September 2015 Moms

Infant Care

Im a FTM and my husband is a graduate student. So, I dont have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom. I have to work or we won't be able to eat. Anyway, I know its really early but I was looking for some advise. Is private care better then a day care environtment? How much does it cost? I've herd that sometimes there is a long waiting list to get into some day cares, when is the best time to start looking to make sure I can get my child into the best one possible? Also, what do you need to look for in a good day care or care giver? I'm honestly terrified to leaving my child in someones care. Any advise is appreciated.

Re: Infant Care

  • There are two infant care centers near my home. We will need infant care starting in December, one was already completely booked for December last week, and we got the last December spot in the other one last week. It's definitely not too early to start looking. We'll be paying $1000/month. We toured the facility and got to ask questions about it, it seemed like a good place, though we are first time parents and naive about this. We talked to the staff, saw how they interacted with the very young babies, and got all our questions answered. Everything seemed good to us, so we were happy to get that last spot. 
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  • Whatever you decide to do start looking now. When we started looking for our first we honestly could not a find a center we were happy with . Finding in home care is equally as hard .
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  • There are lists of questions provided on The Bump, but to be honest you really don't know what the good questions are until your LO arrives. Here's few things that come to mind:
    1. Do they background check their employees (as much as you'd like to assume this is always done, some may not)? What types of credentials does the staff have? Tenure? It maybe a red flag of tenure is low because of high turn over due to poor management.
    2. Can you bring in outside food? Once your baby no longer just consumes breast milk/formula, this will be important if you still want to have control over what your kid is eating. Some daycare's may not allow outside food. If they don't allow it, ask to see a menu.
    3. If you choose to follow a schedule with your LO, will the daycare adhere to it?
    4. What does tuition include? Diapers, wipes, food, etc.
    5. This is more personal feelings and not for the daycare, but would you want to spend all day in the facility? Do you get warm and fizzles when you walk in? Chances are if you don't feel good about the place your baby will feel the same.

    Once LO arrived I would schedule another visit so you can ask more questions that may come to mind after living with your baby for a few weeks.

    And the first day of drop off will be an emotional day. It's like removing your heart from your chest and being expected to continue on like nothing's wrong, but you'll get through it and your baby will be in good hands.
  • WDDCHWDDCH member
    You should look now. Some places have waiting lists and fill fast. You won't know what is the best fit for you until you look at both private and public care, their prices and schedules and get a feel for the space provided.

    I was a daycare kid. I had a lot of opportunities, including in the summer. Swimming, gymnastics, huge playground, cooks who made our meals and snacks, etc. It was like a mini version of school without tests and homework. Of course the baby side of a care center isn't exactly like that but they should be professional, clean and offer plenty of healthy stimuli.

    One thing to consider is that a daycare has more staff so if a teacher gets sick there is still other staff there and you won't have to find alternate care. If your private care gets sick or has a sick child herself you may have to miss work if you don't have backup.
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  • We have semi private care at an in home sitter. We used care.com and had a list of questions. It's been wonderful. We only pay when we go and the max kids she will take is 5. Right when we met her we knew we both liked her a lot. She has three children, one in HS one in MS and one in ementary. Their house is a gorgeous single with a yard and playground and a pool. She follows all safety procedures as a center, including fire drills, water bracelets (because of the pool), allergy safety. She is licensed with the state and has background checks for her and her husband. And seriously has been the best we could hope for. We thought about moving him to preschool at 3 but have decided to keep him there until kindergarten most likely.
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  • We have had both in home and daycare centers. Centers were way more expensive for us and just didn't have that warm fuzzy feeling when you drop your kids off. Your kid was just another kid (I'm sure all are not like that) I always felt I got to know the daycare provider better when it's at their home. Now we live in a small town so there aren't even any centers available. But we got lucky and got in to a great lady. So we've been with her for 4 years now. It does stink when she needs a day off or she's sick cause there isn't a back up. But it usually all works out:) good luck on your search!
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  • I am a FTM as well and will also unfortunately have to be using a daycare of some kind. I by no means have all the answers to questions, but I have been going about my search by asking my coworkers with young kids. I have found an in home daycare that a couple of my coworkers use and have used for several years. Leaving my baby with someone is the most stressful thought in the world to me, so having these references and knowing how happy other parents and their kids are with this place makes me feel 95% better! 
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  • Our state has a rating system where you can research licensed child care (both centers and home) options. Because I know a lot about the licensure from work I've done, I'm only looking for places rated at a level 3 or
    4. We need a place starting in January and the two places I called today both had waiting lists. The first spot in my preferred center isn't until March of 2016. I would recommend that you get started looking as soon as possible.
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