Things to look for in a daycare?

Ms H13

Hi everyone, I've been pretty irregular about posting here, hopefully I'm not a complete stranger!

We're starting to tour some daycares and I thought I would ask what factors were most important to other MoM's in choosing where to go.  We're only looking at daycare centers (no in-home daycares) for the time being, the twins will start going full time when they are 4 months old.  Any advice is appreciated!

Reilly626

I ask the longevity of the staff, are they college educated and background checked. How much notice can they give to quit - I don't want my babies having new teachers weekly. How often fed/diapers changed- run me through their routine. Nap schedule?  I also like to visit unannounced and get the real vibe of the place. I'm on a waiting list for September when they are 14 months old- and I'm number 19 and 20 at 2 places! It's very frustrating!

keg

Ditto pp.  I think going with your gut feeling is very important.  I also feel that staff turnover is an important concern.  Not only does high turnover affect you LO, but to me it indicates that it might not be a great working environment.  If the daycare has multiple classes per age group, ask what their twin policy is.  If you are serious about the place, I'd also ask about what the center provides vs. what you provide and also if you can leave their infant seats there if you'd like.  If you are breastfeeding, I'd ask about their policies.  If formula, for backup, do you need to provide pre-made formula or will they mix in an emergency. 

Ms H13

Ohh, good call on the staff turn over rates - I hadn't thought about that.  So far we've been going with 'gut feel' and curriculum but figured we should get some more parameters for narrowing down.  Thanks!

jlefief

Cleanliness was big for me.  In the infant room at mine you have to put on those blue booties to walk in the room and all of the toys are sanitized at the end of each day.

 I also liked looking at the menus for breakfast/lunches.  If you plan on keeping them there past the baby stage it is helpful to see if they plan nutrional meals or if they eat chicken nuggets and pizza.

After many searches I found I liked the bigger chain daycares better as opposed to the small family run daycares.  If something happens (injury, feed wrong bottle, fighting with other kids) there are coporate policies and procudures to be followed and reported.

 Also - curriculum. Even the infant room has a planned curriculum at mine.  They have goals for each kid - working on fine and gross motor skills, recognition of things, etc.  You get a daily report that tells you what they ate, how much, when they pee/poop, something special or cute they did that day, how long they napped, etc.

jlefief

One thing to look for is bouncy seats.  If they have a bunch of bouncy seats around I would worry they are in them too much.  Ours actually has a "no bouncy seat" policy.  They are on play mats, boppys, bumbos, tummy time or held.

masked_rose86

Their sick policy.  We found a daycare I thought I liked but they did not abide by any really good sick policies (in spite of what is written in their handbook) and I can't handle having sick twins all the time!  My girls were in daycare for 2 half weeks, and we ended up pulling them.  They were sick a whole month.  Not that I didn't expect them to get sick at all, but how sick they were did not seem normal to me.  

Come to find out from a former employee that they force teachers to come in even if they are sick.  I don't want sick caregivers and sick babies around my babies all the time, that just doesn't seem right.

That said, I do expect some level of flexibility in this area too since you can't send a kid home with every drippy nose or small cough.  But I just felt like this was not regulated at all to prevent spread of illness during a very sick month with how much flu, rsv, etc was going around.