Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/a-baby-dies-at-day-care-and-a-mother-asks-why-she-had-to-leave-him-so-soon/

Pretty gut-wrenching.

I think all mothers should get a minimum of one year at home with their infant, if they so choose.

This choice is currently available to mothers. What are you talking about?

The choice is availabke. Most women want the paycheck and wont give it up.

Other news stories about this baby also noted that the daycare facility was unlicensed, which might explain why the daycare owner was said to be administering CPR improperly to the baby. I have a lot of friends with children in in-home daycares that seem lovely, but articles like this make me wonder.

Anonymous wrote:Babies dying of SIDS on the first day of daycare happens more frequently than it should. The problem is that parents correctly place babies to sleep on their backs from the time they are born. But daycare workers incorrectly place the babies on their stomachs or sides (which was done in this case) and the babies do not have the muscle strength to breathe properly in those positions because they've never been put to sleep that way. The author made it clear that this wasn't her point but I think it's a point that should be made.

Agree 100%. And the sad fact is that this sort of negligence isn't prosecuted and so daycare workers continue to do this because it's easier. There is no way that someone whose job is to work with babies all day every day should not know and practice safe sleeping methods.

Babies dying of SIDS on the first day of daycare happens more frequently than it should. The problem is that parents correctly place babies to sleep on their backs from the time they are born. But daycare workers incorrectly place the babies on their stomachs or sides (which was done in this case) and the babies do not have the muscle strength to breathe properly in those positions because they've never been put to sleep that way. The author made it clear that this wasn't her point but I think it's a point that should be made.

The statistics for SIDS and daycare are pretty suspicious, especially in combination with the fact that many of the kids are found to have been put on their stomachs to sleep. In fact, anecdotally, I have a few friends who discovered their babies were being placed on their stomachs at two separate daycares in DC, and they were sort of brushed off when they complained and told "oh yeah, the baby flipped" or something.

It's enough to make me suspect that daycare workers are regularly placing infants on their stomachs to sleep so they can sleep more deeply and sometimes, this happens.

I agree that it would be AMAZING for Americans to have 1 year parental leave. We should do all we can to work towards that goal policy-wise.

This article was horrific and gut-wrenching, and I agree parents should have more parental leave in the U.S. But, making a connection between those two things is basically saying "If parents have to put their babies in daycare they might die." That seems not accurate to me.

This is a huge fear of mines but her baby could have died at home from SIDS as well.

Anonymous wrote:http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/a-baby-dies-at-day-care-and-a-mother-asks-why-she-had-to-leave-him-so-soon/

Pretty gut-wrenching.

I think all mothers should get a minimum of one year at home with their infant, if they so choose.

This choice is currently available to mothers. What are you talking about?

This was not the article to read at 38 weeks. What a horrible thing to go through. But I give her so much respect for being able to write so clearly and calmly about what happened. Advocacy is not an easy road, and she's taking one of the hardest. I'm in a vaguely similar situation – although I've got degrees but work in a field in which finding a job is a needle in a haystack – where my job covers the family insurance, has more stability (union contract) and pays a little more than my husband's, but we need both incomes to be able to pay for our house. There is no other option than daycare for our baby at 3 months. I can only hope that we find a place that's full of safe, caring teachers/caregivers, and that baby will make it home safe every day.

A nightmare come true. That poor baby and poor mom and dad.

So sad. So very sad.

It is a tragic situation but many of us have faced that situation. I was forced, basically to quit. Instead we need better child care options so children are safe and this stuff does not happen.

How sad. But that was not a maternity leave issue. Her baby died of SIDS or something similar.

Gut-wrenching is exactly the right word. I have such admiration for this woman though - that she is channeling some of her grief into advocacy for saner policies.

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/a-baby-dies-at-day-care-and-a-mother-asks-why-she-had-to-leave-him-so-soon/

Pretty gut-wrenching.

I think all mothers should get a minimum of one year at home with their infant, if they so choose.