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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I went through much of the same thinking process, except I'm not a fed and my arranged childcare (grandma) got canceled on a short notice, so I was feeling even more strapped.

After touring and researching well reputed childcare facilities, I felt I couldn't put my infant there and we went with the nanny share.  My advice to you would be to try that.  Here is why I think nanny share is superior:

- someone is exclusively focused on your baby (well, 50% focused)

- more ability to set and follow a good, healthy routine, which I feel is key for young children.  I don't think caregivers in a daycare centers would be as focused on making your baby nap on time and eat on time

- more ability to take long walks in good weather - can you imagine what a hassle it is to walk multiple infants? just getting out of the door likely takes a while. Our nanny spent hours outside with the kids.

- warmer, intimate, more affectionate setting.

This doesn't mean there aren't good centers or good people in these centers. I just feel that some arrangements are more conducive to providing good care, and some are less so.  In my opinion, and your mileage will vary, a nanny share is a better for for a very young baby.[/quote]

As someone who spent a lot of time looking at nannies vs daycare and ended up at the BH IRS New Carrollton facility, I don't agree with your assessment.  We have twins so the cost of a nanny was much more enticing, as there was less discrepancy between the tuition for two vs the cost of a nanny.  Frankly, nannies are better for some and daycares are better for some.

Your idea that daycares can't follow a good routine is completely wrong from our perspective.  In our case, the daycare setting is much more set on routine.  When you have up to 3:1 (usually 3 kids to 1 teacher or 4-6 for 2 teachers), they have to follow routines much more closely and our facility does that. When they were infants, the teachers pretty much followed a set routine, and all the kids slowly drifted towards similar schedules.  The routine was very important for our teachers and we found that our children really appreciated the routine.  As toddlers, they have a very fixed schedule, breakfast is the same time, circle time is the same time, they go outside every day (weather permitting) at the same time, etc.

For walks, they have a six seat stroller that works well.  Weather permitting, they go out on a walk every day and sit on the ground (they have ground covers for the little ones) or stand up and walk around.  They have their own private, self-contained play area and we liked the security of the area so that there was a nice, safe play area for children.  Based on the weather they spend quite a lot of time outdoors.

As for warmer and more intimate, we found our room very warm and intimate.  They just moved to the toddler room and they still love their teachers from the infant room and they want to stop by their old room every morning on the way to get a hug from their former teachers.  It's a very warm community and the teachers all visit the kids in all of the rooms so that my kids are well loved by many teachers that they recognize and like.

Some of the other pros that we've found:
Because it was a facility, they actually had some options that private providers could not match.  For example, with three infant rooms and 2 toddler rooms, they had many, many toys/books/resources for infants.  And every couple of weeks, they rotated the toys around, so the kids never got bored with the toys. and books.  They also had a wide variety of appropriate furniture, etc.  They have a variety of children's chairs in different heights as the toddlers grow.  They had an assortment of furniture designed to help infants learn to stand, to walk, etc.  My kids like the variety of the toys & books and that they changed regularly.  There is also a big indoor activity room which is rearranged periodically for different purposes.  The kids go in there daily and twice on days when the weather does not permit them to go outdoors.  Right now, it has big activity mats and the "theme" is colors, so everything is big bright colors and they spend a lot of time learning their colors while playing on gym mats and with various soft climbable obstacles.

We know a number of other friends with toddler children some in daycare and some in private care settings.  As a general rule, the children in daycare are more social, more acclimated to different people (many of the privately cared for children don't want to play or socialize with other children or adults at playdates, for example), and are better behaved.  In our daycare center, they help us reinforce rules and teach children lessons especially when it comes to social interactions between children.  At a recent playdate, the other toddler parents were surprised  when our children followed commands much more readily than the children raised in private settings.  The children in our daycare learn to listen to instructions and commands.  Our children learn more about social interaction because they are in a group setting and are more acclimated and exposed to groups.  Children also learn from other children by experimentation and observation.  Children watched in individual or paired child care don't have as much exposure to other children.

We also appreciated that in our daycare, every room has at least one teacher with a background in early childhood education and they were able to introduce a lot of early childhood teaching practices.  For example, while we were working on sounds and words and music, we had thought about sign language but hadn't gotten around to looking at good signs to start infants with, and the daycare started teaching them.  I do know sign language from many years ago when I worked with a deaf co-worker, and I was surprised when my infant started asking for "milk" with his hands.  So then we started incorporating more signs into our communication.  We started them on finger foods and were worried about varying the diet and giving them a healthy diet and the daycare started to teach them to use a spoon.  Just a few examples off the top of my head.

I agree that there are pros and cons to all child care options, but I don't think that there is a one size fits all situation.  Every family needs to find the right fit for themselves and in our case, we found that with the IRS New Carrollton Bright Horizons.  It's been a wonderful experience for us so far.[/quote]

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