Toddler will not sleep in daycare

[aprilsnow]

My 18 month old daughter will not nap at her daytime babysitter's. With me she has always nursed to sleep, and we have not had luck getting her to fall asleep at her sitter's. The sitter has tried using our naptime routine (minus nursing) but says this makes the child really upset. I tried to transition her at home to sleeping without nursing, but never made any progress. (I was going to try an approach where I start out by nursing her until she is really sleepy and then put her in bed, followed by a very gradual transition until we don't nurse at all before the nap, but we never got the first step to work). Any suggestions please??

[Maluhia]

Could she be working on teeth that hurt worse when she lies down?
Can your DCP do a "quiet time" rather than nap?
Is she dropping her nap as not developmentally needed for her right now?

[aprilsnow]

Originally Posted by Maluhia

Could she be working on teeth that hurt worse when she lies down?
Can your DCP do a "quiet time" rather than nap?
Is she dropping her nap as not developmentally needed for her right now?

Maluhia, thanks! She does still need a nap... she gets pretty grumpy in the evenings when she hasn't had one, and on the weekends with me Ella takes a nap pretty easily. I don't think she's teething much at the moment, so I don't think that's the problem.

The DCP does not do quiet time other than watching TV (yeah, great, I know). There are a lot of factors at her DCP that are not conducive to sleeping, and I have been looking hard for better DCP but for now we are stuck with this and I am trying to make the best of it.

[crunchy_mommy]

How does your DCP try to get her to sleep? Does she just lay her down & expect her to fall asleep?

My DS will only nurse to sleep usually, but DH has some success with pushing him in the house in the stroller, almost always works if I can't nurse him down.

Would your DCP use a stroller or toddler swing? How about a crib vibrator? Would she wear DD for a nap? I don't know if you use a paci (I don't) but it seems like in this situation giving her something to comfort suck on might help if you aren't already trying that.

[sarah1122]

My ds doesn't nap so great at daycare either, mainly because he is so interested in the other children that he just doesn't want to go to sleep.

Stroller naps work great for my ds at daycare....when all else fails he'll conk out immediately with some fresh air and a moving stroller.

The TV may be the problem. We don't have one in our home and I notice when we stay at my mothers (who has a TV that is ALWAYS on) that ds doesn't nap as well or sleep that great at night...we're pretty sure its because of the extra stimulation from the TV....just a thought.