Aaira’s Daycare Diaries!

Transitioning your little one to Daycare can be a difficult time for both parents & the kids, however this is a journey that most of the parents today have to go through & I’m here to help in any way that I can 🙂 I think people associate daycare to something that working parents have to do do given ‘their Lifestyle’ BUT no one really thinks that its actually good for the kids too! Sending your kid/s to the Daycare & the right age to send them to the daycare is obviously a personal choice and I’m sharing our experience with Aaira here to help out our fellow parents.

I went back to work at 3 months postpartum and thankfully we had help from my parents & In-laws until she turned 6 months old. Given the travel situation with Covid, I know a lot of folks who didn’t have Family support and had to either opt for a nanny or send the kid to the daycare earlier than 6 months of age, both of which are totally okay.

Aaira started Daycare at the age of 6 months & we think it was a perfect age for her to start the daycare because most of the kids don’t have separation anxiety at this stage. She was fascinated by so many colors, objects and kids around her and as long as she got her Milk (and some purées), she did just fine. This was helpful to not have a super stressful first day for us as parents because we could see that she didn’t really bother much when we left the room. In a way I was sad seeing that she didn’t care but obviously practically happy because we took the right decision for her age.

She did get to a point around 8 months of age where she got some separation anxiety but it lasted for about a week and then she got comfortable again. I think they go through so many growth spurts in the initial days that its hard to keep the consistency in behavior but it all works out. Today, she absolutely LOVES going to the daycare and blends well with other kids and obviously the teachers. She still looks forward to us picking her up of course, but overall a good schedule has been set for our family.

What to look for in a Daycare?

One of the most asked questions in my DMs on Instagram is what did we look for while choosing a daycare. We had a pretty extensive tour of the facility before finalizing the daycare. Below are the things we looked for during our tour (I am going to cover this briefly here but this list may vary from parents to parents given the preferences). Here we go-

• Teacher Student ratio, Employee Turnover & Hiring process – For Aaira’s infant classroom, it was 4:1 which is the industry average and worked well. As they grow and progress classes, the ratio obviously changes. It’s also good to ask the employee turnover because if teachers change frequently, it can get hard for the kids to adjust. Also check the the ratio of teachers vs teacher assistants in your kid’s classroom.
• Timings & Location – The timings of the daycare should suit your schedule. Aaira’s daycare is open from 6:30am-6:30pm Monday-Friday. We usually drop her off between 9-10am and pickup around 6pm. This was different initially as we started with 5-6 hours and gradually increased it to 8-9 hours. She has a pretty set schedule now. We also opted for a Daycare that was close to our Home and designated Emergency pickups accordingly.
• Overall Safety – The process for entering the building (Aaira’s daycare gives a unique code to each family), location of the daycare (safe neighborhood) & process for hiring teachers/background checks and certifications.
• Size of the classrooms– There should be enough room for your toddler to move around (this doesn’t matter much for the infants). Some of my friends also mentioned that in cold places like Minnesota, some daycares have indoor playgrounds, so that is something they look for when choosing a daycare.
• Food – We did not opt for any dietary restrictions for Aaira but we were still interested to know the food source. Aaira’s daycare has a farm to table concept as they grow their own food, which is AMAZING! Some daycares do not allow food from home and so if you’re interested to send a lunch box, keep this factor in mind.
• Hygiene – Look around the classrooms during your tour of the facility to assess the cleanliness. Also ask how often do they wash the crib sheets & sleep sacks (if applicable)
• Daily activity updates– Home to daycare is a difficult transition & of course each parent looks forward to the daily updates from the daycare on their child. Aaira’s daycare uses Procare app to send us updates and I’ve also heard that some daycares have a live stream but not sure how that works with privacy etc. We love the updates through Procare app 🙂
• Sickness policy– This was obviously very important especially because we’re in the middle of a pandemic. Its important to knows the covid exposure policy, the time to be fever free before returning (usually its fever free for 24 hours without meds), disclosure of sickness in the class etc.
• Bottle warmer & Milk storage – Most of the daycares are pretty good at this to avoid any mix-ups. Aaira’s daycare uses a color coding system where she has yellow labels on all her bottles, bottle warmer (provided by the daycare) and any of her other belongings. The refrigerator has baskets for each kid to store the milk and the baskets are marked with names as well.
• Play outside times & weather thresholds – This is very important in Minnesota and we wanted to understand the policy for taking the kids out and weather thresholds. This is just good information to have.
• Curriculum – This is something that may seem as ‘not so important’ for infant classroom, but be aware that your kid is going become a toddler in this space and learn some of the most important skills here, so getting an idea of the curriculum is always helpful. You can always opt for Montessori daycares too, but we opted for our daycare which is not specifically Montessori but does involve some montessori activities because of other factors (location, availability etc.)
• Criteria for progressing to the next class & assessments – This helps you to understand the development path of your child. Aaira’s daycare has ‘Social & Emotional Ages & Stages Questionnaire’ which helps us to assess Aaira’s development and if she is ready for the next stage or not. Check with the daycare on how they assess a child’s development!
• What to provide from Home – Some daycares cover the diaper, wipes and formula as part of the program (tend to be more expensive). For Aaira’s daycare, here is what we provide from Home:
  – Diapers, Wipes & Diaper Cream
  – Breast Milk & Formula until your child takes it. Organic Whole milk is provided by the daycare.
  – Milk Bottles. Bottle warmer & Sippy cups are provided by the daycare.
  – Extra set of clothes in case of spills & blowouts
  – Snowsuits, boots & jackets for outdoor times in winters
  – Sunscreen and any other OTC/prescribed medication that your child may require like Gas drops etc.
  – We provided purées & some treats like puffs initially as her daycare only provides finger foods. We stopped sending purées & snacks once she was fully transitioned to Baby led weaning around months. Most of the daycares are also nut free facility.

Please note that you may not get the best from each of this criteria, and as Parents, you need to prioritize what’s most important for you! There might be some non-negotiables in your list & you’ll have to be okay with compromising some of it.

Why is Daycare good for the kids (and parents)?

‘The child will get sick when they go to the daycare’ is something we heard a lot & it is totally true. The initial transition can be difficult BUT it’s how they build immunity! Exposing them to germs is not a bad thing and no matter how much you protect them, they will find the germs and the germs will find them 🙂 One thing that I would like to emphasize on is that the timing of transitioning to the Daycare should be appropriate for you as a family! Know that there will be some initial bumps and difficulties, so if you have a new job or going through a health issue etc., you might want to schedule it accordingly but this is just a suggestion & not a must.

Aaira has learnt SO much in the daycare! The best way to learn is by doing & seeing other kids around her, she picked up some of the motor skills from kids older to her at a very early age. This can obviously differ from child to child but trust me when I say that they learn so much from each other (Good and bad 🙂 Aaira has always been a social baby & as much as I want to give the credit to our social friends circle for that, I know that the daycare atmosphere is a big part of it.

Her daycare has helped us to set her meal & nap schedule, transitioning from crib to cot (in the daycare), introduce her to new foods and teach the art if sitting together and eating, develop motor skills with new activities & toys & so much more!

Separation Anxiety

I have a Highlight on this on my Instagram handle & sharing snippets of the same as this mama needs to go to sleep 🙂 Please forgive me for taking a shortcut but it should still be helpful 🙂 The first two snippets are from the internet but rest are our own journey with Aaira-

When I say couple of weeks back below, this was when Aaira had just turned 8 months old-

Here are some Procare App snippets of Aaira’s Daycare diaries –

I hope this will help my fellow parents to think positive about this transition & trust the process. Its a hard journey initially but it only gets better! Lots of love <3