Whether you are confident of your choice to send your child to daycare, or apprehensive, there are ways you can help prepare your family, and your child, for a smooth transition. One of the most significant adjustments besides being around new caregivers is for your child to sleep in a new space.
Before your first days at daycare, we recommend getting a bit of information:
Find out the daycare’s daily schedule for your child’s age and how much flexibility there is. For younger babies, having a nap schedule, for instance, won’t be as rigid as for 18month or 2-year-olds.
Points of interest:
How much flexibility is there in the daily schedule?
How often are diapers changed, and when?
When are naps, and what is the classroom routine leading up to naps? What is the nap environment?
Do kids go outside at specific times?
Are blankets/comfort objects from home welcome? Pacifiers?
All of these questions give you an idea of how far your child will need to “go” from napping at home to napping at daycare.
You can help your child prepare for daycare and the changes that come with it by making some adaptations to your home routine that could mimic what happens at school. Any help small or large can ease your child’s transition.
Is your child used to sleeping in a pitch dark room for daytime naps? Perhaps in the week before daycare, you start to put your child to nap in a room with some light.
Is your child used to a specific white noise machine, and your daycare plays a lullaby to go to sleep? You could start introducing music into your child’s routine.
Is your child used to going to sleep with a bottle or holding a cup?
Once you have an idea of the typical day at the daycare for your child’s age, understand that it is normal for sleep to be disrupted. It is also normal for your child to need more comfort after time away from familiar people.
Know that you cannot prepare your child for every change they will encounter, and even with that reality, your child will be okay. You have selected a reputable and safe group of professionals to care for your child. You will do the things you need to do, and when you see them again, you can provide an opportunity to teach them a new way you can be counted on: You will come back to them.
