13 Why Your Toddler Falls Apart After Daycare (And What to Do About It!)
Sensory Solutions for Parents - Parenting Tips, Behavior, Regulation, Meltdowns, TantrumsShow Notes
Episode 113: Why Your Toddler Falls Apart After Daycare (And What to Do About It!)
💛 Does your child completely fall apart after daycare or preschool… even though their teachers say they had a great day?
You are not alone.
In this episode, we’re talking about something called “restraint collapse” and the emotional meltdowns, clinginess, irritability, sensory seeking, and overwhelm many toddlers and preschoolers experience after holding it together all day long.
We’ll break down:
What restraint collapse actually is and what it looks like. Why this is incredibly common and developmentally appropriate in many cases. What’s happening in your child’s nervous system. Why children often save their biggest emotions for the people they feel safest with. How sensory processing and nervous system overload impact behavior. Practical strategies to help your child decompress after daycare or preschool.
You’ll also learn simple, realistic ways to support your child after pickup through:
Lowering demands Supporting sensory needs Co-regulation and Nervous system recovery
If your child seems emotionally exhausted after school, this episode will help you understand what may really be happening underneath the behavior - with compassion, practical tools, and a nervous system lens.
Because often, kids are not giving us a hard time… They are HAVING a hard time.
More from Sensory Solutions for Parents - Parenting Tips, Behavior, Regulation, Meltdowns, Tantrums
Episode 33: Parenting a Child with Extreme Demand Avoidance (PDA)? Why Traditional Discipline Backfires and What to Try Instead! If your child has extreme demand avoidance, you’ve probably discovered that the usual parenting advice doesn’t just fail; it can make things worse. Firmer limits, bigger rewards, and stronger consequences often lead to more resistance, bigger meltdowns, and a family that feels stuck. We talk about why traditional discipline backfires for children with PDA, and offer practical, nervous-system-friendly strategies that lower the sense of threat and build cooperation. Parenting a child with extreme demand avoidance can feel isolating, and you don’t have to figure it out alone. Parent coaching is launching soon. Join the FB community to be the first to know! Join our Free Facebook Community
32 Does your child explode at the simplest ask? The Truth About Pervasive Drive for Autonomy (or PDA) and What Finally Works
Got a Defiant Child? Why Sticker Charts and Bribery Don't Work and What to Try Instead! Your child isn’t choosing to misbehave, their nervous system might be overriding their motivation to do the right thing in that moment. In this episode, we’re breaking down why "they know better" so often falls apart in the moment it matters, what's actually happening in a child's brain during a meltdown or a power struggle, and why sticker charts and consequences fail when a child's nervous system has already taken the wheel.
Extreme picky eating doesn’t just take one single skill but a whole sequence of smaller skills, and jumping straight to ”just take a bite” skips many of the steps most kids haven’t built yet. We’ll talk about why extreme picky eating is different from typical toddler pickiness, why a new food can genuinely register as a threat to a child’s nervous system and why proper seating and the right environment frees things up in your child’s body for the harder work of trying new foods
Today we’re talking about why toddlers get so “picky” with their eating and why this is one of the most normal, predictable stages of development. We’ll also discuss what’s typical picky eating vs. what’s worth mentioning to your pediatrician, why pressuring your toddler to ”just try one bite” almost always backfires and 5 practical strategies you can start using at tonight’s dinner!