Baby starting nursery

[Teachingmama]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of their baby starting nursery during lockdown. Has it been different in regards to settling in sessions? How has the baby coped? I’m worried that nurseries may treat babies differently and they might not settle as well.

Myself and my partner are key workers and I am due to return to work and I’m feeling anxious about it!

I don't think there has been much settling of new children at nurseries. Most of them are closed even to established children (even to key worker children).

It depends what the nursery is like. If it's quiet, your child may get more attention because there's less children.

Our children's nursery is open but only the key workers, it's still a lovely setting and the staff are gutted at not seeing all the children as normal. They are very unlikely to treat them worse, but if you notice anything go with your instincts. Good luck.

I work in a nursery that is still open and we have had new children start with us
The settling in process has been different because we are not letting parents in to the rooms, all handovers are done in the entrance
The youngest is 22 months so not too young
We would normally spend a lot of time chatting to new parents to put them at ease but that’s not possible at the moment as we have most staff furloughed
Its not our normal settling in but the children are fine, we don’t treat the children any different

We had a new baby start with us during lockdown and aside from the parent not being able to come into the building everything else has been the same. We are doing more communication through the diary and at drop off/pick up. The baby has settled well and with fewer children it has meant they have had more one to one time with the staff. Probably a good time to start as they will be fairly settled by time it gets busier.

Babies get the same cuddles and attention as always. Staff just do more hand washing and toys are cleaned frequently.