When to start daycare with infant
Preparing a Baby For Daycare | DAYCARE DAY | Daycare Advice + Tips
hey guys Tara here and Brian here from
work life glue and I have decided to do
a weekly usually weekly day care day
video and this will be almost every
Friday I will be doing a day care
related video on short little topics
just to try to get a lot of content out
there to you guys I've had so many
requests for different kinds of videos
answering different questions I'll have
recipes I'll do q and A's I'll do things
about specific topics difficulties
crafts all kinds of stuff so stay tuned
for that
I plan to do them weekly but with 2 2
and under right now and soon to be back
to daycare it could be a lot so just
bear with me but I thought I would do my
first daycare day video talking about
how to prepare an infant for daycare now
this video can be good for parents who
are going to have an infant in daycare
as well as providers this is a really
important subject because a lot of
babies go to daycare and a lot of
providers have troubles with babies so I
wanted to talk about tips for getting
babies prepared for daycare and what
providers can do and what parents should
be doing during maternity leave and
things like that so let's jump right in
so as a provider it's really important
to educate your parents on how to
prepare a baby for daycare especially if
it's the parents first baby it's already
overwhelming when you have a first baby
healing from the birth you know just
dealing with the huge transition of not
a mom or not a dad to mom or dad it's
huge responsibility that you just
there's no way to really prepare you for
it and so I think it's really important
that providers educate parents before
the baby comes on what you expect
because otherwise they're just probably
gonna do what they can to survive that
may mean sleeping with the baby
driving the baby around to get the baby
to sleep co-sleeping you know all kinds
of things that aren't gonna help the
baby prepare for daycare so it's really
important as a provider we set parents
up for success give them tips and give
them encouragement and empower them to
help their baby so that
they can be prepared for day care now
why is it important to get a baby ready
for daycare as parents you may just
think you know you bring the baby the
baby is fine the provider takes care of
the baby no big deal but not preparing
your infant can cause many many problems
what I've seen from a lot of providers
is that a baby who is not prepared for
daycare will scream sometimes for
minutes sometimes for hours and this can
last for weeks months years it can be
really hard on the baby
obviously it's distressing for a baby to
be crying that long especially if
they're not normally a colicky baby they
just missed their mom they can't take a
bottle they aren't able to sleep in the
right way that only you can the only way
you can sleep in daycares
they may require something like a
swaddle that maybe you're not allowing
in your daycare or your state or country
or whatever you are doesn't allow things
like that
you don't want your baby screaming a
provider doesn't want your baby
screaming all day for multiple reasons
it's heartbreaking to hear it can really
mess with the providers mind and soul I
can irritate them and aggravate them you
know what I mean you don't want your
provider to be in a state of distress
themselves because they can't get your
baby to stop crying no matter what they
try and the provider also can't be a
good provider to anybody else if there's
multiple kids in the daycare how can
they be a good provider to the other
kids if there's a child screaming that
they can't call them down and how is
that good for the other kids either I
mean there's there will be a transition
period it will be hard for a little bit
most likely but it shouldn't last
forever in the screaming and crying
shouldn't last all day for many days
many weeks many months that kind of
thing so it's really important to
prepare your baby so that you have peace
of mind when you go to work that your
baby is well taken care of that the
provider is bonding with your baby which
is pretty much impossible to do if the
child is in distress the whole time and
you don't have to worry about having to
come take time off work to go pick up
your child if they're inconsolable or
possibly getting care terminated because
the provider just cannot get the baby to
stop there's so much you can do ahead of
time to ensure that you be
we does well at day care this isn't to
scare you it's just to really give
parents a realistic look of what not
prepare your your infant could look like
and it's not pretty so it's really
important to follow these tips and most
importantly it's important to talk to
your provider because every state every
provider every country has different
rules and regulations every provider has
different things they're comfortable
with and that they do in their day care
and you want to make sure you're lining
your practices up with what they do in
order to help prepare your infant now as
a provider I have to do all these things
with my infants so I am pretty well
skilled at this and know what I'm
talking about my baby at the filming of
this video is only 11 days old and
albeit she's a very easy baby
knock on wood she's a great sleeper
she's a great nurse err but I'm already
doing things right now to help prepare
her for when the kids come back for a
daycare I just want to be really careful
about what I do now so that she's not
becoming depending on things that I
can't do once daycare starts so for
providers I think it's really important
to give parents a handout and to talk to
them about these things I have a handout
a link below of what I give parents just
to give them a guide of what to expect
and you can always adapt that to fit
your needs so for me these are the
things that a parent must work with
their child on to prepare them for
daycare the first thing is to work with
the baby I'm laying flat for me
personally I allow swaddles
I would never be able to get my own
babies to sleep without a swaddle but if
they start rolling over that is when I
would transition them out because it's
not allowed in daycare where I'm from
and what I do you know obviously when
you have a newborn and you want to hold
them a lot you want to be around them
skin-to-skin is really important so I
don't think you should lay your baby
down whenever they're sleeping they
sleep most of the day at first so what I
recommend is you know around 2 to 3
weeks maybe start laying them down once
a day during the day I'm for a nap and I
would just try to line it up with
