Starting daycare

BabyPaulin

My little guy will be starting daycare soon (once I find one I like), I'm freaking out because of the unexpected, like will they feed him if he can't feed himself, he still need to be soothe to sleep, will they let him cry until he turns red? He has eczema, how about when he's really itchy, will someone pay attention and put lotion on for him. And many more questions, my head hurts. What are your experiences with daycare? Please, any response will help.

luv4LO

I would ask when you are interviewing daycare providers if they will do those things. I expected our daycare to do those things for LO and she did.  Our daycare lady is awesome and got my little guy feeding himself and soothing himself to sleep and I didn't even know it  One day out side of daycare hours we were visiting, (we live in a small community and already knew each other and have the same friends and social events) anyways, she said, "hun, he feeds himself puffs all the time, whole ones". I had been feeding them to him, broke in half.  hahahaha!  Sure enough he was a pro at self feeding and I didn't even know it.  She also is the one who has got him into his nap routine.  Daycare is scary but when you find someone you have a connection with and a good feeling about - its awesome.  We started somewhere else and right from the get go I felt off about it. Cried every day I left LO there.  You will know.  Good luck  

BabyPaulin

Thank you so much. I feel better reading that.

NLewis1

We recently went from a nanny to a daycare center. And I LOVE IT. The ladies in the infant room are awesome. He goes right to them and lays his head on their shoulder when I leave, they do "paintings" where they make flowers out of footprints ect. He has friends he gets to play with. For instance, I brought him in this morning and set his carseat down so I could put his stuff in his cubby and a little girl who is 2 days older than him zoomed across the room and was like IN his carseat with him! I had to physically move her so I could get him out of the carseat. Once I put him down they zoomed off together to play, its really neat to see him interacting with other kids his age.

I have made "unannounced" visits in the middle of the day before and am always pleased with what I see. Usually they are in the middle of feeding lunch, and they do help him, but I like that they give him a little bit of independence. Now if I could just get my husband on board with promoting that at home, that would be GREAT - he's the overprotective helicopter parent in our house. He always thinks I give him pieces of chicken or whatever that are too big and when baby gags a little he FREAKS. Im like RELAX, he's just learning!

Anyways - I think daycare has been awesome. Like PP said, he's in a good nap routine. I've gone in before during nap time and while my guy is always asleep in his crib, the other ladies have been holding a baby of varying ages because that's the only way they would sleep. I feel like the ladies at our center really care for the kids and are personally vested in their growth and well being.

BabyPaulin

Wow, sounds ideal. Thanks!