Would you be comfortable with this at a daycare?

[connorlevismom]

We are in the process of touring daycare centers for our baby that is due in October. We have a 5 year old son so we have been down the daycare route before but I have found something this time that makes me cringe a little. We have toured two of them now where they have seperate sleeping rooms for the infants. I am used to the 1/2 wall or something where the staff can actually see the kids sleeping. These sleeping rooms are actual seperate rooms where they put the kids to sleep with an audio monitor so they can hear if someone is awake.

This made my DH and I really nervous. I cannot see sending my child somewhere that they were put in a crib, the door shut and they were left to themselves. One of them looked like a closet with a bunch of cribs, no windows in the room at all. It was really strange.

What would you think of this? Are we overreacting to this?

Kristine

 

[sk!mom]

I wouldn't like it and wouldn't do it. In my view, the cost of day care includes constant supervision. It would be too easy for a baby to be tucked away and ingnored. Anything that gives you a bad feeling should not be ignored.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

This sounds odd and I agree with your concern--I would want someone to be able to SEE my baby sleeping. Maybe they did a video and not just audio monitoring system. But I will say that a big problem we had when our first was an infant in daycare was that he would not sleep if he could see all the rest of the activity going on in the room. It was a constant problem.

 

[TwinsinCA]

Yes, I think you are overreacting. Two of the three daycare centers I worked at in MN were set up this way. I know there are people on DIS who think babies should just be able to sleep through anything, but the fact remains that some don't. And for everyone's sanity it is good to have a room that is quiet for those babies who are trying to sleep.

 

[connorlevismom]

Yes, I think you are overreacting. Two of the three daycare centers I worked at in MN were set up this way. I know there are people on DIS who think babies should just be able to sleep through anything, but the fact that remains that some don't. And for everyone's sanity it is good to have a room that is quiet for those babies who are trying to sleep.

That is really strange because we have toured about 10 of them and these two are the only two I have seen this in. That is why we were so taken aback by it. If it was a normal thing to see, we would not have even taken notice.

My son has always been at ones were the kids all sleep in the same room as everything else and never had a problem. Maybe this baby will be different.

Kristine

 

[sara74]

NOT OK with me.

The centers we have used didn't do this, and I seem to remember a staff member telling me once that they actually had to be able to have a visual with the babies at all times. Could even have been a state regulation? Or maybe something to do with the NAEYC accreditation. (a voluntary process that goes above and beyond state regs)

 

[bellebud]

i would be uncomfortable w/ it.* I'd be comfortable w/ a separate room w/ a large glass window to the area the adults are w/ a monitor so the adults could hear in there also.* that would solve the problem of kids not being able to sleep unless in a separate room, but w/ constant supervision.

 

[Ava]

I would be comfortable with a seperate sleeping room if they used video monitors so the staff could still see and hear the babies. That's what we use at home with DD when she's sleeping in her crib.

 

[connorlevismom]

I would be OK with a window or possibly video monitor. But these places had neither. They just put the kids in them and shut the door. It was strange to me.

Kristine

 

[lnh'smom]

I would only be comfortable if there was an adult sitting in the room with the sleeping infants. If the teachers needs split up, so be it. Keep 1 or 2 with those awake and 1 with those sleeping. If you don't have enough staff to do that, you don't have enough staff and/or you have too many kids.

 

[princessmom29]

Isn't this what you do with your child when they take a nap at home?? I always put DD down in her room and took the audio monitor with me to another room. I don't see the problem here. Children rest better in a quiet room with no distractions. No one sits over them watching during the night when they are sleeping. As long as they are checking on them at regular intervals i would think that the babies would rest better than in the same room with outher children who are awake and playing.

 

[PaddingtonBear]

Our daycare had such an arrangement. Several of the newer daycare centers in our area do. I want to also note that it seemed so completely strange and awful to me when a friend told me her daycare didn't have a seperate sleeping room, so I think these things are largely just a matter of what you're used to.

