Kim

So thankfully we have worked out a child care plan for the new baby that does not include a daycare center, but I recently interviewed several centers in my area.

Here are some surprising things I've learned:

1) Daycare is more than our mortgage, and we do not have a cheap house.

2) It is against state licensing regulations for centers to allow cloth-diapered babies unless the center has taken special measures to allow for sanitation which most of them don't. My mom (owns a daycare center) said she only knows of one facility that can accommodate cloth diapers

3) Most centers now are asking the parents to bring in bottles of WATER at room temperature, so they can just add the powdered formula and not have to heat the bottles. They discourage parents from bringing milk bottles. Um hello - what about us parents that don't use powdered formula? I would HAVE to bring milk. Turns out not too many parents do that - in fact, 4 of the 6 centers I looked at told me that they don't have any methods of heating bottles anymore since they changed their guidelines to only allow water bottles - and I would have to bring in my own bottle warmer. Not that that is such a huge deal, but I feel like it is a ridiculous request. (not to mention that the providers seemed very annoyed by this thought)

4) Each of the centers i visited put the babies on a scheduled routine so that they can care for 4 babies each. For my baby, I do not plan on creating a schedule (yes it would be nice if it came up with one on its own, lol) but I don't plan on trying to feed my baby if it doesn't seem hungry, and if it does seem hungry at an odd time I am going to try and feed it. I understand the necessity to create a schedule for the babies but I do not agree with it at all.



Does/did anyone take their babies to a daycare center? are they like this everywhere, or did anyone have good experiences with their daycare center?

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Kaytee

I don't use daycares, I have one friend that does. SO this is my take on them.
1. yes daycare is crazy expenive!!! lol
2. are you sure about the CD law? I have not heard of this. Now I do know some that do not allow prefolds, but are perfectly fine with AIOs as long as you provide the bags and only one diaper in a bag at at time, that way they do not touch another dirty diaper kinda thing. Too many children have allergic reactions to diapers so I can't see them making it a law. Kids are allergic to the dyes and perfumes and also latex is big!!
3. I don't see anything wrong with them wanting to use room temp bottles, however, what do they do with breastmilk? Many mothers pump so their child recienves the milk, that of course has to be warmed. My friend pumped for her baby until she was 11 months old then gave a bottle of formula a day but nursed at home. She had to bring the breastmilk already in the bottle so that they didn't have to defrost the milk, but they still warmed it in hot water in the kitchen. I would hope that the daycare can do that if they are feeding children ya know?
I understand what you mean by a scedule as well, it seems that too many babies would go hungry unless they werea scheduled child themselves. Like Nichole ate whenever she wanted to, but she was on a 3 hour schedule. That is just when she was hungry.
My friends day care bugged me as well, because they decided when her baby would start solids!! THey started her at 4 months without telling her mom first. They would also feed the solids first then give the bottle. you are not suppose to do that.


another thing that bugs me is that dayscares (not all I a mosure) will not allow a child to go potty on a tooilet til they are at least 2 1/2. I am sorry but my daughter was potty trained at 2 and I would be so mad if she told someone she had to pee and they refused to take her to the bathroom.

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Mark

Oh' my I never added up what our daycare costs are. We also pay more for daycare than we do to have a roof over our head. I am so sad now.

I think the whole water temp issue with bottles is due to the potential for heating up the water too hot. Nobody wants their baby to burn because some inexperienced daycare assistant heated the water too much.

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Kaytee

nope, we just expect them to be smart enough not to burn our kids. lol

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Fallon

the cost is exactly why I'm a SAHM!!!!

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SAH mommy to Debralyn 10-21-02 and Bubba (Logan) 3-19-07
Madeline 07-10-09

Kaytee

me too, well that and I don't want to be anywhere but with her! lol

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Neal

Thanks Kim, that is really good research info.

Mark

Well let me tell you something that happened to our daughter then. One day while at daycare she was outside with the rest of her class when she fell really hard off a swing. The teacher's assistant helped her up, brushed off the dirt on her hands and pants, and had her return to playing. Later that day when my wife picked her up, our daughter mentioned that she fell. Well state law says that all incidents must be recorded. There was nothing on file. So my wife lifted her pant leg to find that the back of her leg was red and bruised. Oh' my it was like World War 3 just started. Not only did my wife rip this assistant a new one but when I got home from work I called the daycare centers director and spoke with her about the incident. I demanded answers as to why the assistant didn't report this and why she also just brushed off the dirt and had my daughter continue playing. Her reason was that my daughter didn't complain of being hurt. Needless to say that was the last day of employment for that assistant at that daycare center. The director wrote a letter of apology and had it signed by herself, the assistant director and the main teacher in that classroom. Based on the letter I could tell they feared we would get a lawyer. I am not like that though and I think they handled things appropriately after everything was discovered.

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Neal

Mark, I am unclear as to the source of your anger here. Not saying something wrong didn't happen, just that I am unclear. I can understand your concern for your daughter well being.

Mark

The issue here is two-fold. For one, it is Michigan law that any and all "incidents" are documented on a form and provided to the child's parents. When I say incidents, that could be anything from one kid smacking the other to a child getting seriously hurt. Of course the more serious the issue depends on whether the daycare provider must also contact the parents, notify EMS, etc. Heck, there was a time that an incident report was filled out because one kid hugged another. This teaching assistant did not fill out the required incident report.

Second, my daughter could have been hurt far worse than just a bruise. The assistants lack of attention could have meant a trip to the hospital or doctor later that day to make sure nothing internally was wrong. Would it have been that difficult to lift up her pant leg, as my wife did when she picked her up, just to make sure everything was OK? They could see her arms since she was wearing a short-sleeve shirt but they should have checked to make sure she wasn't cut, bruised, or anything worse.

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