Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op we had a similar problem when we started at a center and moved my son at 6 months to a small in home daycare and it was night and day change for naps. First the home daycare had a separate room for naps so it was actually quiet during naptime and since it’s mixed age there was a rhythm to the day more than the center that was just following individual infant schedules all over the place. That seemed to really help my son. Second because it was mixed ages (a few kids more toddler age) I found the caregivers had way more bandwidth to give individual attention to the infants because the toddlers were happily playing and just didn’t require such intensive 1:1. In the infant room in the center the ratios were the same but each infant had so many needs it felt like most time was spent just meeting basic needs.
I’m certainly not advocating making a change because that would be silly of me since I know so little of the situation, but wanted to share my experience in case it’s helpful as it’s still easy to switch at this age. I remember that intense stress of feeling my baby wasn’t getting sleep and it made going to work so much harder.
Thank you. We’ve toyed with the idea of sending her to an in home daycare. We were told by other family members that “centers” are provide better learning than in home daycares. But every child is different.
My at home daycare provider was amazing about getting my baby, later toddler to sleep. There was a separate, quiet room. When my kid was a toddler, she would tell me about how daycare provider rubbed her back while she fell asleep. I think she could actually do this for two kids at a time! She had two littles, one older child and was licensed. Just wonderful!
I'm the original pp (the other two who posted their similar experience are different), but I want to address the learning part. It is of course up to the parent, but in my opinion and from my experience in child development, the most essential and important thing for babies 0-2 is consistent, warm, and loving care. Babies learn through that relationship to their caregiver and it is best if during the day there is 1-2 who learn their needs and know how to respond. This can be hard in centers though in good ones they assign babies to one person and try their best to stick with it. I completely agree with others that in later years, a center is more preferable. We will be moving my son at 2.5 to a center more preschool like environment. That is what most of the kids do in his home daycare and most I know. But these two years with consistent caregivers has been invaluable in my opinion. I'm seeing it again now that we are potty training, it's much easier there then my friend's in a center because he only has two options of people he needs to tell when he has to go to the potty.
I would personally not make a decision to keep a baby in a center where they are having immense difficulty getting sleep if the reason is solely for learning. Learning is difficult without sleep. I am not saying you shouldn't stick it out - things will be fine if you do, baby will adjust or will eventually grow older and need more sleep and move to the higher age rooms where naptime is more consistent. it's all okay but just wanted to address the learning piece because I think that's a pretty big misconception. Centers look more shiny, but when it comes to infant care, a solid, reputable, caring home daycare can be a wonderful place (like anything they aren't all created equal of course).
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