Tell me about your experiences of 6mo at nursery - good and bad!

[MissingMyHeels]

Am looking at a nursery on Wednesday for my DD who will be six months when I go back to work.

Please talk to me about your experiences of babies this small at nursery. Oh and any things I should ask the nursery when I visit?

Am also considering a childminder.

Nursery vs. childminder will raise a whole load of entrenched positions on here, so I am not going to go there (I didn't have the option so didn't make that decision as such), but FWIW both my DC went to (different) nurseries at that age (actually DS was 4.5 mths). They both thrived, but the things I would look for are:

• what is and isn't included (nappies, milk, wipes, etc etc)
• staff turnover (lower the better)
• age and experience of baby room staff
• separate baby room (toddlers + small babies = not good combination IMHO)
• how they approach weaning (right answer IMO is 'however you want us to')

HTH - any questions, happy to try and help!

My DS went to nursery ft from 4.5 months. He settled in very fast, and has loved it ever since (now 2). I've never had a qualm about leaving him - mostly we have to peel him out of nursery at the end of the day.

If the nursery insist on them following their routine (ie naps/feeds), or seem unwilling to go with your reasonable requests (such as using cloth nappies), then look elsewhere. If the children are being cuddled, talked to, they approach the person showing you round and are treated lovingly, it sounds promising.

my experiences - v good and continue to be

they never put DS on a schedule (fed when he needed, slept when he needed, and had a great key worker)

he was constantly cuddled and cooed over and well cared for

Stealth has highlighted some good questions to ask

ask also re storing breast milk/formula

We had good and bad experiences of nurseries at this age.

dd1 went one day a week from 6 months, to a local, fairly mediocre nursery. It wasn't good enough - in retrospect, we could tell - rather careless settling in process, lack of description of what they did during the day, plus when we arrived they'd put dd1 in a bouncy chair and when we picked her up she was still in a bouncy chair, though she could sit and crawl already. so it wasn't good enough, we took her out and put her in a childminder.

dd2 and dd3 went from 5 and 4 months however to a wonderful perfect lovely nursery which we were utterly happy with. It had a very low level of staff turnover, high staff-baby ratios (ALWAYS 2 adults to the 6 babies, including break times and nap times and lunch times). Separate very calm room for the 6 babies. 2 week settling in period - you had to go with them every day for 2 weeks, a chore but you did get to know the nursery very well.

so we had a very positive experience, after a bad one.

Some positive stories - at last! Good questions stealth, thank you, especially the one about weaning, wouldn't have crossed my mind. Staff turnover and ratios are also excellent points, will get writing a list.

They have a good/very good ofsted report but am not sure what this really means on a day to day basis - surely all nurseries have to be good or they would be shut down?

They said I can go in anytime (except over lunch) to look around which I'm taking to be a good sign and mean they are consistenly good [hopeful smiley]

OFSTED report is important and good/very good is reassuring

plenty of nurseries are graded less than this (but can be for a variety of reasons)

being able to visit anytime is good

I think the being able to go in and look around anytime is a good sign, yes.

Another thing, see what the babies are doing when you visit. In my lovely nursery (which got very good Ofsted reviews) my friend said what convinced her was that she went into the baby room and one carer was sitting on the floor cuddling one baby, the other carer was sitting on the floor cuddling two. And the other 3 babies were maybe asleep at that time. But there was a lot of cuddling going on.

ds1 started nursery at 4mths, ds2 at 6mths, both settled well.

Only now that ds3 is at a different nursery can I see how great the nursery that ds1 and 2 went to was.

Look for clean children, cries attended to quickly, sleeping arrangements that you'd be happy with(quiet separate room?) Ask about anything that doesn't make sense to you - you might learn something new, or find out nursery is not for you.

Think of one question to ask later - pop in unannounced and ask to go to baby room - a bit sneaky, but you'll get another impression...

Another question but one to judge more by their reaction than by the answer - what do they do with a grizzly teething generally miserable but not ill baby?

The 'right' answer for me (and what both nurseries my DC have been to did) is that if they need cuddling most/all of the day, then that is what they get.

As others have said - your gut feel on the general ambience is important.

If they have a good Ofsted report then they will have illness/accident/etc policies, but it is still good to ask a random member of staff about them and you will then see whether they are real and useable policies or just written down and produced for Ofsted.

Mostly I just wanted to be sure that my DC would be loved and looked after - and they were/are.

Went in armed with all your suggestions for questions and barely needed to ask any as they were so comprehensive with the tour. Manager been there 8 yrs and t/over is good, excellent facilities, babies being cuddled, she gets own cot and keyworker and it felt really right.

Thanks for all your help, feel slightly less panicky about having to go back to work now! Hurrah.

Great news - you just know when its a good place.

The only problem can be is extracting them from nursery at the end of the day - DS doesn't want to leave his friends

great news

Good news - glad you are reassured.

DD currently runs over to greet us with a huge hug, and then promptly disappears back to whatever she was doing, leaving us standing there twiddling thumbs