Follow up Questions to Daycare??

Re: Follow up Questions to Daycare??

• djm31012 member

  May 2014

  Ask about administering meds and if a dr note is required as well. Ask about sick policy and what their calendar is as far as days that the center is closed . Some centers have webcams so u can peek in on your LO whenever u want . Make sure you are clear on security as well... How easy it is to get in and out of the building ,
  Policy for your Lo being picked up by someone other than you etc .

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• ss265 member

  May 2014

  You might have observed this during your tour but how do they keep your LO's bottles separate from someone else? Same goes for extra clothes, diaper bag etc. Do you have to provide diapers/wipes or do they provide them at an extra cost? What is the fee to reserve your spot? Is there a sibling discount (assuming that you might in the future enroll a second child there)? Are babies held when they are given bottles or do they encourage the babies to hold their own bottles at a young age? How much time does baby typically spend in swing/bouncer etc.? What is the average tenure of the employees in the infant room (high turnover would be a red flag to me). Do they require you to label bottles and what information do they need on the bottle? If baby refuses the bottle, how long do they wait before trying again? What is their sick policy?

  Did you also observe the babies there? Did they seem happy, were the employees interacting with them?

  $350 to me seems high - did you look at other places? Is that typical where you live?

  

  
  

  
  

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• tacosandtums member

  May 2014

  Lots of good questions. Thank you all. Some were answered already, some
  I will be asking if a follow up email.
  
  @ss265‌ $350 is average where I live. That's with a 10% employee discount.
  
  The infant teachers have a tenure of 17 years and 24 years. Absolutely loved that about the place! The center director said she's been there 11 years and "she still feels new."
  
  I really appreciated the question suggestions about feedings. Having never had a NB before, I didn't think to ask any of that.
  
  Note- I saw a sample of the menu and saw the kitchen. It looked good to me. You do have the option to send your own food, though. It's a peanut free facility which is nice.
  
  @theresat858‌ I would be fine nursing every day at lunch for a year, but I don't think that would be enough to avoid a bottle, though. I'm still learning about breastfeeding, so bear with me but a feeding before work (7:30) and after work (5:30) doesn't seem like it would be enough combined with one midday feeding to keep my supply up. I'll have to wait and see how LO is and what kind of feeding schedule we're on at 12 weeks.

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• tacosandtums member

  May 2014

  @ss265‌ "Are babies held when they are given bottles or do they encourage the babies to hold their own bottles at a young age?"
  On mobile sorry can't quote-- what is the correct answer to this question?

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• ss265 member

  May 2014

  RC1014 said:

  @ss265‌ "Are babies held when they are given bottles or do they encourage the babies to hold their own bottles at a young age?" On mobile sorry can't quote-- what is the correct answer to this question?

  This is a little bit of a trick question. It is very bad to prop bottles in a baby's mouth - i.e. lay the baby down somewhere and then use a stuffed toy or something to "jam" the bottle in their mouth. I doubt that any DC provider will admit that they do this but you might just get someone admitting to this if you throw the question out.

  Obviously you would have to hold a very young baby when you give them a bottle. At around 6 months, some babies might start trying to hold their own bottle and some DC will actually encourage this so that they can lay the baby down somewhere and have them hold their own bottle. I personally didn't encourage DS1 to hold his bottle because I wanted him to have that human contact when being fed. He did eventually start holding his bottle at maybe around 9 months. Holding their own bottle is a developmental milestone and obviously I didn't want DS to be delayed developmentally but I don't think our pedi even asked us about this until 9 or 12 months.
  

  

  
  

  
  

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• ss265 member

  May 2014

  RC1014 said:

  Lots of good questions. Thank you all. Some were answered already, some I will be asking if a follow up email. @ss265‌ $350 is average where I live. That's with a 10% employee discount. The infant teachers have a tenure of 17 years and 24 years. Absolutely loved that about the place! The center director said she's been there 11 years and "she still feels new." I really appreciated the question suggestions about feedings. Having never had a NB before, I didn't think to ask any of that. Note- I saw a sample of the menu and saw the kitchen. It looked good to me. You do have the option to send your own food, though. It's a peanut free facility which is nice. @theresat858‌ I would be fine nursing every day at lunch for a year, but I don't think that would be enough to avoid a bottle, though. I'm still learning about breastfeeding, so bear with me but a feeding before work (7:30) and after work (5:30) doesn't seem like it would be enough combined with one midday feeding to keep my supply up. I'll have to wait and see how LO is and what kind of feeding schedule we're on at 12 weeks.

  Yowza! We paid $255/week for DS at that age but we live in a LCOL area so that might make a difference. Feedings are probably one of the biggest thing to be concerned about when they are a newborn (the other one is sleep) which is why so many questions revolve around feedings.
  

  

  
  

  
  

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• fitmom82 member

  May 2014

  I didn't use daycare when my kids were infants so maybe it's common, but washing the sheets every night and having a weekly curriculum for infants sounds pretty strange to me.  I feel babies should be learning through interacting with others and their environment and don't need a prescribed curriculum.  That would just kind of rub me the wrong way, like they're just trying to give the answers you want to hear.

