Nap time Scream Crying

[Unregistered]

I have an 18 month old who scream cries when I lay him down for nap and scream cries when he wakes. At what age should a child wake from a nap without crying or screaming? I feel like he is old enough that he shouldn’t be doing this anymore. He is the only child I have that does this and I have one other the same age as him and another who just turned one. Those two wake “talking” to themselves.
Could this be a learned behavior? The reason I ask this is because I have a feeling mom and dad don’t let him cry very long before going in to him. When he was an older infant, mom told me she didn’t want him crying more than five minutes when he went down or woke from a nap because they “didn’t want him to come to the understanding that adults don’t come back to meet his needs.” I feel like that is not near enough time for a child to learn to soothe themself to sleep/back to sleep. She has also told me that she still feeds (breastfeeds) him on demand and that he wakes multiple times a night to be breastfed. Am I wrong in thinking a child of this age no longer needs to be fed on demand or overnight?
He usually wakes from nap screaming after about 40 minutes and I let him cry until he falls back asleep (usually 15-20 minutes). When he wakes a second time after another 40 minutes he is screaming again.

[Unregistered]

He may be screaming to be breastfed?

[Unregistered]

I guarantee he co-sleeps at home. I no longer take children who co-sleep for the reasons you have mentioned.

The parents need to break him of those bad habits NOT the provider!

Sorry your dealing with nap issues I feel for you.

[Ariana]

He cries, they pick him up. They don’t know how to get him to go back to sleep without crying so they breastfeed him. Waking at 40 minutes is exactly when he goes into deep sleep during the sleep cycle so he is waking before he gets there. Everyone rouses at this time but are trained to stay asleep.

You need to sleep train him and he will eventually stop waking at night as well. I have sleep trained so many kids over the years!

[Ac114]

I breastfed my youngest until 2, we still co sleep and she would wake several times a night to nurse even at the age of 2. It’s a comfort thing. However, I don’t send her to daycare and wouldn’t because I know she would have a hard time adjusting with how I parent at home and how a daycare runs.

I also don’t accept children that are co sleepers because it just doesn’t work for daycare. You can sleep train and they will eventually figure out that sleep at home is different than sleep at daycare but I just don’t want to put in the work that it takes to get there when the next toddler in line is sleep trained.

So I think you either decide if you want to continue sleep training or you terminate.

[AmyKidsCo]

I breastfed our 2 youngest to 2 years but we didn't cosleep (except when I fell asleep while they were nursing :. They're 13 & 15 now so my memory is a little hazy but I'm pretty sure they woke at least once during the night around that age. But I had my family child care program then and it didn't affect their afternoon naps at all. At night I'd rock/nurse them to sleep but for nap time I could put them down awake and they'd go to sleep. I think it's all in the training - for me afternoon nap time was more precious than bedtime. ::