whatever your provider has the main
naptime for all the kids so that's what
I've been doing right now I've been
feeding her right before my daughter
goes to sleep my two-year-old
and I've been laying them down at the
same time and just to get brainy used to
sleeping at that time of day flat with a
fan I monitor on and that kind of thing
and she's swaddled and also for
nighttime this is what I would have them
always sleep on a flat surface however
your provider would have them sleep
because that's the longest sleep period
and you want to just be able to mimic
what the provider is doing at their
house at your house and once day care
starts the only time they're gonna be
really sleeping at your house is at
night and on weekends so I would just
have the baby sleep how they're supposed
to sleep at night from the get-go no
matter how hard it is do your best not
to use swings and stuff like that
because you don't want to become
dependent on that for your baby to sleep
because it won't work at daycare so no
swings no car seats obviously unless
you're out and about when they fall
asleep but don't depend on a car seat to
get the child to sleep it's very unsafe
to have a baby sleep in a car seat when
they're not in the car it can obstruct
their trachea so they have a hard time
breathing and they I have heard of
babies passing away so you don't want to
do that unless they're in the car or
you're out and about and that kind of
thing you don't want to depend on like a
rock and play for them to sleep always
if they sleep like that during the day
when you're just doing stuff and they're
still only a few weeks old that's fine
but you want to get them used to
sleeping on a flat surface often also
make sure you're not holding your baby
all day I've heard from a lot of
providers that parents hold their baby
all day or wear them all day and so
that's how the only way the baby will
sleep and as providers it's just not
possible for us to do that nor is it
safe nor is it a good idea long-term you
don't want to have to hold your
two-year-old to sleep so you want to
start practicing that stuff with your
baby early on so they don't become
dependent on these things that you can't
sustain also work on recreating your
sleep environment to mimic the providers
so if the provider has a fan or a sound
machine if it's dark you know you want
to mimic all those same things that's
what we do we have a really loud fan a
sound machine going she swaddled she's
laying flat I have a monitor
and then we have blackout curtains so
that's what she's used to sleeping in
now and that will continue once daycare
is back in session also so sleep is
really important and so is feeding your
baby so if you are bottle feeding your
baby that should be pretty easy to
transition to daycare that provider will
just give your baby a bottle on certain
intervals just make sure you communicate
with your provider of how often how much
they typically eat so the provider knows
what to expect now if you're
breastfeeding this is where it gets
tricky because you know when you first
have your baby you're pretty much
exclusively breastfeeding if that's what
you're choosing you're trying not to
supplement and that's what I've done
with both my daughters however once they
go to daycare the provider is not gonna
be breastfeeding them so you need to
really work on bottle feeding so what I
recommend is around 3 weeks you start
pumping you want to wait till your milk
is pretty well established but obviously
talk to your doctor about this and what
they recommend but around 3 weeks is
what I typically see in what I recommend
you start pumping to build up a supply
and to get your milk used to having an
extra feeding and you start bottle
feeding your baby and by you I mean your
spouse or a friend or somebody in your
family who can work with the baby every
day to bottle feed and as you get closer
to starting daycare I would set up a
weekend or a few nights or something
like that where the mom can go away for
a few hours and the person can feed the
baby a couple times you want the baby to
get used to somebody else feeding them
with a bottle now the provider may have
a little bit of trouble with this at
first depending on the child but if you
work really hard on introducing a bottle
and the child learns to take the bottle
right away you should have a pretty easy
transition to what your provider tries
to feed them a bottle now if you never
work with the provider if you never work
with somebody on feeding with a bottle
your baby's gonna have a horrible time
gonna miss mom like crazy and have no
idea of how to eat and the last thing we
want is a like a malnourished child in
daycare no provider wants to starve a
child no parent wants to
child to starve so just make sure you
work with your baby on that as well and
then lastly just make sure you write
down any notes that make you feel
comfortable don't go crazy but if
there's you know certain things like
when your baby pees how many peed IPERS
how many poop diapers they typically
have maybe the consistency they
typically are if your baby gets diaper
rash really easily and you figure it out
a way to help it make sure you write
that down and maybe son whatever cream
it is that you use if there are certain
things that soothe your baby certain
rocking or a certain song or certain
7:00 or certain toy make sure you let
your provider know that it's just really
important every baby is different every
baby has different preferences so just
make sure you keep a little note of that
and give that to rider because providers
want an easy time transitioning as well
not just parents we all want what's best
for the baby and what's best for the
baby is to be happy fed on a normal
sleep routine so they're getting good
sleep and just happy overall and those
are really the key things so if you have
certain things about your baby
let your provider know so they can you
know help ease your baby into this
critical time of transitioning to
daycare I think that's about all I can
say about transitioning your baby to be
ready for daycare let me know if you
guys have any questions on this topic
and if there's any daycare day videos
you would like me to record please leave
them in the comments below
I'm ops I'm no expert but I love helping
people I love sharing what I know and if
I can help any of you to be a better
provider I would love to do so so leave
those in the comments as well and I will
see you before then but most likely for
sure next Friday with another daycare
David
thank you guys so much for watching I'll
see her hi guys
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