To all the mothers: Day Care Advice (long)

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello Allnurses!

I just got accepted into Midwestern State's BSN Program for the fall. The school is a 150 miles from my parents house, which I reside, so of course I'm moving. I have a soon to be 3 month old little boy =) I do have a babysitter down here who has been watching my nephew until he was able to go to school as well as my niece. They are now 6 and 7. She is currently keeping my other niece who is 20 months old. She is wonderfullll. And plus she is a great family friend. Now seeing how I will move, I have nobody to watch my son when needed. My bf is currently in jail for something he didn't do, no he isnt a dead beat and whatever else you might be thinking. He goes to court on the 23rd of this month, so I'm not sure what will happen, if they have to reset his court date again, or he goes to trial or whatever, the point is, I don't know if he will be out in time when school starts. So my question is to all the mothers, or even Aunties who have custody of their nieces, nephews, anybody with children, or who have experiece with children, how do you pick a day care. My sister advised me to go to the Child Protective Services website and look at all the day cares and people who do child care throught out their homes and look at their ratings. She said pay attention to how long they have been in business, how long they have had their issuance of their license, and the ratings. After 7 pages of day cares and people, I have narrowed it down to 5. Four are licensed day cares and they have been in business from 1986, 1988, 1996, and 1998. No violations, no complaints, passed inspection. Then I have another woman, she is registered does child care from her home, has been doing business since 1998, no violations, no complaints, passed inspection. I need help on choosing. How do I go about this? Do I go set up a visit? What questions should I ask? Any suggestions and advice would help. I think I can narrow it down to three, because I know I will be in clinicals and those start around 6:30-6:45 right? And two of those don't take children until 7AM. The woman in her house starts at 6AM until 6PM, the other two are 6:30-5:30. Please help me out. I'm terrrrrrrrrrified of day cares. There is always a story on the news "we're sorry, we didn't know we left little Billy in the van", or "omgsh, i don't know how he fell" or "i didn't hit him T H A T hard". I know mothers can really understand what I'm coming from. So please help me out. I will be so appreciative. Hopefully, my bf will be out in time, so I won't have to go through any of this, but if he's not I need help. Please keep us in your prayers.

-Prettyladie.

Specializes in Emergency.
Why don't you ask the school for a referral?

that is what my mother and sister said, but i wouldnt even know who to talk to. I'm going to meet with the advisor May 5th, so I guess I could ask her. Thanks for the advice.

Specializes in Cath Lab, OR, CPHN/SN, ER.

My three year old has been in daycare since she was 6 weeks old. I love it, she loves it.

1- Don't set up an appointment, just go. Health/food inspectors don't make appointments, you shouldn't either if you want to see what their facility is really like. Avoid 11-2pm (lunch and nap time).

2- Go with the one that starts earliest. If you're going to have clinical early, you need to drop off your child early. We started clinical at 0645, meaning we got there between 0600 and 0615 (bus ride from parking lot and breakfast).

Good luck. We've never had anything horrible happen at daycare. She's gotten into some um, altercations with other kids, but that can happen anywhere (playdates, cousins). One bad bite (the kid that did it was expelled), lots of falls (again, nothing new for a toddler). If it weren't for daycare, we'd still be potty training her.

Specializes in Cath Lab, OR, CPHN/SN, ER.

Also check with DSS and see what kind of services that have to help you pay for childcare since you'll be in school full time. A friend here used a program through DSS to pay for daycare for her son since she was in school full time.

Specializes in Emergency.

thank you so much. what is dss? is that anything like ccms.

Specializes in Cath Lab, OR, CPHN/SN, ER.
thank you so much. what is dss? is that anything like ccms.

Dept. of social services. Our local DSS includes the stuff for kids, adults, elderly, etc...

Are any of the day cares you are considering NAEYC certified? That is one of the first things I would look for on paper. Then definately go and tour the school. If a school won't let you just 'drop in' for a tour then don't pick that one, it's not a good sign.

Because you have an infant make sure and ask them how they keep track of feedings, diaper changes, naps, etc. At the NAEYC center I worked at we had care sheets for every child in the building - but they are most useful for the infants. My son was at another day care when I moved (not at infant, almost 2 at the time) and they didn't keep track of anything like that on paper so I never knew how his day was in that sense. With infants, eating, changing, sleeping is a big part of how their day is so for most parents it is important for them to know those things.

Ask about the ages of children in the rooms also, though they will probably tell you this on a tour. For infants, it is better to have them in their own room up to about 1 year old rather than in a mixed age room with 3 and 4 year olds also. When you have mixed age groups none of the age groups get all their needs met appropriately because it is impossible to cater to all those ages with a single activity and trying to do multiple things at once for all the age groups and each child in them is unrealistic. You woudln't want your baby crying for a bottle when the teacher is in the middle of an activity with the 3 year olds. It is much easier to multi-task if you are only tasked with caring for infants. Home day cares of course will be mixed age, but there are fewer children in a home day care so it's not quite the same there.

If your son is going to be in day care for a while..like in a few years then I would choose a center over a home day care unless the home day care can show you the lesson plans and preschool activities that they do. At a center they will surely do preschool if they are of good quality, and when your son is old enough transitioning to preschool in a familiar center would be much easier.

Hope that helps a little for you, again I can't stress NAEYC enough..it is a national voluntary licensing agency but very important.

Specializes in Emergency.

ive never heard of NAEYC. ive just looked on the child protective website and made sure they were licensed, registered etc, and if they had any negative or bad remarks, and if they failed inspection.

http://www.naeyc.org/academy/search/default.asp

Here is a link to search for NAEYC accredited schools

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