nanny if you can afford it.

A small home daycare

It's a fun place, it helps children with thier socio -emotional skills, they learn together, safe environment.

Some kids gets sick the first week. Some don't. It's a stereotype. In winter people gets sick often and my Daycare Provider never got sick. My son got sick once, he's fine and a happy boy! Now he's thriving at school!

I know many people who grew up with Home daycares from 3 months old to 4 years old and now they have $100 k salaries, a house, car, goes on vacations. They are doing great

We put our kid in daycare starting at 3 months and don't regret it for a second. She is learning a lot and loves her teachers and classmates. Maybe we have been lucky, but outside of a bout with Covid a few years ago, I can't remember the last time we had to keep her home due to illness. The way I think about it, kids have to build up immunity somehow so she is either going to get those colds now or get those colds when she starts school.

We go to Tiny Findings in the Judiciary Square/Chinatown area and it has been great. Despite being in a Federal office building, you do not have to be a Federal employee to enroll your child. While there is a lottery if there aren't enough slots and Federal employees do get preference if that happens, they are currently under enrolled and have openings at nearly every level.

Some things that made them stand out for us...Their teacher to baby ratio for infants are lower than required (3:1 instead of 4:1) and when your child transitions to solids they provide breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks so you don't have to worry about that. Other benefits are the long opening hours (7am-6pm), its in a secure federal building with guards, and there is a playground so the kids go out twice a day weather permitting.

At such a tender age - - most definitely a Nanny.

In a daycare setting your baby will likely need to wait their turn to get fed, changed and held.
Also all the germs could get him/her very ill too.

A Nanny can give your baby 💯% loving attention and may even be able to do their laundry during nap times.

Having a Nanny is the best option but it is also is the most expensive one too {though worth every dollar}
Be prepared to pay at least $22/Hour.

Hope this helps.

We sent our kid to La Petite in the VA hospital complex on Michigan Ave which is near you and absolutely loved it. They do a great job and we loved all the teachers. They also have live-streaming and lots of pictures every day. At least at the time they were underbooked so the ratio was very good. We only left because we moved.

Our kid is very extroverted so daycare was great. If we had gone with a nanny we would have needed a nanny that gets out of the house constantly and has lots of nanny friends for playdates - otherwise he would have been under stimulated. But yes, the illnesses suck.

We sent 3 to daycare and it worked very well not having to find or manage an employee (though unlike DC, we have a very limited nanny network where we live). I think a good nanny would have been great, but a good daycare is also great as long as they are not there from start to close. Our dcs went from about 8-4:30. Look for a place with low turnover and some teachers who have been there for 5+ years, lots of outside time, a good staffing ratio. A lot of places like "Montessori" daycares won't use containers (bumbo, swing, jumperoo, bouncy chairs, etc) for the kids if that is important to you. That never bothered me but my kids are older and norms have changed.

The daycare germs are rough, as everyone has noted.

Also - I don't think having 1:1 at all times is necessarily the gold standard. I look at my second and third dcs who are so much more flexible and easygoing than my first. Obviously you are not going to leave a baby to cry by himself, but most babies throughout history have had other children in the mix. That's fine.

Assuming you find a daycare and a nanny you feel equally comfortable with, I would go with whichever option works best for you.

We moved them once they were fully potty trained and wanted to be more social.

Anonymous wrote:Piggy backing on OP's question, when is a good age to send LO to school? We currently have a nanny for the reasons mentioned above (better sleep, less illness, more personalized care, etc.), but we have an opportunity to send DC to preschool at 16 months. Currently on the fence about whether to keep the nanny and wait a year for school or start DC in school at 16 months, because that still seems a little young for a full day of school (we would have to put DC in after care). Would DC still benefit from being at home with a nanny at 16 months or would the benefits of being in school outweigh the benefits of being at home?

3 seems like a really common time to do it because a lot of schools have bigger 3s classes, that's when some kids start being bored by being in a nannyshare (that's what we had, so only one other kid his age) or smaller setting, etc. Also in DC, that's when universal Pre-K starts.

Nanny - we wanted less germs, more time outside, less hustle each day as we only had to get ourselves ready. Sent the kid to daycare at 2.5, and then Prek3 at 3.5.

Anonymous wrote:Caregiver stability in the first three years is beneficial. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7793551/

Quality and stability both matter.

My background is as a RN, but I have worked in a gold standard AMI Montessori toddler environment. A high quality program. However, it can’t be as responsive as toddlers under age 2 need, simply because of the fact that there are ~4 toddlers per adult. My own child will start at age 3.

Studies comparing daycare to nannies/sahp are always fraught with confounding variables that are impossible to control for. This is a choice that relies very much on and also directly impacts a family's finances. Meaning if you are able to pay for a good nanny, chances are you have a lot of money. If a nanny is a stretch and you choose daycare, you'll have more money for other things that might also impact the baby positively.

The reality is that no school teacher can honestly distinguish between kids that went to daycare as babies and those that were cared for at home by a nanny, relative, or parent a babies.

Families should choose the option that works best for their family and that is as high quality as possible. A good daycare is worlds better than a bad nanny.

Anonymous wrote:Piggy backing on OP's question, when is a good age to send LO to school? We currently have a nanny for the reasons mentioned above (better sleep, less illness, more personalized care, etc.), but we have an opportunity to send DC to preschool at 16 months. Currently on the fence about whether to keep the nanny and wait a year for school or start DC in school at 16 months, because that still seems a little young for a full day of school (we would have to put DC in after care). Would DC still benefit from being at home with a nanny at 16 months or would the benefits of being in school outweigh the benefits of being at home?

We put our kid in school at 16 months and it was great for him. He really benefited from have peer role models.

We did a nanny share for #1 and daycare for #2. Both have plusses and minusses. Neither of my kids ended up too sick from daycare. We were friendly with other family so there were 4 adults to cover for nanny when she needed off. Daycare is us easy. You know someone will be there Everytime and their are lots of eyes. ...but baby has to be up and dressed on a schedule. You have to pack food etc. Keep daycare stocked with supplies.