Toddler Room Daycare Cots

[mama2a]

DD will start daycare in the toddler room in a few weeks following turning 16 months. In the toddler room they sleep on cots. I'm not worried as I know she'll get the hang of it eventually (I'm sure daycare has lots of experience with this, too), but just wondering if anyone has gone through this transition yet? I can't picture DD figuring out that the cot is for napping or actually sitting still if she is set down on one. The only time I've ever seen her lay still on the floor is when she was sick. I wonder if this means it'll be easier to transition her to a kid bed at home.

[anakah]

Kids are amazing at transitions. All 3 of mine started daycare at 3 months in cribs and transitioned to nap cots around 12 months. I was worried as hell that they wouldn't know what to do with the cots/wouldn't sleep well/would fall off/etc but they were amazing. The teachers at daycare are excellent at helping with transitions and a huge part of daycare is the peer examples from the other kids. Your LO will do just fine with the cots. No guarantees how that will carry over for transitioning to a big kid bed though. My kids are completely different animals at daycare vs at home. lol.

[mrsp]

DD went through this transition just after turning 12 months. I couldn't believe they were already going to move her to a cot, but to go into the next room, she has to be able to sleep on a cot. The cots at our daycare have edges that turn inward so they don't just roll off. In the beginning, she didn't really know what to do with it, but I suggested they leave the cot out with her blanket on it to see if she becomes more interested in it. Sure enough, they'd find her over on her cot at random parts of the day wanting to lay down. She finally associated the cot with sleeping and her 20 minute nap turned into a 2.5 hour nap.

I can't speak to the bed transition at home because we haven't gone through that yet, but I hope it's easier!

[mama2a]

Thanks guys, that's reassuring!

[Deleted]

My first kept his crib til he was 2 when we converted to a day bed, but we'll be needing to transition Carter sooner to a real bed since we'll need the crib. He'll alsp need to move into this older brother's room & share for a while. Which makes me a little nervous, but we'll cross that road towards the end of the summer.

When I used to work in child care, we used to sit there with the younger toddlers as they laid down to help them relax & stay put.

[mama2a]

I'm reading through the parent handbook and it says that I need to bring a pillow for her. Does she need one this young? Do your LOs use one?

[anakah]

Apr 6, 2015 11:49:34 GMT -5 mama2a said:

I'm reading through the parent handbook and it says that I need to bring a pillow for her. Does she need one this young? Do your LOs use one?

They have pillows at home, but I was not schlepping pillows to school for naptime along with their blankets and extra clothes and general other crap that they needed.  They slept just fine.  I may have acted differently had I not been carrying around stuff for two kiddos though.  I did bring a pack n play sheet to put on the cot since the mesh gets imprinted on their face however this is not common practice from what I can tell.  I also have not noticed the other kids at our daycare with pillows either.

[thesportsgal]

LO got moved at 13 months to the toddler room with cots. Never underestimate the power of peer pressure in the daycare setting Once LO sees the other kids do it, I'm sure it will be no problem. I couldn't imagine it either and she now sleeps on a cot with a blanket (uses neither of those things at home) for 2.5+ hours a day. They are wizards.

A crib sheet fits on her cot so I got a fuzzy one for her (it just looked more comfy) and they put that on and we bring her a blanket which she uses there all week. And again, doesn't use one at home but that's what she's used to there.

[anakah]

Apr 7, 2015 10:19:41 GMT -5 thesportsgal said:

LO got moved at 13 months to the toddler room with cots. Never underestimate the power of peer pressure in the daycare setting Once LO sees the other kids do it, I'm sure it will be no problem. I couldn't imagine it either and she now sleeps on a cot with a blanket (uses neither of those things at home) for 2.5+ hours a day. They are wizards.

A crib sheet fits on her cot so I got a fuzzy one for her (it just looked more comfy) and they put that on and we bring her a blanket which she uses there all week. And again, doesn't use one at home but that's what she's used to there.

so very true.

[mama2a]

Apr 7, 2015 10:35:33 GMT -5 anakah said:

Apr 7, 2015 10:19:41 GMT -5 thesportsgal said:

LO got moved at 13 months to the toddler room with cots. Never underestimate the power of peer pressure in the daycare setting Once LO sees the other kids do it, I'm sure it will be no problem. I couldn't imagine it either and she now sleeps on a cot with a blanket (uses neither of those things at home) for 2.5+ hours a day. They are wizards.

A crib sheet fits on her cot so I got a fuzzy one for her (it just looked more comfy) and they put that on and we bring her a blanket which she uses there all week. And again, doesn't use one at home but that's what she's used to there.

so very true.

I agree that what they do at daycare is so different than what they do at home. They have had her sleeping for naps without a paci for months now and I wouldn't dare try no paci at naptime at home.

[sleepymonkey]

Apr 8, 2015 7:31:45 GMT -5 mama2a said:

Apr 7, 2015 10:35:33 GMT -5 anakah said:

so very true.

I agree that what they do at daycare is so different than what they do at home. They have had her sleeping for naps without a paci for months now and I wouldn't dare try no paci at naptime at home.

Yup. DD will not take more than 2 sips of milk from a straw cup at home or at my parents' house and will only drink her milk from a bottle. But at daycare she will drink all of her milk from a straw cup with no problem. Same damn cups, just different setting.

[mama2a]

Update: DD had her first day yesterday and she did great! I'm one proud mama. She sat right down at the table to eat breakfast with the rest of the kids when I dropped her off first thing and apparently she napped well on the cot that afternoon. Thanks all!

[anakah]

Apr 14, 2015 7:40:23 GMT -5 mama2a said:

Update: DD had her first day yesterday and she did great! I'm one proud mama. She sat right down at the table to eat breakfast with the rest of the kids when I dropped her off first thing and apparently she napped well on the cot that afternoon. Thanks all!

Great job Baby A!! We knew you could do it!!