tips for mum on daycare adjustment

Oh I will be watching with interest too. Jackson starts in 2 weeks.

I am going to spend probably half the day with him on the first day. Not sure about the second though.

when mack started day care i just made sure i spent a lot of time with him when we were at home so he still saw heaps of me. we would come home and play with blocks for ages and stuff. he still played alone as i didnt want him to lose that ability but i made sure that i upped the time i spent having one to one with him. expect him to be a teeny bit clingy for a week or two but they grow out of it pretty quick and it just becomes routine :)

G started daycare at 5 months and she loves it. She goes through periods of being a little hard to leave (clingy etc) but mostly she is fairly easy to settle. One thing I find good is that I generally get her settled into an activity when we arrive. I put her down and get her started (usually she plays with the blocks or play dough or cars with the other kids but sometimes she likes to sit on one of the bean bags and read a book or play with one of the toys) and then put her bag away and fill in the sign in sheet then I go back to her and say bye bye have a good day, Mummy will be back for you this afternoon/after sleep time/after lunch (which ever applies), love you. And then I just walk out the door. If she cries I go back and give her a quick cuddle and then say see ya later, have fun and then I leave. Even if she is still crying. In my experience if you go back and stay every time they look upset then they will expect that every time and put on a performance every time you leave. I still comfort her but I make it clear she has to stay and she will have fun and then I quickly leave. In my opinion if you stay too long then they get upset.

The other thing I do is on daycare days I make sure G has an early dinner of something easy and goes to bed early. All that stimulation at daycare wears her out and she gets really tired and cranky by the end of the day sometimes.

She also takes her teddy for sleep time.

And with her daycare there is a form you can write comments on each day where you can tell them what she has been like and whether to watch out for anything, to give her more sleeps or adjust the timing of them etc. Thats quite handy.

Ill be watching this too. DS doesnt start daycare for another 3 months, and it is at work but Im still not sure how often (if at all) I should visit during the day. In saying that I will still be BF him so wil be popping in for that every few hours. Hes pretty good at the moment going to new and different people but it might be different for a full day?

Corban started at daycare 3 weeks ago - 2 days a week. We did 6 orientation visits in the month prior to him starting, staying for up to two hours and playing and having lunch with the other kids.

They gave me some info sheet that was titled Leaving for the first time and on it said;
* Try and settle your child into an activity such as reading a story or building with blocks
* When you are ready, give your child a hug and a kiss, say goodbye then leave the room. Returning to your child after you've said goodbye makes it harder for him/her to settle in.
* if you child crys when you leave please rest assured that the staff will settle him/her
* If you would like to know how you child is during the day feel free to ring

He has his sleeping bag,dummy and cuddly rabbit for nap time. I am still breastfeeding so for the first two weeks I would go back at lunchtime and feed him but now that he is 12mths I have weaned that feed and he has cows milk at daycare.

I found it good when I went to pick him up just to watch him for a while and to see how much fun he was having really reassured me.

I think the sickness thing is a bigger though, Corban has picked up something each week! The first week is was some random rash that they thought was chicken pox, 2nd week was hand, foot and mouth and last week it was a cold!! But that's all part and parcel of it and by the time he's 3 he will have the consitution of an ox!

Don't make a big deal of it - they pick up on your anxiety. Just make sure they have someone with them to help them through it. It's worse for you than it is for them, and yes they cry a lot in that first wee while, but they get used to it.

Tell yourself you're doing what's best for your family.
Ring during the day to see how he's going (but don't if you think you would leave work if you heard he wasn't sleeping/eating well - i choose not to ring at all)
Be prepared - bags packed and ready to go each night if it's an early start
Talk to the carers - it's just as important to develop a good rapport yourself as it is for your child.