Daycare questions- what’s normal?

[clay9000]

Hi everyone, FTM here. Our 4 month old is in daycare and we’ve noticed a few things, but not sure if they’re normal or things we should bring up to correct. Just not sure what to expect from daycares.

1) when we pick her up her neck is usually wet and top of shirt- they don’t use bibs when feeding even though when we talked prior to enrollment they said they had them. Baby is red in the rings of her neck I assume from moisture. Does this happen regardless? Or should I ask they use a bib.

2) Since baby isn’t mobile yet they keep her in the crib a lot, not much individual interaction. We knew this, and try to keep her there shorter hours because of it- but what would you expect for a normal amount of interaction?

3) we dropped off more diapers, noticed a few days later baby came home in a different brand diaper. We pay good $ for sensitive diapers bc of her skin, my husband was pretty mad. I assume she just messed up we honestly haven’t paid much attention but will now- but husband already a little on edge with daycare referenced what else are they messing up- milk, etc. Just curious your thoughts on it. We will point it out Monday.

4) finally when we pick her up the caretakers don’t really share much information about what they did for the day. I guess I thought they’d be like ‘hi parent, baby had a great day today.. we did x,y,x’ instead it’s just kind of like ‘ok have a good day- hands us the baby.’ In my mind they would want to let us know so we feel comforted she’s doing things- but maybe that isn’t normal? If you ask what they did they just say like ‘she napped a lot and was in the floor some’

Just confused about what is the norm. I don’t think we should feel catered to, but I thought I would get more information from them?

We live in a nice area, and attend a kindercare that a lot of moms on facebooks seem to like. But we did end up in an infant room with new staff.

 

[childofgod777777]

@clay9000 1-3 don’t seem typical. I would discuss these with the director of the daycare. #4 is pretty common, especially for 4 months - there’s not too much they can do in general lol. As my son aged, I’d get more info on what he did through out the day

 

[philipito]

@childofgod777777 Our daycares provided us a summary of diapers changed, ounces consumed, and naps. It was still pretty lean on other details, but I think it's not unreasonable to expect a summary.

 

[childofgod777777]

@philipito Oh, for potty and eating - yes. Would expect a summary. I thought OP was talking more about what activities they did during the day.

 

[crazycatlady76]

@clay9000 Hi, day care teacher here…I would ask them to clarify the bib and diaper policy and why they are not placing a bib on her…and ask that they place a bib on her.
A baby should not spend time in a crib unless sleeping (in my opinion), they should be playing at an activity center or be held by the teacher on the floor or doing tummy time.

Diapers should only be used on your child that you send, please ask that they use only the diapers that you send…you may want to mark her name on the

As far as the not giving much information about your child’s day..you should be getting a paper or an email from the school about what your baby did all day…at lease that is what I do…

I hope this helps.

 

[clay9000]

@crazycatlady76 Ok I will ask the policy- I realized reading my wording above I’m not sure 100% how much she’s in the crib because we don’t really know what they do. The app just says bottle/diaper and nap and she’s often sleeping in the crib so I’m not sure whether it’s always.

As a teacher can I ask a question- this facility has 2 infant rooms. The first has seasoned teachers and recommended. But when we got there they were full so we had to go to second room and these 2 staff members are new (but they said not new to childcare) we know 3 kids are moving up in the first room next week- do parents ever ask to switch rooms/does that cause awkwardness/bad blood? I don’t think she’s mistreated- but just have 3 high recommendations for the staff in the first room has me wanting, especially bc we feel lacking with information with our room

 

[crazycatlady76]

@clay9000 I have never seen a parent ask to move their child, but I’m sure that it has happened.

 

[neostarwcc]

@clay9000 Definitely ask for what you want, mama!

 

[alh]

@clay9000 I teach preschool and it's not unusual. I mean it doesn't happen often, but it can. They might be reluctant if it's the same age group (not like older or mobile infants) but just frame it that you're new parents and you heard good things about that room and you'd feel a little better with your baby there.

Be prepared for them to say no. Infant spots are so hard to get, they probably have babies filling the spots. If that's the case, ask if you can take the next open spot.

 

[katrina2017]

@crazycatlady76 All of this is what I was going to say. Especially the part about baby being in the crib all day. I might even ask the regulatory body that oversees daycares to look into that.

 

[f4leggin]

@clay9000 1&2 definitely don't seem typical vs our experiences. 3 only happens if they run out of diapers we've provided during the day and have to use one of their spare diapers so not a v common occurrence.

4 depends on who we ask at pick up. Our daycare has a "lead" teacher in each room who gives detailed updates and the other teachers ususally just say "they had a good day" if we ask

 

[crustyfrog]

@f4leggin 3 happened to us if they were in another room or on the playground - they seemed to grab whatever was available. My kids don’t have sensitive skin so I’d just check in they weren’t out of diapers for us. It was a frequent occurrence.

 

[hudson61]

@f4leggin Agreed same experience!

 

[katrina2017]

@clay9000 Keeping the baby in the crib when they aren’t sleeping is a red flag. It may be against the daycare licensing laws - it is in my state. The diaper mix up is probably due to disorganization at the center.

 

[bartgroot96]

@clay9000 My daycare requires bibs we go through 3 a day at daycare. They also label each diaper and we have never had the wrong diaper. Number 2 is a major red flag. Babies should not be in the crib unless asleep. There are laws in my state on how long they can be awake in crib. Mine is 15 mins. Does she not get a report of each diaper tummy time bottle and nap?!

This daycare seems like a massive red flag.

 

[clay9000]

@bartgroot96 We have an app. They seem to only log naps, bottle, diaper change. Nothing else has come through. The first 2 weeks we got 1 picture per day, this last week it was 3/5 days we got a picture. So it just leaves us anxious and questioning. For all I know they could be busy interacting with them but they don’t tell us so how do we know what’s happening

 

[bartgroot96]

@clay9000 I wouldn't expect anything besides caretaking tasks to be logged. FYI.

 

[paparazi257]

@clay9000 Some of these are red flags but at 4 months there’s not really much to log other than bottles naps and diapers.

 

[clay9000]

@paparazi257 Ok, I guess I thought if they don’t really tell us what they did we might see like ‘floor time’ vs ‘crib time’ or something like that.

 

[paparazi257]

@clay9000 Yeah I never got that level of detail when my son was that age. But to be fair he also was never in a crib if he wasn’t sleeping and our daycare has cameras so I know that to be true.