Dd - 8 months really not happy at child minders, very worried about what to do.

[zambooloo]

My dd has been going for settling in periods of 2-3hrs a day twice a week for 2 weeks now. The cm says babies usually settle within a couple of visits and that my dd is unusual to not be happy there by now. She says she cries a lot and nothing will console her (she says she obviously just wants her mummy or daddy).

She told me that it wasn't fair on her other mindees and that she may have to cancel our contract if she doesn't settle in within the next 2 weeks.

Help!!!

This happened to my friend. Her DS ccouldn't settle and the CM did cancell the contract.

When are you back in work? Is there any relative who could help?

You say these are settling in sessions. When are you going back to work and will your DD be full time or just a couple of hours, still? Have you been staying for a period of time to settle her? Are you very anxious? Do you think she is picking up on that?
It may help to leave her for a couple of hours every day,so that she becomes used to her environment quickly. Maybe there is too much of a gap betweeen the sessions and therefore it is like starting from scratch every time? It is difficult, but certainly not unusual for babies of this age to become very clingy. Maybe your DH or your mum could drop her off to see if that helps her settle better?

So it sounds like she's only had four sessions of a couple of hours each and none of them have been on consecutive days? It seems a bit premature to talk about her not settling. Is it possible for the CM to have her for a couple of hours a day for a whole week and reassess after that?

Just was annh said, you need to try and fit in daily settling in session - perhaps start with half an hour and then build up. Twice a week is not frequent enough for a baby in the peak of their seperation anxiety.

My ds1 used to stay happily at a creche 2 x a week from 6 mths old and then he got to 9 months, separation anxiety kicked, and he howled the place down. As I didn't need to the creche for work I just stopped and tried him again when he was better(about 18mths I think) and seemed to understand that I would be back.
I agree with others, if this is your only option then you need to put her there more frequently.

Is it the same time of day each time? Might it be possible to try different times, am instead of pm for example? Just as an experiment.