Hi guys, I was wondering about childcare from just over 12 months old. Should I or shouldn't i? I work 4 days per week & mum looks after Olympia, but I have been thinking about putting her into childcare for 1 day per week, to get her used to it & give mum a bit of a break (she also has my sister's two to look after - all under 5 years old). What is childcare like with them so young? Has anyone done this? Do they rock them to sleep at nap time? I have no idea. Any responses would be appreciated.

Many thanks
Effie.

hi there
i recently enrolled my 16 mth and my 4 month in child care for one day a week next year. I also asked about sleeping. i am goin to abc learning centre and she aaid they do whatever we do with sleepiung, dealing with tantrums and eating. She said if they need rocking or patting they do it. If they need to ebignored for tantrums they ignore. they try and do what we do at home tpo keep io regular.They have a seperate room with cots and try and put babies down at the smae time or they lok at everyones routine and work out one so the bubs all get good sleeps. My lil one cried for about 5 mins she said that ok, she put dylan down then another baby who needs to be rocked so they go off to sleep together.. know what i mean... I also asked at different centres and they said they also do whatever we do at home...

Hi Effie and others

I used to work at a day care centre for 6 years.
I worked in all the rooms, but mostly in the babies room. I now have my own almost-9 month old son.
Anyway, we would always pat, rock, stroke their heads etc the babies that needed to be. Some babies you could just put in the cot and they would go to sleep on their own, but if they needed help to get to sleep we would do whatever the mums asked. I'm sure most centres would do the same.
Most of the time, once they settled in at the centre, we found that they would go to sleep much easier as they would see the other babies going to sleep next to them and also with the caregivers in the room patting the babies, that would comfort others enough to go off to sleep just knowing we were in the room (if that makes sense!).
Regarding the nappy changing...yes we had set times to change nappies throughout the day, but if we saw that their nappies were very full or they were dirty of course we would change that straight away no matter what time of the day.
I agree that the downside to daycare is that the germs spread very easily...especially in the babies room as they put everything in their mouths !! We asked Mum's to keep their bubs at home when they were sick, but they would usually bring them in anyway and the owners of the centre were too soft to say they couldn't bring them so a no-win situation and they would all get sick (and us caregivers too!!).
I would definately look around at a few centres before choosing as some are better (cleaner, etc) than others smile
All in all though, it is good for their development as they copy what other babies are doing and learn quickly and also if they are only children, it is good company for them and they learn to share etc.
Hope this has helped some...and good luck.