Advice for starting nursery earlier than needed?

[mumofwun]

DS is 8 months old now and just starting to become a little clingy. I will go back to work part time when he is 1 year old and wondered whether it is worth putting him in nursery 1 day a week now so he can get used to it? A friend started her dd at 1 year and had great difficulty settling her in. Would be very grateful for your advice.

i have friends who did this for this reason. but one day a week is quite hard for them to get used to. my first started nursery one day a week and took ages to settle.

Anyone have any experience of maybe 2 half days a week? i couldnt bear to be away from him for more than 1 day yet!

excellent idea, not least cos they usually catch a load of colds when they 1st start and have to take time off. make sure you have planned to do something the first session he is there without you, with a friend if necessary to stop you fretting. it will almost certainly be worse for you than him

DS started nursery at 7 months 2 days per week and settled very easily and still happy at 13 months (gets excited when we arrive there etc). We did short "days" for about 3 weeks at the beginning. At several nurseries we looked at the minimum they took babies for was two days as less was considered unsettling...hope helpful

There is a little boy who goes to DS nursery for one afternoon a week and he spends it crying for his mummy,I think he is about 1yr. DS goes 9am - 5pm two days a week and has been going since he was 4.5 months old (now 8 months old) and absolutely loves it. IMHO i wouldn't do any less than 1 full day as it would take them so long to settle in and would be too upsetting for me to leave him if he was upset.

Mumofwun, most definely - go for it. Dd was super clingy - had separation anxiety from 5 months. She started nursery at 11 months 2 days morning sessions Mon Fri. The nursery recommended consecutive days rather than splitting it (otherwise it is like the baby having 2 mondays a week IYKWIM) but Mon Fri were the only vacancies I could get.

As you have not started work, you could settle ds in very gently. My dd went for about 3 hours out of the full session for 2-3 months, before we felt she could do the full morning sessions. Gradually increased her hours/days - now she is full time and loving it.

D