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Preschool and Daycare Discussion
DS not adjusting to daycare--cries most of the day
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sth
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My 6 month DS started daycare at the end of August. It is a federal daycare--the infant room has six infants and two teachers (a good ratio). The room has toys, is nicely decorated and they do activities with the children, albeit not too much as infants have a short attention span. The care providers in the infant room are not as bubbly or friendly as I would like, but they aren't mean...more just quite or introverted. I try and limit DS's time in daycare by having him go 4 days a week for six-hours a day. In addition, I sometimes visit him during lunch.
Here is the problem--everytime I pick him up the caregivers tell me that he has cried most of the day. They said he will play without crying only if they are on the floor with him and or when they hold him. (DS is already crawling, sitting up by himself and standing.) I've asked the caregivers for their suggestions, but they haven't given me any clear answer just "all kids are different." I'm concerned that DS isn't adjusting to daycare and that this isn't the right child care setting for him. I need advice on what I can do to help him adjust to daycare, or is his crying a sign I need to find a different child care situation (which we all know if not easy!). |
Anonymous
| I would set up a meeting with the director of the center and get some advice from her/him. |
Anonymous
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Our son had a horrible time transitioning to daycare - he was a little older (started the transition at approx 10mos and then went FT at about 1yo.) He's got a very intense personality and was incredibly attached to me. I second the recommendation to talk to the director - we did that when we realized at about 6 weeks in that things hadn't improved as much as we'd hoped. It helped reassure us and the director kept a very close eye on our little boy from then on.
Your situation sounds good in the sense that the ratios are appropriately low, the overall size is quite small, and you're not maxxing out his time away from you... so it's hard to see why/how a different facility or caregiver would improve things. We had experimented with a nanny and found the same reaction, so we were pretty confident that it wasn't a problem with the center itself. The key in our experience was a lot of patience and personalized attention from the center (they used 'floater' staff to help) and lots of time. Also as they get a bit older, they will find more things to do (our son was also an early crawler and the only thing that made him smile when we first started him at daycare was the soft play equipment that he could climb on.) He's 4 now and daycare has definitely been our best decision as parents. Good luck and try not to let it get it to you!! |