Does anyone actually like their infant daycare??!

[Anonymous]

We had a bad daycare experience when our daughter was an infant. Now that we are expecting our second child we are hoping to find something better, but it seems hard to find a place you can trust. Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Love ours. They are not by any means perfect but genuinely care about our baby and take wonderful care of her.

Check licensing inspection data. Visit and see if the teachers look happy and the facilities are clean. Ask for parent references.

[Anonymous]

My law firm’s in house daycare was a dream. Probably because they actually employed the caregivers.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely loved our daycare’s infant room.

[Anonymous]

Yes, loved the infant room at ours. They were and are just lovely.

[Anonymous]

Loved it, loved it. She's about to get moved up to the next room (10 mos) and I'm in tears over it because I will miss her teachers so much, they are like family!

Daycare with a 3 month old is hard no matter what, IMO - the naps are short and your baby is often tired in the evenings. And they're still on a "eat on demand" schedule which daycare can't always be immediately responsive too, even if they try. It just kind of sucks no matter how great your center is (at least my experience with two kids). By about 6 months though we noticed a big difference in our daughters not coming home exhausted and starving, and feeling better about the whole thing.

[Anonymous]

If you have an infant daycare you love, could you please share the name of it? Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Yes. We were at Commerce Kids and the teachers are amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a bad daycare experience when our daughter was an infant. Now that we are expecting our second child we are hoping to find something better, but it seems hard to find a place you can trust. Any thoughts?

What made it a bad experience? We’ve had three kids go through the infant room at our daycare and love it. But I guess different things bother different people so it’s hard to know what would make you happy without knowing what made you unhappy.

[Anonymous]

I pulled my first child from her daycare after 4 months (it was that bad!) and for my second child left after about 5 months (more so for convenience, but also some issues). So, I hear you, OP. We've been happy where we ended up, but we're in Old Town Alexandria, so not sure if that would be helpful to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a bad daycare experience when our daughter was an infant. Now that we are expecting our second child we are hoping to find something better, but it seems hard to find a place you can trust. Any thoughts?

What made it a bad experience? We’ve had three kids go through the infant room at our daycare and love it. But I guess different things bother different people so it’s hard to know what would make you happy without knowing what made you unhappy.

Not that PP but for me: blatant violations some that didn't affect us in the infant room (e.g., posting a menu from a catering service but serving food from Giant one day per week), firing a teacher and lying about it, putting an unknown substance on my daughter (some type of heavy diaper cream that wasn't ours and they couldn't even tell me whose it was or what they'd used), losing a blank check for automatic deposit, allowing the teacher's 6yo child to play with infants/toddlers while the teacher cleaned up, etc. After we left they forgot a child on the playground and had mouse droppings/dead mouse in the infant room, so I felt validated.

[Anonymous]

It’s been a few years but we loved loved loved ours. They are NAEYC accredited and as such did some testing on our two-year-old that revealed a lot of crucial information on what turned out to be several special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I pulled my first child from her daycare after 4 months (it was that bad!) and for my second child left after about 5 months (more so for convenience, but also some issues). So, I hear you, OP. We've been happy where we ended up, but we're in Old Town Alexandria, so not sure if that would be helpful to you.

Following up on PP's comment, fwiw, the one where we ended up and have been happy is NAEYC-accredited.

[Anonymous]

Loved ours. Also NAEYC accredited. Usually means teachers are better educated and they kids have more space and better child/teacher ratios than what the state allows. Also more expensive, usually with long wait lists, and worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. We were at Commerce Kids and the teachers are amazing.

Also at CC with our child. We were at another daycare for a short while with our kid; both were NAEYC. From my perspective, both are great.

However, DW doesn't really seem to think too highly of either daycare. DW has some really high expectations and tends to assume the worst case scenario: "Will they love our baby as much as a nanny would?!?" "Do you think they just leave the baby sitting all day in the crib when we are not there?!?!" "Do you think they actually work on education and development stuff, or is it all BS?!?!"

We go round and round with these discussions every week or two - DW questioning the quality of care (for no real valid reason) and me trying to pacify DW's fears.

It is what it is.