Day Care Advice, Tips

dobbe007 · July 2011

My son was born at 28 weeks. I will have to go back to work when he is 3 weeks corrected age. I'm a first-time mom who has no previous experience with a preemie, so my learning curve has been huge!!! Can anyone share some advice with me on selecting a day care or care provider once I return to work?

Kate621 · July 2011

I have been lucky enough to be able to stay home with my 25 weeker so I don't have much advice about picking a daycare. I would talk to the neos and nurses at your NICU. We were told to avoid daycare if at all possible. Also, be aware the some daycares don't accept infants until they are at least 6 weeks adjusted. A small in home daycare may be a good option too if you can find one. Good luck to you!

st.augbride · July 2011

My county had a program where they could help me identify home daycares with preemie experience. They made it clear that this was not an endorsement and that I would need to thoroughly check them out myself, but we found ours that way and feel very grateful for such a good place so far. We first tried a center and pulled him out after 2 horrible days there. Finding good daycare is hard and stressful. Just check out as many as you can and go with your gut.

Irishsapphire · July 2011

I only had a 6 week maternity leave. I wanted to give baby some time at home while waiting for a spot in daycare to clear and for him to be old enought for age requirements which was 3 months. So for the month of July and August, we found a part-time nanny on care.com and the inlaws came in for 2 days a week. My husband and I also offset those first two months with taking some vacation days to watch baby. We lucked out with the nanny we found. She did a great job.

And then baby cleared the waitlist at a daycare at a retirement home because he was early. They went by actual age. I took baby to the daycare, and I watched how they interacted. And I knew he would be okay. And he was. He has been there since September. He is a little bit delayed as far as walking and going to finger foods, so we are still waiting to transition to the toddler room. Overall, we found a great daycare. And as well, it is good to have the Synargis shots. Baby did not like the shots, but I think it helped the first year in daycare.

lemen99 · July 2011

I had to go back to work at 6 weeks and found a nanny to come to our home. If you can find something like that I encourage it! Andrew needed a lot of attention and I didn't worry about him getting sick. (26-weeker)

damabo80 · July 2011

Our nurses/drs recommended that we find an in home daycare with no toddlers (since those little buggers are germ factories).

Ideally, the in home provider would be watching a few babies. Anyone in your neighborhood, or any SAHM friends?

Also, you may want to check into getting an au pair. A nanny is super expensive, but au pairs are fairly cheap (but they live with you).

erinruns · July 2011

My girls were born at 32 weeks and I went with a nanny. My girls were fairly high maintenance those first few months, plus finding a daycare to accept two newborns was impossible. Nannies don't have to be expensive either. You may be able to find a college girl for cheap, so don't rule it out.

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