Daycare & Your Child’s Sleep Schedule

Thanks to The Sleep Sense Program, you finally have your baby on a good sleeping schedule after all those seemingly endless nights of crying and night-waking. Your child sleeps like a little angel from bedtime until morning and has a nap at the same time every day. It’s a delicate balance, but you’ve perfected it.

And just when you’ve got it right, you have to go back to work and your baby has to start daycare…

And for many parents, this is where everything starts to go very, very wrong!

What if the baby stays awake all day at daycare and falls asleep in the car on the way home at 5pm? What if the daycare lets him sleep for three hours in the afternoon and he’s up until midnight? Will his schedule be completely thrown?

These are all valid concerns – but fear not! Here are some tips for making the transition to daycare as painless as possible:

1. Plan ahead. If possible, begin looking into daycares a few months before you want your child to attend so you can find out their routines and start preparing.

2. Find out the schedule of the daycare before signing up. Remember, it’s your job to protect your child’s sleep needs. If your daycare provider has no plan for sleep, and kids just fall down exhausted whenever they can, then that is not the place for your baby, especially now that he’s sleeping so well. You wouldn’t sign him up for a daycare that had no particular plan about how or when to feed your child, so you shouldn’t accept any less for sleeping arrangements!

3. If the daycare encourages one nap a day at a specific time, and your child will be 12 months or older when he begins, you can start to transition him in the weeks beforehand. That way he’ll already be used to having a nap at that time of day.

4. Make sure you’re clear with the staff about how your baby falls asleep, and make sure they know he needs to do it independently. You don’t want to undo all that hard work by having the staff pick him up or rock him to sleep. You may also need to make it clear that you are okay with the fact that your baby may cry the first few days as he gets used to the new environment. If you are specific about your plan and your child’s needs, most daycares will be accommodating.

The bottom line:

Your baby may not sleep as well in this new environment with so many new sights and sounds and distractions. But as long as he’s getting a little nap on the days he goes to daycare, that will be fine, and it will also help train him for how to sleep when you’re on vacation or visiting Grandma.

And remember, if it doesn’t work out and the staff doesn’t seem to be respecting your guidelines and instructions, you can always find a new daycare. After all, they work for you, not the other way around.