Choosing Daycare

Choosing daycare is a very important decision for you and your baby. In India, many mothers who were working before child birth, return back to work after their maternity leave or a little longer. Usually, parents prefer leaving their children under the care of their grandparents. However in some cases, this is not possible. Some reasons why this may not work out are that the grandparents may be staying far away from home, the grandparents are old and have health problems or they are no more. In such cases, choosing daycare is a good idea for such parents looking for a suitable care for their toddlers while they are at work.

Although you may find various daycare centers around you, it is a good idea to visit as many daycare centers in person as possible. This gives you a good idea in deciding the best daycare provider for your toddler.

Tips on Choosing Daycare

• Make a list of the facilities or features that you would like the daycare center to have. Go through the list often and make updates as your ideas change.
• After your initial visit to a prospective daycare center by yourself or with your partner, take your toddler along for a second visit. Use this as the opportunity to observe how your toddler reacts to the surrounding environment.
• Opting for a daycare center with references from someone you know well and who is satisfied with the services provided is a good idea.
• It may be worthwhile finding out how many toddlers they admit. Also find out how many staff are available. There should not be too many toddlers being looked after by a single provider. In a mixed age-group consider how many young babies are being looked after by the same person – too many small babies will invariably take attention away from the toddlers in the group.
• Try to determine how friendly the staff are and whether they politely address all your concerns.
• Consider focusing on daycare centers near your workplace so that you can visit your toddler during your break hours.
• Trying to understand if there is a balance of both indoor and outdoor activities for the toddler.
• Check if there is a lot of moving space for your toddler or will his movements be restricted to a crib.
• Verify if the daycare center provides materials for encouraging your toddler's artistic skills.
• Determine the daycare center's capabilities for developing your toddler's social skills and help him to make friends.
• Find out if the daycare providers read out rhymes and stories to your toddler that motivate him to move his hands and body. These help in developing his motor and cognitive skills.
• Find out if the fees charged are within your budget.
• When you make your first visit to the daycare center, observe how clean and well maintained the daycare is.
• You may want to consider finding out the working hours of the daycare center.
• Ask about the feeding provided to the toddler by the daycare center. You may be interested in finding out how they plan the menu if they serve their own food.
• Find out if they encourage television watching.
• Ask the daycare providers about the napping hours of the toddlers. Find out how and where they are put to sleep.
• Inquire about the methods adopted to discipline the toddlers.
• Check for proper babyproofing in the center.
• Try to determine if the toys provided to the toddler are appropriate for his age.
• Try to find out if the daycare provider can be easily accessed by telephone.
• Ask yourself how confident you feel about leaving your toddler in the daycare.
• Enquire about the daycare provider's background in child care and her interest in the same.
• Check out the age range for which child care is provided by the daycare.
• Find how long it has been since the daycare center has been established.
• Find out the daycare center's policies in handling medical emergencies.
• Enquire how the daycare center tackles unexpected mishaps such as a fire accident.

The above list is not comprehensive. Please feel free to add any other points to the above checklist with respect to choosing a daycare. After all as a loving and caring parent, who will know about your child better than yourself?