How do I find a nanny??

tammy_oh · June 2011

Hi ladies!

I'm new/lurker. DS is 3 and has speech apraxia which has led to some problems with behavior. Try as we might we can't seem to curb his hitting and biting. It isn't constant but consistent enough that he was recently dropped by his second daycare. We are working with a speech therapist and hopefully he will start occupational therapy soon. He will attend a special needs preschool in the fall.

We have been able to move our schedules around so we will only need childcare 2 days a week at most. I don't think another daycare setting would work for him. We would like to find someone who could be with him in our home but aren't sure how to do that.

Any suggestions? I feel lost.

thefuturemrskudla · June 2011

Hi,

Have you asked for recommendations from the staff at the special needs school or the the other parents? Also, the speech therapist may know some people.

carlinlp · June 2011

Are you located near a University? I had a friend in college who was a nanny for special needs children while she was studying to be a therapist. Might be worth a shot to find a student looking to gain some experience. GL!

MaxandRuby · June 2011

You could always try sittercity.com or care.com (DS2 is special needs and both of my regular sitters I got from sittercity). I'd also suggest asking your therapists to see if they have any resources. I also agree with the PP about maybe a local college if you happen to have one.

mrs_kelly1014 · June 2011

MaxandRuby:
You could always try sittercity.com or care.com (DS2 is special needs and both of my regular sitters I got from sittercity). I'd also suggest asking your therapists to see if they have any resources. I also agree with the PP about maybe a local college if you happen to have one.

Care.com actually offers a special needs search and you can select specific criteria for which you want someone with experience.

We actually found our nanny on sittercity.com and were looking for someone with experience specifically with speech and development delays as well as asthma (DS had been in the PICU about 2 weeks before she started and has incredibly severe asthma and food allergies). She was wonderful, had quite a bit of experience, and did a great job participating in DS's in-home EI therapies throughout the week when I was not able to attend.

nomadica · June 2011

We just hired a nanny from sittercity.com. Make sure to interview a lot of people, so you'll really know who fits in with your child and family best. A lot of the nannies on that site have experience with special needs children, though not necessarily any formal education regarding this. I would suggest being very forthcoming about your child's behavior and other problems in the interviews, so that the nanny knows exactly what she is getting into, and hopefully won't bail on you guys down the road. Within less than 24 hours after posting on that site, we had about 10 applications and they kept on coming, so there was a fairly wide pool of applicants for us. Good luck!

JenGK · June 2011

I thought that I needed someone with experience with special needs kids and a college degree. I ended up hiring someone who had neither -- and she is so wonderful with Zachary (other waiting room parents lavish praise on her when I meet her there to pick Zachary up from OT). We were honest with Zachary's issues, and ended up hiring her from an ad on a local mom's site (where people who no longer need their nannies post). I'd recommend keeping an open mind and interviewing a lot of people. We clicked with her when she walked through the door.

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