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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

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Original poster

Childcare advice

20 replies

Babina1 · 07/05/2013 16:18

Hi there,
I would sincerely appreciate any advice from other mums who have looked into childcare solutions. I am starting to trawl through all the info out there regarding nannies, nurseries and childminders and feeling a little overwhelmed.
Are childminders usually the cheapest solution, due to the fact that you take the children to them? Whereas with a nanny they normally come to you?
What solutions would you all recommend both financially and emotionally with regard to the child's health and development? I am expecting my first baby in September and will need full time childcare from January 2014 ( baby will be 4 months old). I live in Bayswater/ Notting Hill, London.
Thanks so much!!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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nannynick · 07/05/2013 16:29

By fulltime what hours would you need, 7am-7pm? Keep in mind your typical commute time to/from work. What start & finish time you need may determine the type of provider.

Childminder and nursery costs tend to be similar. Nanny tends to be aroun 2 to 3 times the cost (assuming live-out).

OutragedFromLeeds · 07/05/2013 19:08

A nanny is paid per hour and in London it will be around £10-12ph (plus costs associated with employing someone).

A childminder charges per hour, per child. For one child a childminder will be cheaper than a nanny, prices vary, but in London you're probably looking at £4.50ph minimum.

A nursery is probably about £60 a day in that area.

All three can be paid with childcare vouchers.

Personally I would never put a baby that young into a nursery (many people would disagree with me though!). A nanny offers one-on-one care, can look after you baby in your home, will do nusery duties (baby's laundry etc) and you will have more control over what your baby does/where they go/what they eat etc. A nanny can care for your child when they are sick. A childminder will probably offer a more structured day, they'll be other children around for your child to play with and learn from. They're not usually able to look after the baby when it is sick (even a bad cold can mean your baby needs to stay at home).

You also have the option of a nanny-share. This is mid-way between a childminder and a nanny. You will pay half the cost of a nanny, which may be about the same as a childminder.

Karoleann · 07/05/2013 19:19

Personally, I wouldn't put a non-sitting baby in nursery (and this is coming from someone who has put all three of theirs in nursery at 7/8 months). The ratio in a baby room is 1:3 and its usually up to 12 months, so you can get a lot of bigger crawling snotty babies - they're always snotty for the first year at nursery, investigating your little baby. Most parents don't tend to go back to work til a little later so most babies are older.

Nurseries generally only operate 7.30am-6.30pm in london and most do not like you doing more than a 10 hour day.

If money isn't an option, I'd go for a nanny, apart from the nanny being sick and having to cover holidays, there isn't a downside. Your baby can sleep when he/she needs to, do activities appropiate to his age and not have to have a late end or early start to his day. You also have a 1:1 when it comes to weaning. If you want to cut costs, a nanny with their own child of a similar age my be good.

I'm not massively clued up on childminders, but I'd be more inclined to put a baby with a smaller scale childcare provider than a nursery.

Plently of people also combine, 3 day nanny, 2 day nursery.

If you do want to choose a nursery, you need to visit a few now.

Best of luck with your new baby

scottishmummy · 07/05/2013 19:26

cm,is least expensive,venue us their home.cm watch your baby,their own kids,and others too.if cm sick you're stuck. cost £
nursery,you go to the venue,team staff.v reliable if someone off sick.cost ££
nanny the venue is your home,and cost of activities,utilities.v reliable 1:1care.if she il you're stuck.cost £££

scottishmummy · 07/05/2013 19:31

you need to ignore the nursery detractors,simply a lot of people have a oppositional stance
that's their problem,not necessarily yours
with good care a baby will flourish.congratulations when baby arrive.start to look for nursery place now

brainonastick · 07/05/2013 19:34

Best advice I had was to go and visit a couple of examples of each setting. You might be surprised at the reaction you have to one or the other. It's a very personal thing, the home from home setting versus the more school like setting - doesn't mean that one is absolutely better than the other. Never too early to start thinking about this!

ReetPetit · 07/05/2013 20:23

what is your budget? and what hours are you looking for?

as a nursery worker for 20 years and now a childminder so that i could stay at home with my own 2 ds until they are both at full time school, I would always favour a single carer over a nursery for a young baby.

4 months is way too young to be put in to full time nursery - depending on your budget, I would go for a nanny or a childminder. A nursery is fine for a toddler but not for a baby's emotional development imo. They need to bond to one carer, in a nursery this is not really possible, even with a keyworker system in place.

calmlychaotic · 07/05/2013 20:24

I personally wouldn't put a 4 month old in a nursery either. At that age I think they need a lot more one to one and even the best nurseries can only manage 1 to 3. There are more bugs to pick up in a nursery simply because there are more kids and although it builds up resistance I wouldn't want such a little baby exposed to so much. I guess a nanny would be best if affordable as they only work for you and you can have routines etc how you you want them. There are some lovely nannies on here who can advise you bette rI'm a childminder myself and I manage and plan the children I have. I have just taken a 5 month old and she gets lots of one to one attention. My other children are a bit older. I wouldn't take on 3 tiny babies. Good luck with your new baby.

