Is a room from birth to 24 months too big of an age range?

[pollyinyourpocket]

I think she might've said they take about 15 babies in this room. Other nurseries I've looked at tend to have the first room from birth until 12/18 months.

I wouldn’t be keen if there were other options. DS at 23 months was a chunky toddler running everywhere and would have flattened a six month old who was just sitting up/crawling. His nursery moved onto the next age at 18m, sometimes 16m if space and the child was a very strong Walker.

What is the youngest age they take? Nurseries near me now won't take babies under a year. I doubt there are any babies from birth. If they have, say, one six month old, 3 12 months old, and 11 between 13 months and 23 months I would only be concerned for the 6 month old but if its evenly spaced between 6 and 23 months that feels like too much unless the room is partitioned.

Our nursery used to do this and it was OK - positives are that the little ones have more interesting/active kids to watch, and they are with the same staff for longer (room moves can be upsetting for them). Negatives are that a crawling baby could get stepped on by a toddler (!) but this never happened to DD as far as we know! Staff will obviously not be letting the big ones run riot in an area where little ones are lying/crawling.

I'd expect a 0-to-walking room at least.

Depends how it's set up, I think. Our nursery does this, but it's actually two rooms with a baby gate in between, so they can separate them more or less depending on how many aren't yet walking and other needs. If they manage it well, I think staying with the same staff for longer is definitely a plus.

My eldest was in a 0-12 room and my youngest in a 0-24. I much preferred the latter. I think either can work fine but we found 12 months a tricky time to settle into a new room. 2 year old had no issue at all. He was in baby room from 5 months old, never got trampled on!

My DD started nursery at 13 months and her nursery has a 0-2 year room. Didn’t concern me at all, there are enough staff to make sure that the children are safe.

My dd started nursery at 9 months old, and was in a 0-2 room. I preferred that, as she got to be have a room she was used to, rather than the upheaval of moving rooms.

My son started at 12 months in a 0-24 and it's great. If younger ones are going down for a nap but older ones still want to play they go through to the toddler room for a bit.

We had 0-24 and no issues. Several friends had a separate baby room and toddler room - their children all started around 12m old and within about 3 months had to settle into a second room which seemed ridiculous to me.

Ask how they manage the ratios as the ratios change as they age. My nursery had 6mo this till 1, then 1 to 2, then 2-3, then preschool

There is a huge difference between say a 6 month old and a 22 month old. I wouldn’t be happy with it. Naps will be very different, mobility etc

Having a 0-2 room indicates that the nursery has a better understanding of child development and promotes secure attachments, which is really the most important thing for a baby.

Having lots of transitions every few months where babies have to cope with a new key person and new room isn't great practice.

Ours were 0-24 years . It was fine

Probably also depends on catchment area and how many little babies they actually get. Round here most women don't return to work until their baby is 12m (low housing costs I guess make a difference) so unlikely there would be enough babies for a room. Also the case in small nurseries. In the 0-2 room thay napped whenever they needed to, so not a problem as a pp indicated. At friends' nursery, they could only move up a room when they fitted the nap schedule of the next room.

Mine’s in a 0-2 room but it’s three big rooms attached to each other, so no one’s getting trampled on. I wouldn’t like her to be moving and getting a new keyworker more often than that (bearing in mind that very few babies if any will actually start nursery at age 0).

Ours had 0-2 but they spent mealtimes and garden time together.
I know that they had a couple of particularly boisterous just under 2 year olds that they integrated slightly earlier but the baby room is very small (only room for 6).

Our nursery has 0-2, which was fine for us. DD didn’t start until she was 9 months, which seemed common for that nursery, so I wouldn’t have wanted her moving rooms just a couple of months later after getting settled.

Our nursery has all kids together, 0-when they leave for school. It's a small nursery, about 25 total, but almost never that many on any one day. They do break them up into age groups for certain activities though.

I think it works great. It means they have a key worker as long as possible. Mine had the same key worker from 9 months until they leave for school as they don't change rooms, which is really lovely.

Where I work we have two under 2 rooms, babys is from 3m to 14m and holds 6 and pretoddler is from 14m-24m and holds 15
However due to staff shortages due to the lockdown, staff going back 'home' staff sickness and new job opportunities for some staff etc the two rooms are becoming one. Our youngest 8m and our oldest almost 24m they seem fine together because the children are occupied and supervised.
You can enquire how older children are with younger children and ask about activities they do too to put your mind at ease. The room may very well be sectioned off for the smaller ones!