Deciding on Day Cares

The process of picking the best child care takes time and structure. So we decided to start this process as early as possible, even before the baby’s arrival. Here are some guidelines from our experience of choosing a daycare.

Talk With Your Partner
A good starting point would be to talk with your partner about what is in your mind. You may be anxious about leaving your baby in a new place. Talking and discussing the best options available for the baby is what should guide you two. This can help to ease both of you and take the best decision for your baby.

Start Visiting daycares
Both you and your partner should aim to visit a number of daycares that are in your convenient location. Score each of the day cares as per your selection criteria. In this way you can visit the daycares and evaluate them based on some objectivity which can ease the process for you.

Background Checks
Once you have shortlisted two or three day cares, do some background checks on them. Ask around the working parents community about these day cares to find out if there has been any red flags. If there are laws in the country that sets standard for daycares, check if they follow them. There may be added certificates or accreditations that these daycares or the caregivers may have, those can be a great way of ensuring quality.

Surprise Visits
Once your child has settled into the daycare routine, make some surprise visits. Try to find out how they handle your child when the little one is not behaving the best, or when he is fussy and not wanting to nap. If the day care has CCTV you may want access to live footage of the daycare to see what your child is doing at any given time.

Opt-out Criterias
Opt-out criterias are as important as selection criteria. You can have a list of reasons pre-made for you to decide to leave a daycare. For instance, if you ever come to know your child is not liking the daycare for one week in a row, or there are any incidents of the caregiver behaving roughly with your child, you may decide to leave that day care for another one.

References:

https://www.whattoexpect.com/first-year/daycare
https://www.parents.com/baby/childcare/basics/8-tips-for-choosing-child-care/
https://www.webmd.com/baby/choosing-child-care#2