Cloverer · 07/05/2013 20:26

I would also avoid full time nursery for a 4 month old. Babies aren't really going to get much out of nursery until they are crawling/toddling at least imo, and full time is very full on for such a little one.

Maybe think about a nanny for the first year (if you can afford it) or a CM - then nursery from 18 months-2ish?

scottishmummy · 09/05/2013 22:50

nursery at 4mthis ok,if it nurturing and safe
there's no absolute givens.there is preference
I'd expect cm to endorse use of cm as opposed to nursery. they would say that

ReetPetit · 10/05/2013 12:29

i don't think that's fair scottishmummy - after all, cms can't take every child in the country so why would we be recommending childminders to every parent on here? it's not for our personal gain!

Most cms are or became cms because they wanted to stay at home with their own children. Most cms dislike large group care, especially for very young children. This is because of the proven benefits of a close relationship with one carer during the early years. This is why in the early years, ideally mothers would stay home with their children, because is the best thing in most circumstances for the child. Of course, this is not always possible, in which case a good single carer is nearly always the better option for a very young child.

NomDeClavier · 10/05/2013 17:03

Well I'm not a CM and I wouldn't put a baby that young into a nursery, mostly because they pick up a ton of germs. I started my DS at nursery at 18mo and he still caught everything going but it was a lot less traumatic. I also went back at 4months and if you can afford a nanny I would thoroughly recommend it. Mine was heaven sent for that first year of working.

In retrospect a CM might have been best of both worlds because I wouldn't have felt the same need to move him to nursery to he around other children and it would have been more financially viable in the long run! But I didn't find one I liked so it really does just depend what's out there.

scottishmummy · 10/05/2013 20:05

yes children get exposed to germs.and?unless child immunosuppressed not big deal
isn't a reason to not attend nursery.viruses can be caught anywhere
at school or nursery eventually they get chickenpox,and range of childhood illness

nannyof3 · 10/05/2013 20:13

I would personally go for a nanny or nanny share!!!!

Baby very young for nursery..
Childminders tend to have a rather lot of children and not normally a child so young.. There time and energy needs to be split so many ways and such a young baby needs alot of care/time...

So nanny it is!!! Around £10 net an hour!!

scottishmummy · 10/05/2013 20:16

no,there's no ideally mothers should stay at home.do you have same paternal expectations
the right nursery is safe and adequate.just as right cm or nanny is safe and adequate
nursery is a reliable and cost effective option.if you're considering it go look at nursery now

ReetPetit · 10/05/2013 20:37

It's not true that cms have rather a lot of children.it may appear that way when cms are seen at school pick up with older children too. But cms only have maximum 3 under 5s and normally 1 under 1yr..
And cms can and do look after young babies. There is no minimum age.

HSMMaCM · 10/05/2013 21:42

I'm a CM and think nannies are best, then CM, then nursery. However a good nursery would be better than a bad nanny or CM, so visit a few.

NomDeClavier · 10/05/2013 22:14

Sure they get ill, and then either you're up all night and can't function the next day or they're excluded from nursery and you look like a flake because your baby is ill and everyone knows new mothers and mothers in general are unreliable, so it's well worth avoiding that if you can. Kids get germs from everywhere but a nanny will care for sick children without sending a sniffly baby home because they want to be held and nursery staff just don't have enough arms. Heaven only knows how they'll cope on a 4:1 ratio.

Get that first year or so of illnesses out the way, which they'll pick up from just being out and about, and they cope better with the germs when they get to the bug breeding grounds.

At the risk of sounding heartless DS can and should get ill - I'm not going to sanitise everything (although I'd like to avoid another spell in hospital with pneumonia) - but I'm not taking a day off work for a sniffle and a slight temp, which I would have had to if he'd been in a nursery. When he got to nursery it was a lot more obvious when he was really unwell and not just a snot machine because he was that much older. And before anyone asks what DH is doing he spends a large proportion of his time being unreachable so he's not much use as a backup plan.

Fightlikeagirl · 10/05/2013 22:14

^ what HS said

Imo, most people who work in childcare would go for this order too.

Murtette · 10/05/2013 22:39

You should start going & looking at nurserys and cms now and put your name down on the waiting list of a couple that you like as its only a few months until you'll be needing it. Some nurseries take babies from 6wks & others from 12wks but some don't take them until 6mo so yours would be too young with that. My instinct is that nurseries probably aren't the best environment for little babies but at DD's nursery, a 12wk old started recently and I've been impressed that she's mainly been in a sling being carried by one or other of the workers, sometimes asleep, other times awake. On one occasion though, she was on the knee of a pre-school key worker and they were giving her a bit of an investigation - but no different to the investigation DC2 went through at every drop off & pick up from the age of 6 days.

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