starting daycare

Ok so I have finally enrolled DD to start daycare when she will be 5 1/2 months for 2 days a week. I have a couple of questions to make sure that the transition is as stress free as possible given that I really don't want to be putting her in there and would much rather stay at home

- She'll be getting EBM approximately how much should I leave per feed? She still hasn't consistanly taken a bottle so I have NO idea about how much she'll need.

- What sort of clothing is good for daycare? Obviously not good stuff but am I better doing footed pants or pants and socks etc

- They are willing to try cloth so for those of you who do cloth at daycare how do you manage it?

- Any other tips would be welcome

Hi,

Sorry not much help with the EBM or cloth naps. My bubs when to DC at 6 months old and I seemed to do pants alot especially as they are starting to move around alot as well as doing activities like the jolly jumper etc.

Also do a settling in period - do a couple of visits with bubs of 1/2 an hour to get you both used to the idea. My DC on about visit four asked me to leave bubs for a while (eeeeee) even though it was hard I went of and had a coffee so I was gone for about an hour, then just before I had to start work I left her one day for almost the whole day and that was probably harder than the actually first real day.

Dynamo is great for soaking the clothes in, sometimes you have to do it more than once but it does work wonders and trust me you can't believe the state of some clothing!

Good luck





Edited by hannibal

DD started DC at the beginning of the month for 3 days a week....she goes to full time next week

She is FF now so sorry can't help you with the EBM.
Same with the cloth nappies, I'm using disposables.

Re clothes - TnT was having a huge sale so I went and got some cheap dark coloured clothes for her, went with the short sleeved all in ones, with pants, socks and a long sleeve top. I think all up about 7 or 8 outfits cost us under $40 (some of the stuff isn't that great but hey it was only $3.99!) I figured if it get ruined it doesn't matter!

She loves it there, with her wee friends.



Edited by FattyKat

FattyKat thats a good idea for clothes I might have to do that luckily she's only going 2 days so we won't need too many extras, plus I have hand me downs comming some of which should be suitable too.

Thanks mandz, that sounds nice and easy with the cloth. and I will definately let you know how the feeding goes, although Esme will probably be starting at around the same time as your DS and it wasn't a novel at all!

Both my kids had some EBM around that age and from memory (don't quote me on this, nappy brain!!) they were drinking between 150-200mls/bottle but both have been quite gutsy babies so she may drink a little less. I'd say if you work on 200mls/feed you should have enough. At 6 months they were both having one formula/day, and drinking about 200-240mls max. If you start doing the odd bottle a few weeks before she starts you'll have a good idea anyway.

I got heaps of clothes from TnT too, and some bulk lots off trademe. Leggings and trackies are best, and button up under the bum singlets / t shirts/ long sleeve tops so they don't ride up. I also found lots of long sleeved t shirts were good with just the odd jumper/sweatshirt, as its quite warm in the dc rooms, so t shirt and long sleeved t shirt was often enough in winter (apart from when theyre outside). Remember to get a warm hat too, as they need them when outside.

People I know who did cloth just provided a wetbag and took them home to wash at the end of the day.

My daycare is $238/wk for fulltime under 3's. It drops by about 100/wk when they turn 3. (west ak).

odd question - does anyone know why it drops once the get to 3 years old?
If anything i thought it might be more expensive

I think it's also because they can have more children once they are over 2 but some kids stay in the under 2s for longer. Most centres are only aloud 8-10 children under 2 and the ratio is smaller too I think.

Thanks mollycat that all makes sense, I figured that cloth would be no harder than sposies. I'll have to time how long it takes to warm her bottles up I generally try with only about 30mL at the moment so that I'm not wasting heaps of milk.

I can imagine juggling all those bags would have been tricky. I'm planning on digging out a school bag to use which will hopefully be big enough!

Lol I know that feeling, in fact I'm saving up for some more so that it isn't so important to wash so frequently. Plus I'd like a bit of a stash