What sort of questions should I be asking a prospective day care? There are two nearby - one is a center, the other is home based. The center has a waiting list - I think I was #58 at 6 or 8 weeks pregnant? Not sure about the home based one. But what should I be asking these places?
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Honestly, when we toured, both of them had a whole spiel for us so we didn't even have any major questions to ask them (except for cloth diapering).
For a home daycare, I'd ask about backup care. What if she's sick? Does she go on a standard yearly vacation (ours does every July)?
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What is the food policy? LO goes to an in home daycare, but we still send him with his lunch.
What is the procedure for child sickness? Ours has a 100 temperature as stay home, but was a more lenient when it was clear that LO's temp was because of teeth. I would have hated to stay home so many days just for cutting teeth.
Assuming you want your LO there for the foreseeable future, how do you handle behavior? Time-out? What are the behavior expectations?
I went to visit the in-home center twice to make sure I was comfortable. Now LO says "buh-bye" to me at the door, he's so excited to be there.
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I toured a couple daycare centers and asked about the staff training & credentials, how often (if at all) the under 1 babies went outside, and a better explanation of their day/activities.
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@blackbird: Good to know about the center! The home-based one has 2 or 3 employees, I believe? But those are definitely things to keep in mind!
@JennyG: Those are great - thanks!!
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This is more personal but, if it's important to you, I would ask about their vaccination policy. Do they accept kids who aren't vaccinated. Ask about if they have a peanut allergy policy or what their policy is if your child has a food allergy.
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Definitely ask about the allergy policy, and if you plan on cloth diapering, you should find out what type of diapers they are comfortable with. I took one in for them to see, but it ended up not being necessary since they were already cloth-diaper friendly.
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6 comments