Naps

[Mrs_K]

My two year old FS of two weeks does not take naps. He sometimes goes to sleep late in the afternoon and then will go to bed at 8. If no nap is taken, he gets extremely cranky and goes to sleep for the night at 6 (I can't keep him awake longer) and wakes at 5am.

I realize I should have started on day one but there were many things going on with him and I could not. I did however begin other routines and he does well with them. I am now trying to establish a schedule of naps. My question is...does he think he is being punished because he has to go into the room for naptime. He screams the whole time (about 10- 15 mins) before falling asleep. I've explained it to him that after lunch, we will clean up and lay down for naps and he agrees until time.

Any advice would be great, I feel horrible for him.

[cuzimthebaby]

Not many kids will take kindly to being thrust into naps if they are not use to them. He needs his nap. If you are feeling unsure of how you are handling nap times then give your worker a call and ask them.
Are you documenting nap time? Keep a ledger of how long it takes every day and you may see it getting shorter even though you dont realize it.
I use to watch my best friends baby and he HATED his nap, would fuss and cry and scream, they did not allow him that time to learn to self soothe and it's been a nightmare for them the entire time and he's 3 now...still has sleep issues. However, when he was at my home he learned easily that we would do nap time, he got snuggles and a blanky and was in the play pen for nap...in the end there was no crying at all when it was nap time.
They have to learn to soothe themselves so long as you know he is safe.
Of course it would be great if he could self soothe himself without a lot of crying...depends on what his issues are, your worker may not want him upset.
I dont see anything wrong with what you are doing.

Denise

[Nanna]

You said you send him into the room to take a nap. My advice as a mother and a child care teacher is to go in the room with him. I would read to him, rub his back or even rock him to sleep if it would help. Yes, I can see how he feels he is being punished if he is sent in the room alone. Eventually, after he gets use to the transition from home to foster care he may not need the extra attention.

[hart]

Sometimes I will lay on the floor in the room and play some soft music to make it less boring. We have a 3 and a 4 year old. One naps easily, the other one we still have to lay in there on the floor sometimes until he falls asleep.

[greengirly]

I really enjoyed reading the posts around this subject because naps can be such an issue for any kiddo. Clearly there are a many opnions on how to deal with nap time.. cuddle them, let them cry, put them by themselves put them with others etc etc...Alot of it just does depend on the kid.

I have had tons of issues with naps for my kiddos that are drug exposed (my FAS twin foster boys never did, no drugs). All my current kiddos are drug exposed and have dificulty napping I've always thought there has to be correlation there. Any thoughts?

I think its also important to consider the circumstances of neglect or abuse. My little guy -18 months screamed for 4 months at nap time and took 1/2 hr naps- but not before bed, maybe because he was just so tired. My daycare provider (another foster mom) and I really felt it was because he been locked in a room or crib alone- or just plain left. He's always needed reassurance that we are there and coming back. Leaving the door open a crack sometimes helped.

At any rate he's gotten better at napping with a regular schedule and consistency. Allowing him to get into bed vs. me putting him there seems to help too.

Good luck!