Top Sleep Tips for Daycare

Tip 1, would be to find out how the caregivers get babies to fall asleep. Some daycare's are great and they will do whatever you ask them to do, which, should be the way it is. But this doesn't always happen. Remember you are the parent and you are paying a lot of money, so they should do what you recommend for them to do, personalised for your baby and they should also adhere to age appropriate sleep requirements.

If you are very clear and say, "I always put my little one down, awake, and they fall asleep on their own. All they need is a dark, quiet environment, and a cot of their own and they will sleep well," why wouldn't they want that? That makes their job much easier. But some daycare's, for some reason, have certain policies around sleep where they do not do what parents ask, they have specific sleep times and 

You need to investigate about what methods the caregivers use when they are getting your little one to sleep in the first place. If it's the total opposite of what you have worked really hard to create at home, then you may need to keep looking for another suitable daycare.   Of course, they cannot do exactly what is done at home, but you would expect them to adhere as close as they can.  When choosing a daycare, always go with your strong parental instinct, just because a daycare may be new, shiny and have all the new educational toys, doesn’t always mean that it is going to be the best daycare for you and your family.

Tip 2. if your little one is already at a day care then I would investigate why they are not sleeping well at daycare, ask lots of questions.  I find that a lot of parents want to trust the daycare and don’t want to rock the boat, then hope for the best. 

What I advise my families to look for when they are searching for the right day-care is find out what do they do around naptime.  Are things scheduled? Do they have a quiet place to sleep? Is it dark? Or is it just, "Oh, if they fall asleep in the pram, then great," and just go on like that? You really need to investigate a little bit and find out if the situation is conducive to what you have created at home.  Of course it won’t be exactly the same, but as close as possible.

Tip 3,  Just understand that for some babies, they just don't sleep as well when they are out or at daycare or whatever the situation is. None of us do, really. We all sleep better in our own beds, so that makes sense to me.  As long as they are still getting sleep.  Once your little one has settled into daycare, don’t worry too much as they are able to differentiate between daycare and home, and often don’t sleep as well at daycare but can still sleep well at home.  And if they have mastered their sleep and sleep well at night, the daycare days, should not affect the nights at home.

If daycare does all that you suggested to them but your little one is still not sleeping well, then try not to worry,  just put your grumpy bub down early for the night, this could be as early as 5.45pm. I always say there is no reason why you need to live with grumpy, tired babies, just to hang on to a magical bed time that you may have in your mind. Do your normal bedtime routine then put them into bed by 5.45 - 6pm.

Because more than likely they are not going to day-care every day, then on the days they are home with you and sleeping great, then it is no problem to hang on to your normal bedtime. In the long run we would like the body clock to get in line with a consistent bedtime, but there is always wiggle room around that. It's not set in stone.