1 nap transition so by 18 months you’d expect that they’ll be fine on 1 nap after lunch and shouldn’t find it too difficult to adjust to the group schedule. It might be a few days of crakiness but then you’ll find the lunchtime nap will lengthen and he’ll be fine, and riding out the transition is something that you’d go through around this age regardless whether it was at nursery or at home. You’ve also got walking at this age which means they ideally need to be separate from the crawling babies. My youngest’s nursery was 6-18 months in the baby room, but moved earlier if on 1 nap and confidently walking. I don’t know what age they moved on again since we swapped to a preschool at 2. My eldest was in the US and they had ‘young toddlers’ for 15-24 months and that was also everyone on 1 nap after lunch.

Is he still on 2 naps? Most 18 month olds would already be on one nap. You could see how he goes with one nap and if it really doesn’t work see if they can keep him in the baby room a bit longer?

At my DDs nursery the baby room offers the option of one or two naps but the pre-toddler room (starting at 15-18 months) all do one nap after lunch. For a long time after going to one nap my DD would start it earlier at home (around 11:30) than at nursery (around 12:30) but it worked fine.

Thanks all.
He is only on one nap but gets tired around 10 and naps for about 2 hours ( it's just the way he is and it works for him)
I think my main issue was the lack of understanding, my older daughter went to a different nursery at this age and it wasn't even questioned about naps times they facilitated what she needed. The ethos was meant to child lead so maybe people are right and I will look at another nursery that is more child led.
Thanks for all the advice

If they need a nap a toddler will drop subtle hints that the staff should pick up on. (Understatement). The only solution the staff will find is to let them have a nap. Sometimes you've got to let them learn via their mistakes. Children and staff alike.

I don't think it's that bad OP. My DS was moved at the same age and yes, in the toddler room there's only one nap.

However, what I've recently learned is that once he's moved to preschool at exactly 3yo they don't let them nap AT ALL. Don't know if it's common in other nurseries too but I'm terrified and expecting weeks of evening sh*t shows. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I'd see how he gets on for a bit, I think. Sometimes they quite happily follow a different schedule at nursery – mine both liked a late nap at home, 2 pm or so, but somehow were fine with 12.30 at nursery. If he doesn't seem to be adapting, I'd see what they suggest. Our nursery also go on the individual child – they've definitely put children down before lunch (including as a one-off) when that's what the child needs.

For the no naps in the preschool room, ours don't have a dedicated nap space/time in the preschool room, but I think they've had the occasional late napper go sleep with the 2-3 room, so that might be an option, @BananaPalm, if DS still needs a regular nap at three.