Daycare freak out?!?!

Blondie1212

Sorry I've been posting a lot.....seems like all of the sudden a ton of stuff is coming up.

So next week I am returned to work *reluctantly* after 6 months home. I decided to start my LO in daycare this week for half days so he would get used to going alone. We had made a few visits before where we had stayed a couple of hours. Well day 1 he didn't nap at all, he was exhausted and fell asleep in the car on the way home then proceeded to sleep for 3 hours. That to me was ok because there was so much for him to look at I figured he probably is just really excited. Then yesterday I went to daycare to drop him off, and one of the ladies was cutting up her own personal watermelon and feeding it to one of the babies. I was like shocked and felt this was inappropriate. I know it's just fruit, but I don't know what her house is like. It could be super dirty and now she's feeding it to this baby?  Then I go to get him and I watched one lady put him on the changing table, sniff him, then bring him back to sit in a chair. I thought why would you not just change him? So, as I'm unpacking his bag last night I noticed that both of his bowls were in the exact same position that I had put them in his bag. This was odd because I had sent him with a pouch of mangos yesterday and they should've been squeezed into a bowl and fed to him.Then today when i went in to daycare I dropped him off and he was ready to eat. The lady just pulls the lid right off the food and started feeding him and he was making faces. He hasn't eaten anything since going to daycare, and now i know why. Wednesday he was sent with frozen peaches and they fed him them ice cold/partially frozen, yesterday they HANDED HIM THE POUCH to feed himself, and today they didn't heat the food. When i mentioned that he likes the food warm the lady was like "well how long do i heat it for?" UM WHAT?????? so, i don't know if my concerns are valid or if I'm being a freaky mother. please discuss.

runningyogimama

Yeah, I'd make my concerns known, but I'd also be finding a new daycare, like, yesterday!

MrsWindyCity

How do  you know it was her personal watermelon? Also, have you given instructions on feeding in the past? I would never think to squeeze a pouch into a bowl if someone didn't tell me to - most babies just suck the food out of them. Or are you talking about some other kind of pouch? What kind of food didn't they heat (like, veggies, etc.) and was it homemade/from a jar? I mean, I probably wouldn't feed a  baby frozen mangos but I also wouldn't want to eat warm mangos myself, so I doubt I would give them that way to LO. For homemade food, we heated it a little since it was from the fridge/frozen but if we fed him jarred food, he just ate it at room temp.

Mrs.Castaldi

As far as the changing thing goes sometimes I do something similar, if I thought he was dirty but it turns out LO was fine I don't change him just for the sake of changing him. Although that's also usually when we are getting a little low on diapers and haven't bought more yet.

For the food stuff I would express your concerns, but whether or not you stay with that daycare I don't know. My LO doesn't like his food heated up at all. He seems to enjoy his purées almost straight out of the fridge, maybe the coolness feels good on his gums. However I would also never just hand him a pouch, but he was also a little late arriving so my march baby came in April so he's not quite 5 months yet.

Blondie1212

MrsWindyCity said:

How do  you know it was her personal watermelon? Also, have you given instructions on feeding in the past? I would never think to squeeze a pouch into a bowl if someone didn't tell me to - most babies just suck the food out of them. Or are you talking about some other kind of pouch? What kind of food didn't they heat (like, veggies, etc.) and was it homemade/from a jar? I mean, I probably wouldn't feed a  baby frozen mangos but I also wouldn't want to eat warm mangos myself, so I doubt I would give them that way to LO. For homemade food, we heated it a little since it was from the fridge/frozen but if we fed him jarred food, he just ate it at room temp.

The teacher said "I'm sharing my watermelon with him". To me I would just be really upset if I sent my child to school with food and someone else took it upon themselves to feed him something. I think as a mother you have a right to control what goes in your child's mouth. Once they reach a certain age it's fair game but before that I guess I just feel that is your right. It was peas that I had sent that they didn't heat. The peaches I can understand not thinking to heat but at least defrost them/take the chill off. I wrote instructions in his bio/routine sheet but not specifically on the food itself so that in fact is my fault. As for the pouch. My concern was they handed it to him when he doesn't have the coordination to feed it to himself yet so my concern is that he could end up choking on it. If someone assisted him in squeezing then its not as bad. I don't think Id switch centers over it. But it definitely makes me concerned.

MrsG071809

I think these are all legitimate concerns - if it were me I would express my concerns to them, and give them a chance to correct the issues.  If nothing changes, then I would be looking elsewhere.  

MrsWindyCity

Blondie1212 said:

How do  you know it was her personal watermelon? Also, have you given instructions on feeding in the past? I would never think to squeeze a pouch into a bowl if someone didn't tell me to - most babies just suck the food out of them. Or are you talking about some other kind of pouch? What kind of food didn't they heat (like, veggies, etc.) and was it homemade/from a jar? I mean, I probably wouldn't feed a  baby frozen mangos but I also wouldn't want to eat warm mangos myself, so I doubt I would give them that way to LO. For homemade food, we heated it a little since it was from the fridge/frozen but if we fed him jarred food, he just ate it at room temp.

The teacher said "I'm sharing my watermelon with him". To me I would just be really upset if I sent my child to school with food and someone else took it upon themselves to feed him something. I think as a mother you have a right to control what goes in your child's mouth. Once they reach a certain age it's fair game but before that I guess I just feel that is your right. It was peas that I had sent that they didn't heat. The peaches I can understand not thinking to heat but at least defrost them/take the chill off. I wrote instructions in his bio/routine sheet but not specifically on the food itself so that in fact is my fault. As for the pouch. My concern was they handed it to him when he doesn't have the coordination to feed it to himself yet so my concern is that he could end up choking on it. If someone assisted him in squeezing then its not as bad. I don't think Id switch centers over it. But it definitely makes me concerned.

No, I totally get your concern over the watermelon because I would want to know what my kid is eating, too. I was just wondering how it was obvious that it was hers since our DCP fridge has a lot of stuff in it, not just what parents bring in but stuff from the company that does their catering. 

I would just be very explicit in your instructions for handling the food--both on the food itself but just talking to the teacher, too. If you don't feel like they are addressing your concerns, talk to the director too.