Starting daycare early?

This is probably no help at all, but our DD will be in daycare 3 days per week from around 16 weeks and I have raging guilt too :(

*hugs* to you!

I've worked with babies 3 months old and younger once had a 2 week old!
in daycare centres, I'm an ECE teacher and looking after babies/ toddlers/ preschoolers is my passion.
My advice is try to let the guilt go....i know it's very hard to, but you have to return to work, to survive and your baby is going to be with qualifed teachers who love babies, in a safe, happy environment.
I had the guilts when i returned to work when DS1 was 10 months old and i was working in the same room not directly with him though. Guilt is a funny thing i think when we become mums it joins us and never really leaves us!!

Good luck, go easy on yourself in the first few weeks, and trust he will be fine.
The teachers in the baby area are trained and know what to do.

You are an excellent mother and making the best decision for your family.

A friend of mine had hers in from 2 months

Thanks everyone - I think we find things to feel guilty about. Seeing no other small babies in there made me feel dreadful... but I guess my little guy will get lots of attention from the teachers with him being the smallest.

I feel incredibly guilty too and our DS is not going till 9 & half months. So I think it is very normal to feel guilty no matter what age they end up there!

I know of so many babies that were in daycare from 3 months yet when I visited daycares there didn't seem to be any - so I know what you mean! But when I asked, they said that alot of them had been there since 3-6 months.

Sorry forgot to add, the mum went back to study at uni so was in from about 9am-5pm most days but she checked on him whenever she could etc

Thanks for that article TobysMum, that's good some good information in it.

We have primary care at our daycare, but even if we didn't I would still choose daycare. I prefer accountability, especially for such a young child. They did everything they possibly could - hired a bassinet, got an angelcare monitor, had increased staffing til she reached 3 months, wore her most of the day (due to reflux she needed to be worn), even washed and dried her clothes when she powerchucked all over them instead of letting me do it all when I got home - such a supportive environment.

I guess I'm lucky that I didn't feel too guilty. When she was 5 weeks, I hadn't bonded with her at all as she was such a hard baby, and even at 5 months I wasn't as attached to her as I could have been, but also I really wanted to return to work (financially I wasn't much better off back then). I have found no negative effects at all - in fact Ava and I now have an awesome relationship and I haven't missed out on any major milestones so far (although she hasn't walked yet).

Jack was in from 5 months, but only part time til he was 2, and other than me being overprotective because of illness, and simply bonding better because of our personalities (just as DH and Ava bond better) there is no difference between our kids where one was at home most of the time, and one at daycare.