Toddler still struggling at childminders after four months, any advice?

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My toddler is still struggling at the childminders 4 months on. Barely eats, barely sleeps and gets distressed if they aren't the first to be picked up at home time. I'm having to use my holiday hours to facilitate shorter days at childcare.

I need to work, so can't just stay at home with LO, even though I'd like to. Has anyone else experienced this, and had a breakthrough? Is there anything I should be suggesting to the childminders? Eats and sleeps fairly well at home

Are they normally ok at home?

Could it be the individual childminder? I had one childminder who shoved them in front of the tv all day.

What age? Mine started nursery at 10.5 months and had a few months like this, it was tough. Suddenly improved after the Christmas break, especially once she went to 1 nap at home as she started napping better there. What is the childminder trying in terms of naps and eating? Do you provide the food or do they?

Yes very happy at home playing, dancing, eating and napping fairly well, the childminders do lots with them, singing, playing with different toys, time in the garden etc

Almost 18MO...They provide food but I've tried sending in favourite meals/snacks to encourage eating. The most has been a few pieces of pasta and a little bit of yoghurt. They do home cooked meals with whole foods.

Some children take a lot longer to settle, what does the cm say about it?
Does she allow “comfys” if your child has one?
Is she a stay at home or out and about cm?
If still not settled I would consider a different setting, personally I’m out a lot and I find it helps the kids settle, to have a huge variety of different experiences.

I probably wouldn’t overly worry about the food consumption there - it’s only lunch/snacks so she can make it up at home before and after.
is she only having a short nap then or not at all?

I think this is probably the longest a child has taken to settle. Their original plan was 2 weeks of settling in then full days.

I've sent in a teddy and comforter and they get given at the door a lot of the time.

They do go out and about but haven't since he's started, they live close to some nice nature walks

Sometimes no nap at all and then is very upset all day because of being so tired. I make sure I go out to different groups/play sessions on my day off to get LO used to being around other toddlers/younger children

That is hard. What is the childminder trying nap-wise, would your little one nap go in a buggy if she tried that? Do they go out as it helps that they go out every day from my daughter's nursery so in the early days she would at least nap in the buggy whilst they were walking somewhere (but then not again after the morning.. so we had the same awful upset late afternoon). I'm not convinced that moving to another childminder or nursery would necessarily help, unless you feel the current childminder isn't doing enough regarding naps/food. But naps will stop soon anyway.

My DS started at a childminders, at a similar age to your DS, and he never really settled. He was a clingy child but it was such hard work, he was vomiting at every drop off and crying most of the day, i ended up pulling him out. The childminder was lovely and really tried her best. I tried a nursery after that, and for some reason he settled really well. I think maybe it wasn’t as intense as a childminder setting (one person in their own house), but I’ll never really know.

Do they ever go out?

After 4 months, I'd try another childminder or nursery.