BTDT Moms: Day care tours and questions I should be asking

AHemm1986 · September 2014

Question for BTDT moms: What types of questions did you ask on day care tours? Tips on things to look for?

I've got a few tours scheduled for next week at potential day cares for this little one. Luckily we won't have to start using day care until she's about 6mo, but I wanted to get a jump start (and good thing I did, several sites only have 1-2 openings left for next August!). I feel like this is a job interview that I'm super unprepared for. Any guidance / suggestions welcome! (sorry if this has already been discussed..I tried to search but didn't find anything on our bmb)

BookitBoo · September 2014

Ask about

1.vaccination policies
2. Holidays (they should provide you with a list of days the daycare is closed, or only open half a day
3. Their policies for snow days or other inclement weather
4. Discipline procedures -- not specifically for your child, but in general
5. Sick days. Will baby be sent home with a temp of 99.9, or 101?

peckmiranda · September 2014

I used to work in the baby room at a couple daycares one great and one terrible, so here are the questions I would ask.

1) What's your policy on breastmilk? (You'd be surprised how many daycares don't allow you to bring in breastmilk or require it to be freshly pumped.)

2) How often are diaper checks? (This is all personal opinion for a mom, but let me tell you, when your LO is 12 months old, you'll be tired of buying enough diapers for the hourly check.)

3) Policy on medicine/sickness/fever? (Most daycares won't let you bring a baby until they've been fever-free for 24 hours...which really sucks if your LO runs a fever while teething.)

4) Policy on rocking babies to sleep? (Some daycares are very strict that babies must put themselves to sleep in their crib, they won't allow the staff to rock them to sleep.)

5) Policy on homemade baby food? (Again, some daycares see it as a risk and will only let you bring store-bought baby food.)

6) How many babies to staff members? (Depends on the state as to what the actual regulation is.)

7) Depending on how early your LO will be dropped off, you might ask about their early morning routine. Sometimes the baby room is the drop-off location for all kids before 7 or 7:30 or whatever, which can be a little stressful for the babies.

8) Take a really good look around the room and note how many things they have for non-mobile babies, such as bumbos, jumpers, boppies, etc. This will tell you how much time your LO might spend on his/her back.

9) Ask about their policy for moving babies up to the toddler room. (Some daycares do it strictly by birthday, some do it strictly by when the baby starts to walk, and others are more lenient.)

10) Depending on if you're going to be the only one picking LO up/dropping LO off, ask if you can leave the car seat there. This can be a huge hassle if you only have one car seat and your daycare won't let you leave it there.

11) Ask if they ever take the babies on walks or outside.

12) Ask how often the toys are sanitized or cleaned.

13) Ask if baby is allowed to have a blanket in the crib (if you want him/her to).

14) Some daycares have a staff cell phone and will take pictures and text throughout the day. This is definitely a perk.

LadyXaverian · September 2014

Daily schedule/routine (including Nap schedule, Feeding schedule, Diaper schedule)

Teacher/child ratio

Payment policy (Most day cares require you to pay even when kids aren't there. The payment is like tuition as opposed to a daily rate. Also, many have late pick up fees as in a certain number of dollars per minute you are late picking your child up.)

Holidays/closings

Discipline (for when they are older, but it might still give you a feel now for whether or not they are a good fit for you/your family)

Communication (like how they will communicate with you if your child is sick, gets hurt etc.. as well as regular daily/weekly/monthly communication)

Last but not least, references. My DCP was able to provide reference letters as well as phone numbers of current and former parents who I could talk to and get a parents' perspective on the day care. That was pretty cool.

That's all I can think of right now.

peckmiranda · September 2014

Ooooh yeah and DEFINITELY ask what their turnover rate is. Unhappy workers=unhappy babies.

AHemm1986 · September 2014

This is all very helpful so far! Thanks everyone :-)

storm08 · September 2014

One that is a little more pertinent at an older age because it was never an issue when DS was in the baby room - how consistent are they with open/close floaters? The floater teacher who was there when we dropped DS off in the morning was a different person every day for the better part of a month this summer. While a different teacher every once in awhile isn't a big deal, he is big on routine and to have someone different there every morning was just plain confusing for him. It also made it difficult for us to communicate any issues to his main teachers. It really wouldn't have flown for me when he was in the baby room because I liked being able to tell the teacher how he slept that night, and when he ate etc even though I had to put it all on his drop off sheet.

Maebb · September 2014

All good suggestions from PPs - the only thing I would add is whether they allow cloth diapers (if you care about that) and if you have to provide your own crib sheets.

How does nap time work? Like will they go by a schedule you tell them or take cues from the baby or do they put every child in the class on the same schedule?

Once they get older, what are examples of the type of food they provide?

What is their policy for reporting if your child gets hurt or hurts another child?

What type of daily communication do they provide? (Like a sheet that tells when LO was fed, how much formula or breast milk he drank, when he was changed, napped, etc.)

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BTDT Moms: Day care tours and questions I should be asking

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