Nobody likes change

Things to consider when putting a young child into child care for the first time (center or home care).

Please, please, please, please if you co sleep with your child do not spring on them the having to sleep by themselves for the first time when they start child care.

Please please please if you get your child to fall asleep for nap all the time by driving them around in your car/rocking them/feeding them/walks in the stroller also do not spring on them having to suddenly go to sleep without this aid.
Please please please at least try and get them comfortable sleeping in a crib or play pen even if only for 20-30 minutes.

Seriously.  I get doing things for the sake of ease.  It's why my own son ended up co-sleeping with us for the first 9 months.
And I get some children are way flakier with napping then others, my son was one of those as well. He didn't start napping regularly (more then 30 minutes at a time at roughly the same time every day) till he was over a year and about 15-16 months old for sleeping through the night for more then 6 hours.
I get the need to get them to sleep for sanity's sake and for want of sleep ourselves and doing what ever works to make that happen.

BUT why set your child up for more stress when the whole starting child care with a more or less a perfect stranger is stressful enough on it's own??
If you co-sleep start trying to get the child to sleep on their own for short periods of nap time.
If you breast/bottle feed to sleep, start putting them down while they are still awake after feeding instead of feeding till they fall asleep.
The rocking/held/driving start by rubbing their backs/tummies while they lay in their crib or play pen.  Back rubs I can replicate!!!  With 3+ kids, holding one till they fall asleep is not realistic.

After 11 years in the field and my Mom doing home day care for a good portion of my life, I recognize kids are going to cry at nap time (there is the rare one who doesn't care) for the first while from any where up to 6-8 weeks after they start.  And some will always cry for a short period before falling asleep as part of their routine.

BUT the one's who co-slept, or were breast fed to sleep, or rocked/held to sleep or driven in a car to fall asleep, they scream longer and louder then the rest.  Because no one likes change.  And they are voicing it to the world that they don't like these changes.

This isn't a point the finger of "you're a bad parent for doing this" this is more a "please be aware of what you are doing to your child when you don't think or choose to help them adapt" as well as a "please don't be upset with me when your child doesn't sleep regularly or is screaming through nap time till they adjust."

I HATE making children cry it out.  It's why at the 20 minute mark, if they are still screaming bloody murder/in distress crying, I  bring them back down stairs.  If they are doing that not quite crying whine cry then I leave them a little longer to see if they will fall asleep or revert back to screaming then bring them down. If they are babbling to themselves I leave them for as long as they are not crying or until an hour passes.
Why an hour?  Because that is the minimum length the Day Nurseries Act states a child under 5 must rest/sleep during a day in child care (center or home care). This is up to a maximum of two hours, we bend the rules a bit for the infants (0 months to15months as they can still nap several times a day).  I also don't make the 3 turning 4, 4 and 5 year olds nap.  They don't get a nap at school so I just set them up to do quiet activities for the nap period.  In a center the 4 and 5 year olds aka the Senior Preschool group, are made to lay down for a nap.

Just some food for thought.