In our daycare they had to check sleeping infants every 5 minutes, and there was a chart on the door to record those checks. There was no door on the room, just a cloth curtian and I always felt more comfortable with my child having a quiet, peaceful, dark place to sleep becuase it is more homelike to me. At home my kids nap in thier own rooms without constant supervision, so I didn't have a problem with the babies napping in a quiet room without constnat supervision. When the kids get a little older, at the 12 month mark or so, they sleep out in the main room on a scheduled naptime on a cot, just like they will when they move to a toddler room.

Our daycare is excellent, I have been very happy and satisfied with the care they have given our children. They try and make everything as home like a possible - meals are served family stye, children have to use table manners and eat with utensils from the time they are old enough to eat table food. My kids love thier center and thier teachers.

I think this is one of those things were people will say "i'd be uncomfortable" but really its about what you've done and seen in the past. Examine what really is unsettling about that scenario. If "the other centers don't do that" is the reason, I wouldn't let that stop me from enrolling my child at an otherwise great center. I guess what I'm trying (ineptly) to say is to evaluate the center and programs as a whole. I wouldn't get hung up on this as a deal breaker.

 

[WantToGoNow]

My children were both in daycares that the infants were in one large room - nothing but baby gates separating the cribs from the rest of the room. And they learned to sleep through anything. But I actually like the idea of a separate room. When you are at home, your baby sleeps in a separate room for naps - the baby I watch is asleep in my room right now. As long as they can hear via monitor, I don't see the problem. Now if they put babies in there awake just to have somewhere to put them, then that is a problem.

 

[crisi]

Isn't this what you do with your child when they take a nap at home?? .......

That was my thought - I was always comfortable letting my kids sleep in my house without being in the same room with them - why wouldn't I be comfortable with that at daycare?

 

[CRdisMom]

totally get where you are coming from. I asked my provider the same thing when DD7 was in her care. Apparently the way the licensing is written in MN is that they just have to be able to hear the baby. Now at the time she only had 3 kids so I was okay with it but my feelings would definately change at a center. The ratios are high to have them sleeping in another room only with a monitor to keep tabs on them. I would put those centers lower on my list. Good luck!

 

[logan&tylersmama]

with the amount of money i pay for day care (close to as much as my morgage) I EXPECT my child to have CONSTANT supervision!!! and staff people in the room with them at all times!
just my thoughts
Jennifer

 

[Zeebs]

I would be fine with it, but I don't use a monitor at my house (small house, I can hear them if they need me)

But you have to be comfortable with it, and it would appear you aren't.

Kirsten

 

[greens_in_WA]

I'm on the go with your gut. If you don't like that arrangement, use one that makes you more comfortable. It can be so hard to put a baby in daycare anyway, the better you feel about what they do the happier you'll be about going to work, etc. I'd add though that I think my DD may have benefitted from a seperate room. Poor thing never liked napping (from 3 months old!) Her first bad dreams were that other kids were playing and she couldn't be wtih them - so for me - the more quiet and separate the better

Best of luck to you with the baby and the childcare.

 

[emh1129]

That would make me uncomfortable, too. Listen to your mommy instinct. If it makes you uncomfortable, definitely look elsewhere.

 

[disfan07]

It seems weird to me, just b/c thast not what we have where i work BUT it makes sense in a way.

Where i work we have 12 daycare rooms
2 infant rooms, 2 toddler rooms, 2 2year old rooms, 3 3year old rooms and
3 4year old rooms

our infant rooms are set up where the cribs are in the same room that the kids are in all day. That is done b/c not all the infants are on the same schedule. Each infant names either based on when they're tired or when the parents request they be in the crib. So there could be 3 kids naping and say 6 kids awake or 6 kids naping and 3 awake. So there is always supervision at all times.

Once they move up to the toddler room, state mandated "rest" time is from 12:45-3:15 i think
The 2 year olds rest from 1-3:15
The 3 yr olds rest from 1:30-3:15
The 4 yr olds rest from 2:00-3:15

99% of the 2 adn 3 yr olds sleep but only a few of the 4 yr olds sleep. The rule is that they have to stay on their cots though.

It seems reasonable to have it set up for infants that way if they are all put down to sleep at the same time but if you're not comfortable with it than dont choose that daycare.