Nursery V Child Minder

[Natasha35]

11 month old currently in nursery 2.5 days per week since January.
has been unwell every other week. 2 hospital stays 1 bout of Sepsis. 6 tonsillitis 8 lots of antibiotics, conjunctivitis.

he is on the list for a tonsillectomy.
All the recommended child minders are full until September…. Did go and meet a lady today who was lovely been a child minder for 20 + years
however she does school runs much older children 7-9. Mentioned biting…

peoples views and opinions please

I am sorry to hear that. There is no better or worse way.

i chose childminder, because it was cheaper. She lives 2 mins walking distance from my house, it is a smaller setting comparing to a nursery, for me it was more like home.

I forgot to add - child minder as I say lovely. However she already has 3 holidays booked this year, mentioned her daughter has a lot of appointments.

I just don’t know……

My DD started last Jan and caught everything too!
things did settle down from around this time of the year.

Wherever you decide, there is going to be illness regardless.
it’s hard going through it at the time as you see no end but it does.

The holidays would put me off CM tbh, and having many appointments, it’s just going to eat into your AL.

We use nursery because we couldn’t cover a childminders holidays and sick time, and also we wouldn’t want our DC being taken on school runs twice a day and other appointments. We find nursery has, as lots more activities and also other children DCs age

We choose a childminder because we wanted a home environment. School runs, popping to the post office, using the bus, etc. All the things we would’ve done if we were home with DC.

There are pluses and minuses to both.

Childminder your baby will get a smaller, cleaner environment, more attention and you can have a relationship with the person who cares for your child - but they are 1 person with a family of their own and will have 4-6 weeks holiday etc.
Nurseries are bigger more impersonal environments, usually more expensive, but they usually have enough staff to cover long hours, year round and might only close 1-2 weeks a year.

Nursery all the way here for the various reasons others have mentioned.

Stay with your nursery. Illnesses are normal, just sounds like you’ve had a bad run of it because of the tonsils.

I wouldn’t be happy with my baby spending the afternoon being shuttled around on the school run when they could be playing or napping or whatever else I’m paying for. I also really liked that with nursery there is always someone available for a cuddle. My eldest had contact naps for the first 2 months while she settled in to nursery. That level of care wouldn’t have been possible with 1 frazzled childminder doing the school run. I also liked that at times when I needed to collect early. I knew where to find my dc. They weren’t like across town stuck in traffic somewhere. And no way to being left with no childcare because she has an appointment.

Beyond that, illnesses are bad anywhere the first few years in childcare while they build up their immune system. I don’t think they would necessarily be better with a CM.

We chose a nursery because we needed year round care. We did move them twice to childminders but one stopped her business as her husband got a job elsewhere and the other had endless days, off so we moved back to nursery- we didn't have family who could step in and help with childcare, so nursery felt more of a reliable option.

You have my sympathies - childcare of any kind can be a nightmare to juggle.

We chose nursery as wanted the reliability, ours is only closed 1 week a year and they have plenty of staff to cover absences. I think you've had it particularly bad this winter, but hopefully will ease with better weather. I'm not sure a childminder would be any better. I was also a little worried that in theory anyone could be in the house at the childminders? I know they are Ofsted checked but the nursery is so strict about who enters the building.

It is NOT normal for a baby to be hospitalised with sepsis and have 8 courses of antibiotics in first year of life.

If I had to have 8 courses of antibiotics within a year I’d be treating myself very carefully - and I’m an adult.

I would absolutely not be using a nursery for a baby like this. I had two kids, both of them went to nursery and in particular dd1 caught so many cold viruses. They are germ-ridden places and for an immune system that has developed normally I wouldn’t worry about it.

But after 8 courses of antibiotics your baby’s gut flora and fauna will be very messed up. Your baby needs a period of health stability and a course of probiotic yoghurt not exposure to more diseases .

Honestly I would go with childminder and use Parental Leave to cover her holidays.

We have decided to stay with the nursery. My boy is on the list for a tonsillectomy and with the weather warming up. Should really help xx

I didn't realize that a lot of people have a mix of babies and school kids . As a childminder I only had preschoolers . Obviously FT meant charge was higher so it covered what I felt was OK wages . Once or twice I had a preschooler and their baby sibling. Nursery are more reliable as there is back up if staff is ill . I have to say I can only recall one time I had to cancel with an overwhelming migraine but most times I muddled through anything just like a SAHM would have to . I would have been very conscious of the parents needing to get to work .

I think you’ve done the right thing op.

My toddler had her tonsils out last year and she has been much better for it.

DC1 had 2 childminders a few years ago and we had bad experiences with both of them, switching to nursery has been so much better.

I would also add that DC1 was also ill quite a lot while at childminder instead of nursery.

We chose nursery because we like the larger environment. I think studies say they don’t benefit from socialising until they’re about 3, but my son gained a lot from his peers from about 2 even if he didn’t directly play with them. And since he was 3, I’ve liked that he has a broad spectrum of age appropriate buddies, not a small group of kids who could be considerably younger.

Although technically the same ratio, I also prefer 5:25 than 1:5 (picked random numbers as I can’t remember the exact ones). It means more eyes on the environment to catch problems and better from a safeguarding perspective than one lone person. There’s enough coverage to let kids choose to go inside or out and not all have to do the same. And the activities can all be tailored specifically to their exact age rather than trying to cater to all.

I was at home with my son two days a week and I saw some shockingly useless or cliquey childminders at various groups and children’s centres as well.