Infant Daycare Falls Church

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone - I am due in August, first time mom, and already slightly freaking out about finding a daycare. It seems like infant daycares are few and far between around here (Falls Church/Merrifield/Dunn Loring area). A nanny doesn’t seem to be in the budget at this time unfortunately. Does anyone have any suggestions??

[Anonymous]

Where do you work?

[Anonymous]

Home daycares are really great for those first couple years, in my experience. I found it to be a better option for infant care when we also couldn't afford a nanny because it usually provides really consistent caregivers and in my experience more 1:1 care (this depends on the center of course, there are great ones! But the caregivers are more likely to come and go in a center). It's also usually more affordable. You won't be able to solidify a spot in a home daycare this early as they only know they have an opening when a child moves on (usually to preschool), but you could get an idea and see if any would let you visit to get a sense now (probably not all would but you may find some).

I also really liked that our home daycare had a separate room for naps (our baby napped MUCH better there then they did in the center we started in where the babies were all in the same room), the homemade meals our provider makes included, and the mixed age group setting. Infants require a lot of care and so a whole room of infants can be busy. I've really appreciated the varying ages in our home daycare both for learning from older kids and for attention when baby was an infant.

You can look up providers on the Virginia DSS website. But a good place to start is Infant Toddler, they are a network of in home providers so it's extra oversight and I've heard great things from other moms: https://www.infanttoddler.com/

Plenty of home daycare options in the areas you mentioned. Try finding out if there is a mom listerv in your neighborhood, that is the best way to also find home daycares - mom's will post when there are openings.

If you're looking for centers, easter seals in falls church takes infants. We have friends at A Child's Place in Merrifield and they love it. They had an infant and preschooler there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do you work?

DH works from home, and I travel for work within a radius of about 10 miles but it varies daily. I’m open to anything within about 15 minutes of Merrifield area!