Anyone with babies looked after by a childminder - feeding and sleeping concerns. Any advice?

[zambooloo]

Hi, my dd has always been a poor sleeper. She is still swaddled at 6.5months, naps are ok but she wakes quite frequently and requires rocking back to sleep. She also has to be rocked in a dark room with white noise on to get her to sleep!

Also she will only take her milk in a dark room, she is just not interested enough to have it if tv is on or she can see round the room etc. She will literally go 6+ hours without having more than about an oz unless I feed her in the dark. She is also blw as she won't take anything off a spoon!! She isn't really keen on food at all so hardly eats a thing anyway!

Do you think a child minder would be ok with all these needs? I know I'm paying her but somehow I feel bad that dd will require all this!!

Think you may be hard pressed to find any childcare provider who can cater for all of these requirements unless you get a nanny zamboo.

I don't think a childminder will manage that either with 2 other toddlers and maybe more after school children to care for.

However, babies will often behave totally differently for a childcare provider and just slot in to the routine at the setting. Your DD might be ok napping in a buggy on the way to toddler groups/school runs etc. I don't think BLW will be a problem but it won't be practical for anyone to sit in a dark room for milk feeds - still, your DD may adapt to having milk feeds at home and just eating/drinking at the childminder.

Sorry Zamboo but I agree with the others. I'm a childminder and simply wouldn't be able to accomodate anything except the blw. As rubirosa rightly says children behave differently for different carers and a childminder might be able to find her own way round the problems. I'd suggest finding someone who'd be happy for a long settling in period so you can work all this out together.

My DS was just like yours - 2 years on and he still behaves differently there.

oh no I'm no jealous he still has a daytime nap there

I worried about it as he was a sensitive little chap, but as my CM was already looking after my PFB I knew DS would be OK.

Try to trust that a CM will have the experience to deal with these issues. Unless your DD has special needs, she will take the bottle when she's hungry enough and sleep when she's tired.