Hellobee Boards

-Do you allow babies to sleep on their bellies? At what age?
-Do you allow anything in the cribs with the baby?
-Can I bring in some personal items for him that you can hang above the crib like a picture of our family?
-What do I need to bring every day and what can I leave here?
-What do you expect from the parents?
-Can I pop in at any time to visit?
-Who can pick up my child?
-Who will be with my child throughout the day - have I met all of the teachers?
-What's the teacher to student ratio? (you may already know this)
-How much one-on-one time will he get?
-What activities do you do with babies this age?

Also, check out security of the building.

For me the big things where:
- What is the standard "schedule" of a baby this age. For us, when we started at 3 months we desired to have her be fed every 2-3 hours and diaper changes every 2 hours (their standard).

- How do I communicate my desired schedule/wishes for her with all of her teachers (they have various teachers that come in and out). The answer was an "infant information sheet" which was kept on file and a board where they noted that she was EBF and her feeding schedule.

- What comfort things can I bring for her? We were able to send a swaddle blanket that smelled like home. She had a travel sleep giraffe for white noise (just like at home) that stays attached to her crib. We could use a standard mobile they provide or bring one of our own. Also they encourage pictures of family members.

- At what points do they call the parents? Our daycare calls only if they are sick and need to come home or if they are bitten or hurt. Sometimes if shes really fussy, I ask that they call me if shes inconsolable. If shes miserable, I want to know so I can try to leave work and go get her.

- Medications - What can they give and what do they need? Ours can give tylenol or motrin but you have to have a doctors prescription with the dosage on there. We just keep a script on file and renew it at each of our doctors visits. Its annoying to have to get in touch with the DR. if your child is running a low fever and needs a dose.

- Forms? We have to fill out a weekly form for any "medication". This includes saline spray, diaper cream, teething gel, etc. Some of it is administered back in the classroom and other things are administered by the front desk staff. I like the fact that a front desk staff measures and administers things like tylenol so a frazzled teacher doesn't miss measure.

@Thehistoryofus: Thanks! Our is an inhome daycare but some of these questions will apply to us as well! I was also wondering what I all needed to ask.

@jessiejo17: @obxwife: Glad it helped. I had no idea my list was going to be that long!

A few more thoughts (based on situations we have encountered).

-Do they have limits on things like bouncy chairs/swings, etc. I think ours limits to 30 minutes at a time. Babies are allowed to fall asleep in them, but teachers are supposed to move them to the crib after that. There was once or twice that she was really congested and I was able to ask the teacher to let her sleep in the swing so she could breath better.

- Feeding wishes including no propping of the bottle (we wanted her held), burping after every 2 ounces (important for EBF babies so they don't drink the bottle too fast), and if she doesn't finish the bottle how to handle? This kinda went into our infant information sheet but could be communicated other ways.

ETA - Also, how they heat the bottles. We found they heated them in a crock pot for 4 minutes but that was pretty warm. She wasn't used to a warm bottle like that and didn't want to get her dependent on a warm bottle so we asked them to only warm for 2 minutes (just to take the chill off). This also lessened the amount of time she has to wait for a bottle.

For most of these, our center had a "policy" or way they typically did these types of things but were happy to accommodate parent requests. It was helpful to hear how they typically did things for other babies but also communicate our wishes.