When your baby is turning the right age to enter baby day care, will you decide to put him/her at the childcare center or home nannies?
If you are going back to work after your maternity leave of 60 days, and there is no one ( I mean no other close relatives such as parents or parents in law) to help to take care of your baby. Is it a wise decision to place him/her at the childcare center? or get a home nanny?
Here are few things to consider before you make any decisions. In this article, I will be sharing important points you need to know before sending your baby off to baby day care.
Baby day care – what is the right age?
My opinion? It is very much depend on our current situation. Let’s look at the example:
- If the mother is going back to work after maternity leave and there is no one to help to take care of the baby afterward, so it is time to consider sending your baby to baby day care.
- It can be when your baby is turning one months old and the mother is unfit due to her health condition , it is also advisable to send your baby off to baby day care.
- If the baby is born in a single parent family, it is usually common to send their baby to baby day care as soon as the mother completed her confinement.
- When you think it is a right time to send your baby off to baby day care to learn something new
When an exclusively breastfed baby need to be sent to baby day care, it is better to have him/her trained in bottle feeding. Some babies refuse to be bottle-fed by caregiver and only want to have direct latching.
Baby childcare center
Baby child care center is usually run by licensed childcare provider who owns a small business in a home equipped with facility and manpower (trained in childcare). There will be a larger number of children in the childcare center than home nannies.
The staff in the childcare centers are generally established with professionally trained staff with at least a minimum requirement of early childhood education background. The venue is larger and fully equipped with childcare facility.
In Malaysia, ratio for the staff to children in the childcare center is 1:3 for less than 1years old, 1:5 for children 1-3 years old and 1:10 for children 3-4 years old. It is interpreted as one teacher will be to take care of 3 children below 1 year old, so on and so forth.
The downside is if you are looking for a caregiver who is able to focus solely on your baby for his/her emotional need, it will not be possible. It is not easy to find a childcare center willing to accommodate 100% parent’s need as they have many children to deal with every day.
The baby is also difficult to find close bonding with any of the caregivers because they will be working on rotation.
I suggest, if your baby has reached certain age such as 1-2 years old and you are looking for other perspective like children social interaction, cognitive development learning, communication skill and etc, baby childcare center is the right one for you.
Child abuse will not make possible as childcare centers have a numbers of staff and they are well monitored, opportunities for child abuse and neglect are very unlikely or non-existent.
Home nanny
There will be two kinds you commonly see.
- A baby sitter who is hired to look after a child at the owner’s house
- a nanny who will be looking after your child at her house
In most cases, sometimes due to high demand, you basically cannot find local people to babysit your child at home. In Malaysia, it is common to hire someone from the neighboring country to help up. It is usually more expensive option if you hire a foreign maid to do the job.
Some people will send their baby to a home nanny at her house. The great thing about this arrangement is that your baby will get full attention of a trusted adult and it is likely to have close bonding between the nanny and the child in long term.
The downside is that child abuse can happen if you hire someone who is not capable of child care or even someone you know or trusted can turn to child abuse if they can’t handle the stress well. Home nanny is usually alone with the child at home and no one else is there to monitor the situation. The handling of a child or baby can be frustrating sometimes.
The best thing about home nanny is that your child will get 100% attention for his/her emotional need. If your child remains in your home with familiar setting and environment, it is much more comfortable.
Home nanny can be the child’s parent (mother herself), grand parent, close relatives, neighbor, or good friends. As long as it is someone you have interviewed and trusted she is capable of doing the childcare and your child is getting along well with her. It is still the best option for baby less than 1 year old.
How to choose?
For my opinion, it is best to have home nanny to look after your child before the baby turns to 1-2 year old. It is the time baby need 100% attention, love and care from the caregiver as part of their mental health development.
After that, you will look for professional childcare center to get further childcare services such as social skill development, cognitive development and communication skill and so on as the staff are well-trained in early childhood education.
Conclusion
Hope you will find this article useful when it comes to choosing the right baby day care. It is very much depends on your current situation and own expectation for your child. Both childcare centers and home nannies have their own advantages and disadvantages and if you have found the right person to do the right job, go for it!
Share with us your experience about sending your baby to baby day care and what are the best and worse things ever experienced.
Happy reading!
My friend had to bring her baby to a day care center when the baby was around 1 year old. The mother needed to start working again and the father was already working regularly in the job at the time.
Speaking to my friend, she told me that it was quite a hard decision to take and if she could have avoided it somehow, she would have stayed longer with the baby at home.
Unfortunately, it’s not always possible and therefore baby day care can be an option.
Thanks for sharing the article!
Mariana
This has been a very useful article indeed. Thank you for sharing the Malaysia example. I would prefer a baby sitter to come over to our home.
Our children are the most important aspect of our life so we need to choose well when it comes to a babysitter. I also appreciate the tips you shared on this point.
Thanks for writing this article. I am not a parent so I feel a bit hypocritical writing about it but what you are saying is that a nanny is better than baby day care? I personally would not know the first thing about it but I guess you are right that different environments bring different emotions and learning experiences to bay and I guess every parent if they can even afford it need to make that call. I think you have started a good debate and it will be interesting to see what other parents have to say.
I grew up with a stay at home mum but I am not entirely sure she benefited from that. Thanks for sharing.