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• tacosandtums member

  May 2014

  @fitmom82‌ the curriculum is like "the itsy bitsy spider is the song of the week" haha. It's not that intense. The main thing is they incorporate music and movement into the child's day.
  
  Nightly sheet washing doesn't bother me. If baby spits up or sweats in the crib and they want to wash the sheets, that's fine by me. They said you can bring your own linens, and parents who do that usually take them home on weekends. Maybe it's a law?? Maryland is weird...stranger things have happened.. Haha
  
  Thanks for the additional questions. @K3am‌ They do an hour of outside time each day- broken up into morning and afternoon. Didn't seem like enough but there are a bunch of classes so I understand it's a scheduling thing.
  
  Regarding frozen breast milk, they said they don't ever open bottles. They warm them from the outside and don't ever physically open the top. So I don't know where that leaves the froEn breast milk question. I do know each infant room had it's own refrigerator and they give you labels to put on all your bottles. Each kid has a cubby and they put the empty ones in there as the day goes by (I'm guessing- I saw a bottle in a cubby)

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• emberlee3 member

  May 2014

  It sounds good from what you posted (except for the cost, but if that's typical of the area, then it's fine).  Is it NAEYC certified? (National Association for the Education of Young Children)
  
  My state has a regulation that babies up to 1 year must be held for feedings, even if they hold their own bottles.  I think this is a great policy.  Feeding is very important for bonding.  Both my children are VERY independent, but neither one ever held their own bottle. 
  
  The best daycares in my area emphasize floor time and do not even have swings.  Bouncers are limited to 30 minutes per day per child.  Most of the babies' awake time is spent on the floor with teachers playing and interacting with LOs.
  

  DS born 8/8/09 and DD born 6/12/12.
  

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• tacosandtums member

  May 2014

  @emberlee3 yup, they have that certification. Good question. I just looked at their website for a list of certifications: https://www.lapetite.com/about-our-schools/accreditation/ 

  
  

  @amy052006 and @fitmom82 -- the word curriculum is probably a stretch. essentially it's a song of the week and different body movement they work to develop. Here's a snapshot of what they do-  https://www.lapetite.com/programs/programs-by-age/infant-daycare/

  
  

  I'm going back today with a list of follow up quesitons, I can't thank all of you enough for your help! 

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• snicksnack member

  May 2014

  This may seem like a simple question but ask how they communicate with parents.  My kids are at Goddard and they never communicate it is like they expect parents to have ESP.  They leave notes on the classeoom door but don’t tell you important notes are left on the door, btw door has other stuff on it so not like it jumps out at you.  Friday they tell us “Mother’s day tea at 3:30 on the 9^th”.  Okay what does that mean each class have one? Do I need to bring a grandparent so each of my kids has someone? So I asked the question but it is like that with everything.  There is a child in my DD’s room with a peanut allergies I had no clue other than I saw a sign meanwhile DD tells me he got all red and sick because someone brought in peanut butter.  In my opinion we should have gotten written notice and told not to bring in peanut products. We don't have email addresses for the teachers either so if the main teacher is not there at the end of the day there is no way to know how your child did that day.  Their daily sheet is photocopied for all the kids and then a special moment written about each child.  so a lot of frustration over something that is very simple to solve.

  

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• ss265 member

  May 2014

  Does your state certify day cares? In TX I can look up inspection reports by all day care centers that are licensed and before we picked our current day care, I looked up all their inspection reports and the violations they had. If your state does something similar, I would check that out.

  And I assume you also get a sheet at the end of the day with notes etc. on how LO did right?

  

  
  

  
  

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• tacosandtums member

  May 2014

  @ss265 yep they showed me the sheet. They record every diaper change, feeding, time of sleep, etc. They do certify daycares. The state website is super junky so it's hard to find anything, but I did verify that they are a licensed facility and their certifications are up to date. 

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• tacosandtums member

  May 2014 edited May 2014

  Hi all, ok last update I promise- I put our name on the wait list! I asked all the questions you all recommended and they passed with flying colors...

  
  

  I asked about the feeding specifically. They said they never throw out breast milk unless instructed by the parent, so they do reoffer the same bottle.  They always hold the babies while feeding. They only allow them to hold their own bottle if they are like 9 months old and the baby wants to do it, but they still hold the baby then.

  ETA: they never prop baby up with the bottle. They were adamant about that and both were like we NEVER do that. 

  
  

  Sick policy is they have to be symptom free and med free for 24 hours before being allowed back. I forgot to ask about stuff like teething tablets. 

  
  

  For communication to parents, they are paperless. The director said she sends out emails frequently and all news is communicated both in daily email blasts and in a quarterly newsletter with a schedule of events. 

  
  

  Max time in a bouncer is 5-10 minutes. If they fall asleep in the bouncer, they are required by law to pick them up and move them to the crib. 

  
  

  I feel great about it! I am so grateful to all of you for the suggested questions and things to ask. This is a great community of support and I really appreciate your help! 

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• tacosandtums member

  May 2014

  theresat858 said:

  
  (Our daycare policy is symptom free without being medicated for said symptoms for 24hrs, but that usually means fever.  For things w/ antibiotics, the kid just has to have been on the med for 24 hours).
  
  

  That's what they said/what I meant to type. Sorry that got lost in translation in my post. Haha

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