Baby to Nursery 5 months old

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

Hi everyone

My baby boy is going to nursery at 5 months old for 1 day a week, and will start full time at 6 months old. Im feeling so much mummy guilt and worry. What do nurseries do with bad day time nappers? Will he been weaned ok?

I think im looking for stories from people who have sent their babies to nurseries around the same age? Was it ok?

Mine went the week she turned 6 months for 2 days a week. We weaned at 5 months so that wasn’t a problem. She also settled for naps in a cot, which was better for them, but I’m sure they would have held and rocked to sleep if necessary. They let her sleep when she needed it and followed her cues.

If it’s a decent nursery and you have a caring key person, then all will be fine. We had as many settling in days as we needed, building up from 30 mins to half a day gradually. She loves nursery and is so happy to be back now it’s open again. No guilt here.

When my DS started, we completed a Profile Form stating what stage of weaning he was at and what foods he was already having so that they could continue this. We then had a meeting to put in place an individual dietary plan for him.
The nursery would steam, grill and puree fruit, meats such as chicken and fish, and vegetables at a consistency that was suitable for him. They promised careful one to one supervision and they wrote down what he had eaten each day.
We knew before he started that they would be unable to provide any packaged or jarred baby foods with the exception of some baby cereals and baby rice.
My biggest piece of advice would be to keep the key worker in the loop! Make sure you keep updated both ways with how your LO is progressing. Be confident in your decisions, communicate if you feel the child’s key worker is going to slow or too fast. Throughout the process you need to be confident in your decisions and the actions you’re taking.

Thank you for your replies. He has all his naps in his cot, but he wakes after 45mins and doesnt sleep any longer unless I resettle him. Thing is though he needs to have at least one or two longer naps in the day, otherwise he turns into an overtired mess by the end of the day. I suppose ill just have to communicate that and hope they manage to get him down.

My eldest was 6 months when starting nursery (had already started weaning and I still bf).
You find that children adapt very quickly to the routine of nursery.
Communication is really important both nurseries I used had written and daily communication which I'd recommend.
With food they may have the option of you providing food so that you can make sure your happy with weaning progress.
Sleep will happen just let nursery know when you don't want them sleeping.
I think the biggest thing to remember is separation is worse for you than baby. Your guilt is normal but not necessary. Good drop off /pick up routines are a good idea so baby understands consistency. When at work try to focus entirely on work not on baby and vice versa. I set myself limits when they started nursery for first week I'd ring once a day to check they were OK then only time I'd check in was if they'd been upset on separation then it was good so I could concentrate on my work.

My ds started FT nursery, and didn't start solids until 6 months. Nursery found their own ways of getting him to nap (he slept with a muslin there but never at home), and we did BLW so he just had the toddler food.
He settled with them with zero problems, and as they had very few under ones he had loads of attention and they had a very stable staff rota in the baby room