Do you know if kids get outside regularly in infant programs?

I have an impression they do not do that in some places?

thanks,

Anna

Anna Moldavski wrote:

Joanna,

Thank you so much for your reply.

I have contacted Thornhill woods, but I would like to ask you a question about them personally. My daughter has food allergies to a lot of things and I do not htink their menu will be best for her.

In your heart, do you think they will make a true effort to accommodate that or not?

Anna

No problem. I've sent you an e-mail.

I spent quite some time looking at day cares for my son and initially had no idea what to expect. After having seen a few, I was able to come up with a list of things that were important to me: ie. separate area for infants to sleep which meant that they would be flexible with my baby's sleep patterns initially; enclosed outdoor play area that is separate from toddler play areas; overall cleanliness; policy to clean toys after each use; and turn-over of staff. I also took a good look at the kids to see if they looked clean and happy. I recall one place I visited, there was a baby playing who had previously been crying. Her entire face was wet and shiny but despite no other child having any immediate needs (they were all playing happily at the time), none of the staff (and there were three) made any attempts to wipe her up. In the end, I was very fortunate to have found a place that I am very comfortable with. But since no place is as perfect as home and no care provider will ever be as attentive to him as I would, I realized that I have to be realistic with my expectations too.

Hi,

I realize this is an old thread.  But I need someone to give me some input about their baby's transition to daycare.

My daughter is 1-year-old now, and this is her 2nd week of full-day in home daycare.  The past week has been distressed for the whole family.  Daddy, myself, and baby are all sick (from fever to flu to cough) due to complete exhaustion. 

My daughter was a very easy baby, has a good 2-naps routine, sleep on her own for both naps and night, not picky about any food and loves to eat and drink.  This is all before daycare. 

Since she started daycare, she has the loud upsetting cry when we drop off and pick her up, which we've expected.  Due to our work, we need to leave her at daycare from 7-5ish.  She refused to nap at daycare according to the care provider, and I believe they have tried many ways, and different schedule, but to no avail.  According to the care provider, apparently she eats well there.  But when we pick her up in the evening at around 5-ish, she is so exhausted and cranky, so the evening has become very difficult for us.  She ate very little at dinner, and spit out most of the food (which she never had this behaviour before), and she fell asleep or almost on most evenings.  We have shortened our evening routine and put her to bed a lot early already at around 7pm, in hope she will at least get 10-11 hours night sleep.  But still, she just come home exhausted very day due to lack of sleep.  And she doesn't sleep through the night anymore too, as she will cry desperately for us in the middle of night.  So one of us has been staying with her in the middle of night.

And on the weekend, when we had her for the full day, it's like we don't know anything about her anymore.  She refused to nap whenever we put her down.  She doesn't eat most of what we prepared (which are the food she used to like so much before daycare) thus eats very little throughout the day.  She would cry and we would not be able to figure her out.

She had fever twice now in less than 2 weeks.  (and again never before daycare)  The first one maybe due to her 1-year-old immunization shot.  But this second one,  it could be from us, or from not eating enough and distress...I don't know...


Anyone has gone through similar struggles??  Any tips or suggestions??  Any word of assurance that she is not alone in her change?  How to console her?  It's just so hard to see her cry so hard/being upset/not eat/not sleep well... in addition to my own adjustment to be back at work.

Thanks for reading and listening in advance!

Sophia

Hi Amar,
Thank you for the reply and suggestion, and sorry for not checking and replying back earlier.

Yeah, it's been a month now, and my daughter Abigail is finally settling in, and back to her normal eating and sleeping routine and becoming an easy child again.  We did do the transition week as you described, starting from 2 hours and progressing to full day.  But I found that is not really helping a lot in my case because her primary issue is lack of nap/sleep.  So if I put her in the day care less than a full day, I can manage to squeeze in more sleep for her before and after I pick her up, as in my case.  The real struggle came when she started full day in daycare.  She just refused to nap at daycare.  And my provider told me that they have tried various time and methods, but usually after half an hour of intensive crying, they will let her out of the crib as they feel it's too stressful for her; and also not recommended by the nursery act guideline.  Then she would end up really super tired and cranky from the moment I pick her up.

And then she got sick/fever for the entire second week after the first week of this full time care with constant lack of sleep.  So when she went back to full time care the 3rd week, it was like the battle starting all over again.  We decided to put her to bed an hour earlier than we used to (around 7:30).  It is very rush for us to fit in the dinner and bathing and bedtime routine, and really cutting the time my husband can spend with her since my husband come home anytime between 6:30-7.   We are sad about this change, but this is the only way we can squeeze in a little bit of more sleep for her.

Even now, she is able to sleep on her own again and sleep through the night, and eat well, I still think the total hours of sleep she gets is not enough  (she is getting 12-12.5 hours in total a day only now).  I don't want to push my provider too much on the nap time as she really tries to get her engaged with the daily routine with other kids as well.  It's interesting you suggest the care provider can carry her in a baby carrier.  I never thought I can request this.  Is it too much to ask for? Especially the care provider has other older kids to take care of as well.  I somehow struggle with how I should communicate with my provider as well, not sure how much information/suggestions I should provide without having her feeling that I am intruding her knowledge in caring for child.

Sophia