Settling toddler into crèche

newtoboards

We're changing crèche for my 22 month old son and Is there anything I can do to ease the transition for him? It's going to be all new toddler friends for him and all new minders and new car journey for him and I want him to be content.

The move is unavoidable so if anyone has done this can you let me know how you handled it yourselves? I'm gutted for him that he's going to lose the friends he has made but it could all be in my head.

pwurple

Toddlers are the most adaptable creatures in the world. We moved house twice before our little girl was three, and she coped best of all of us. They just completely take it in their stride.

jester77

We did that earlier this year with our lad, he would have been 18 months at the time. A new crèche opened beside us and all the kids he knows from the area were moving as well. We just followed the normal settling in procedure.

Came after breakfast the first few days, stayed there with him for around 2 hours. Then upped it to 3 hours while stepping out for an hour. Then coming for breakfast, and kept building it up to him having lunch and sleeping there.

There were some tears when leaving him there in the mornings at the start but that passed after 2 or 3 days. After about 2.5 weeks he was settled in.

Itellitasitis

Talk about it for a few days before you change over. Do it at times where he is sitting on your knee or just when ye are chatting in general. Tell him he will go to a new creche and (find out the name of the key worker and staff that will be assigned to him) tell him that (she) will be minding him with (other staff in room name). If you know some of the names of the new staff and children, it can help.

They do take it all in even at that young age. The more positive you are, the more he will be too. Tell him about the toys they have (that he likes to play with) i.e. sand/water/bricks/characters/art etc. and how he can play with them.

When you bring him to the new creche, don't make too much of a fuss - again he will pick up on any feelings you will have - go about it as if it is something you have always done. It will probably be a novelty at the start so it could be a few days before he reacts.

In my experience children take a few days to change to a new routine but they are adaptable and will adjust.

Good luck with it :-)

what the heck

We have just done this with our little girl. She was 23 months and this is her 3rd week there now.

The week before her settling in week, I called up to the creche with her, just so she could see it. We stayed an hour and she played with some toys and did some painting.

The following week was her settling in week. My husband could hear her crying from outside the first morning. She stayed an hour, then increased it day by day. By Friday she stayed most of the day, still upset on drop off and didn't nap.

Last week was much better and she has napped nearly every day since, even though it is at a completely different time than she is used to (much earlier). She eats everything and is getting up to her usual mischief, which shows she is settling in well.

However, her night time sleep routine was knocked out of kilter for the first 2 weeks - she didn't want to go to bed and she has been a LOT more clingy with me since she started. She has an older sibling but is always now saying "my mammy" to everyone who comes near me, even a neighbour's kitten last weekend!

But it is getting better again and not much of a tantrum at bedtime last night, though still trying to cling to me rather than go to bed.

Good luck!

newtoboards

Well we did it. It went really well. We tried to do a settling in week but that didn't work for my guy so after 2 days of having to drag him out I just decided we would start him and see how it goes. He's brilliant and settling nicely into the routine there. Of course he is still talking about his old friends and a particular minder from the old creche in the evenings which breaks my heart but no unsettled behaviour of crying or extra clinging to us. He is even telling the world and its mother he's now going to the new creche and that he's a big boy now!