Reply to Your <6 Month Old Infant in Daycare

Forum Index » Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

Reply to "Your <6 Month Old Infant in Daycare"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We started our infant in a child care center when he was three months old.  He's now eight months old, and when I dropped him off this morning, he was almost jumping out of the stroller because he was so excited.

He's in an infant room with five other babies and two teachers.  I never never never worry about him getting enough individual attention.  One of the teachers is always sitting on the floor with babies crawling all over her, and a couple babies are doing their own things, and somebody is napping.  And the other teacher is changing a baby, or getting food ready, or whatever.  Babies just do not need 24 hours of one-on-one attention because they spend so much time napping, playing with each other, playing with toys, etc.  Also, babies REALLY like other babies.

In the five months he's been in daycare, our kid has probably spent 5 weeks sick--but nothing more serious than a cold.  He's never even had a fever.

One thing that makes me feel better about daycare is that I spend about 20 minutes in the infant room every single morning when I drop him off.  (Maybe that doesn't sound strange to you, but I'm the only parent that spends even close to that long.  Some of the others have older children, so they've got more going on than me.)  Because I'm there every morning, I know all the kids, I know the routines, I know the rules, etc.  I've also gotten to know the teachers, and they tell me about their families.  It helps me to trust them more, and it also means that I feel confident that they would tell me anything going on with my kid.  Actually, they're usually eager to tell me even the most mundane things that happen (the day he started reaching out to touch the other kids, for instance).

Oh, and one of my favorite things about our daycare is that each classroom has its own phone.  I can call them any time I want, and they call me any time anything goes wrong (i.e. baby was fussy, so we gave him his bottle early).  I rarely worry about him when I'm gone because I know they'd call if they needed to.

So, for us, a child care center has been absolutely the right way to go.  I love having him surrounded by other babies, and I love the extra oversight that comes with multiple staff people always being around.

Hope you find something great for your family![/quote]

This perspective is really encouraging to hear. I really like the idea of spending time there to help too, and getting to know the other babies. It doesn't feel so..foreign when you describe it, which is what I fear it will feel like to her. Thank you so much. I'm sure hormones are at play here too, but I was super emotional reading this!

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics