10 Tips for Choosing the Best Childcare

You have given birth and nursed your baby, both of you have enjoyed each other\’s company and bonded and now it is time to resume from your maternity leave. You need people you can trust to look after your baby and take adequate care of your little one. You are either looking for a daycare or personal childcare.

There are several things to look out for when choosing either daycare or an individual caregiver.

 Tips for employing personal childcare

1. Is she trained personnel? Does she have the certificate to back it up or years of experience with kids?
2. Was she referred to you or she was recruited through an agency? Word of mouth from others that has employed her services can go a long way
3. Get to know her address and have the contact of her relations. This is to avoid child theft and kidnapping.
4. Check on her frequently after you have employed her.
5. Take note of her personal hygiene, your baby is going to be in her care.
6. Regularly check your child’s body for signs of inflicted marks.

Here are ways to choose the best childcare

Are they licensed to operate?

Make a list of the possible daycare you want to take your baby to. Find out those who are registered with the right authorities and are operating legally.

What policies do they have?

Visit the childcare services to see how the caregivers handle the babies in their care. Find out the educational policies they employ with the babies.

Do they have a clean and hygienic environment?

A daycare must have a clean and safe environment. Look to see how hygienic they are. Is it the same mop they use to clean the toilet that they use to clean the living area of the babies? How clean are the containers they use to wash the babies feeding utensils?

How large is their space?

Babies need plenty of floor time to play. Good childcare should have a large space for their babies. A daycare with a small space to baby ratio isn\’t the best. Infectious disease can easily be passed on within a small confined small, babies can easily bump into each other when crawling and playing.

Do they have baby-friendly toys?

You should take mental note of the types of toys the daycare has for the babies when you visit. Also, ask questions about their toys. Bouncing castles and merry-go-round are good but are not necessary for children below 1 year. Babies need singing toys, learning videos, building blocks, and the likes.

What is the ratio of care handlers to children?

Look to see how many caregivers are available to take care of the number of children on the ground. Babies could be a handful and if there are not enough available hands on deck then you can almost assume your baby won\’t get adequate attention.

What is their mealtime like?

Do they give babies snacks and drinks? Is a particular caregiver assigned to a particular number to children to look after them? Ask to know if they provide hot water to make the babies cereals.

Is the daycare childproof?

A good daycare should have childproof installed in the facility. Babies once they start crawling go to explore anything. A childproof in the form of a barricade should be in place since their eyes cannot be on every child at every point in time

How honest are they?

Word of mouth can ascertain this more. Some caregivers are not truthful enough to give you a true report of what happened to your baby while he or she was in their care. Your friends or family\’s report might help you know this.

Follow your intuition

There is a reason God gave it to you. Even though you can’t place your hands on it, you just might not be comfortable with a childcare center. Find the place your heart feels at peace with for your little one. Your baby deserves the best you can provide.