Nursery+home babysitter combo for 5 mo?

[Yika]

My DD, just 5 months old, is about to start virtually full time (7 hours a day) at my workplace creche. Until now I've had childcare help at home one morning a week. I'm extremely happy with the babysitter and the baby seems very happy with her too.

The staff-to-babies ratio at the creche is 1:6, which seems rather low to me (but is normal where I live - Belgium). There is not a lot of individual interaction, apart from feeding and changing the babies. Otherwise they play by themselves. Not a lot of cuddling, etc.

Now I've seen this setup in action I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to have the babysitter pick up the baby sometimes in the afternoon and look after her at home till I get back from work.

Is it better/less confusing for a child to just stay in one childcare setting, always with the same carers, or would the benefits of the one-to-one care and being in the home environment outweigh that, even though it would only be a couple of afternoons a week?

I have had my DD in mixed childcare settings ever since she was 10 months and I have to say it worked really well. 2 days she was in nursery and 1 day with her grandma. Now she is 4 days at nursery and 1 day with a childminder and it just keeps her from getting too overtired from being at nursery full time. It is also nice that she gets some 1:1 time at home. She loves going to nursery but she also loves when the childminder is over. She has never appeared stressed from the mixed care she receives.

Great - that's good to hear. Yes I was wondering if the nursery could be really tiring full-time. (Been for 3 short settling-in sessions and baby slept like a log for hours afterwards each time!)