From the stats, it appears that some1 was looking for info on
"Sending breastfed baby to infant care"
on my blog.
Sorry you couldn't find what you need
but hope u come back and see this.
This was written by my Mummy and posted on a forum some 4 years ago in 2006:
in blue are updates this year - 2010, after my breastfed brother has gone thru' infant care.
Hi everybody, After having a bad time at our 1st infant care n having visited a few centres, I came up with a list of questions to ask n things to look out for while hunting for an infant care centre.
In case you dunno, Here's where u can get the list of infant care centres (as well as childcare centres). Can sort by area.
http://www.childcarelink.gov.sg/ccls/home/...areServices.jsp
click the link at the bottom of the page.
You can also take a look at the guidelines for the centres so u know if a centre is "compliance" when visiting.
Questions to ask over the phone:
1. (1st thing to ask) Any vacancies?
2. How many babies n teachers at the moment?
3. What is their recomannded teacher to baby ratio?
(anything worse than 1:3 iscrazy not realistic. Zhenghu recommendation is 1:5 (which is ridiculous)
4. What is the maximum capacity? lesser better. the centre may have very few babies but can take in more.
If the answers to the above are not favourable then dun have to visit liao.
If wanta visit, ask if can stay there with baby for a few hours.
Questions to ask when visiting:
For BreastFeeding mums:
1. what is the centre's stand towards breastfed babies/ breastmilk? Any babies there on bm?
The politically correct answer is of cos they support breastfeeding. So you'll have to "dig" deeper.
2. Ask to see the fridge they use to keep breastmilk. It should be dedicated to bm ONLY. that's the guideline set up by MCYS.
3. u probably want baby to continue at the same centre when he goes to childcare. If you want to bf beyond 18 months, Ask them if the childcare side accomodate bf babies. Some don't. e.g. some NTUC.
actually if they don't support breastfeeding beyond 18 months, you more or less know how supportive they are towards breastfeeding.
4. ask how they warm bm.
5. what will they do if baby reject the bottle?
the 1st infant care Jade's brother, Hann, went to, they do nothing. Their stand is baby hungry, he will drink from bottle.
but no loh! it just doesn't work this way.
My stand is, the priority should be to let baby adapt to the place and people.
Then baby will drink from bottle.
I feel that bottle strike is a way of "protest" from baby.
in the 2nd infant care, the one Hann stuck though, they were patient with him when he rejected bottle and spoon-fed him until he eventually took the bottle.
For all:
4. what are the teachers' qualifications. how many of them are trained teachers? (teacher assistants not counted hor.)
5. what's the turnover rate of the teachers?
6. How do they handle new babies esp if they can already recognise people n places n may cry a lot.
7. Do the infants mix w the toddlers/preschoolers? (if yes, more exposed to viruses)
8. look at the bath n sleeping area. Ask how they clean up the sleeping facilities (usually a cot).
9. Look at changing area. how they dispose the diapers. are the soiled diapers exposed?
10. Impt: look at the children. are they happy? are they engaged in activities?
11. Impt: look at the teachers. how they handle the babies, how they feed them. Are the teachers happy, confident. Talk to the teachers.
12. Discipline. ask how the teachers discipline the children. if they don't discipline at all, you may want to think twice.
13. If quite happy with the above, ask for a trial period, though it seems nowadays infant care and childcare centres don't give trials. ask abt the trial charges.
Even if you are sure happy with the place, still ask for a trial period. otherwise, if things don't turn out well and you want baby to leave, you may have to pay for 2 months.
"Sending breastfed baby to infant care"
on my blog.
Sorry you couldn't find what you need
but hope u come back and see this.
This was written by my Mummy and posted on a forum some 4 years ago in 2006:
in blue are updates this year - 2010, after my breastfed brother has gone thru' infant care.
Hi everybody, After having a bad time at our 1st infant care n having visited a few centres, I came up with a list of questions to ask n things to look out for while hunting for an infant care centre.
In case you dunno, Here's where u can get the list of infant care centres (as well as childcare centres). Can sort by area.
http://www.childcarelink.gov.sg/ccls/home/...areServices.jsp
click the link at the bottom of the page.
You can also take a look at the guidelines for the centres so u know if a centre is "compliance" when visiting.
Questions to ask over the phone:
1. (1st thing to ask) Any vacancies?
2. How many babies n teachers at the moment?
3. What is their recomannded teacher to baby ratio?
(anything worse than 1:3 is
4. What is the maximum capacity? lesser better. the centre may have very few babies but can take in more.
If the answers to the above are not favourable then dun have to visit liao.
If wanta visit, ask if can stay there with baby for a few hours.
Questions to ask when visiting:
For BreastFeeding mums:
1. what is the centre's stand towards breastfed babies/ breastmilk? Any babies there on bm?
The politically correct answer is of cos they support breastfeeding. So you'll have to "dig" deeper.
2. Ask to see the fridge they use to keep breastmilk. It should be dedicated to bm ONLY. that's the guideline set up by MCYS.
3. u probably want baby to continue at the same centre when he goes to childcare. If you want to bf beyond 18 months, Ask them if the childcare side accomodate bf babies. Some don't. e.g. some NTUC.
actually if they don't support breastfeeding beyond 18 months, you more or less know how supportive they are towards breastfeeding.
4. ask how they warm bm.
5. what will they do if baby reject the bottle?
the 1st infant care Jade's brother, Hann, went to, they do nothing. Their stand is baby hungry, he will drink from bottle.
but no loh! it just doesn't work this way.
My stand is, the priority should be to let baby adapt to the place and people.
Then baby will drink from bottle.
I feel that bottle strike is a way of "protest" from baby.
in the 2nd infant care, the one Hann stuck though, they were patient with him when he rejected bottle and spoon-fed him until he eventually took the bottle.
For all:
4. what are the teachers' qualifications. how many of them are trained teachers? (teacher assistants not counted hor.)
5. what's the turnover rate of the teachers?
6. How do they handle new babies esp if they can already recognise people n places n may cry a lot.
7. Do the infants mix w the toddlers/preschoolers? (if yes, more exposed to viruses)
8. look at the bath n sleeping area. Ask how they clean up the sleeping facilities (usually a cot).
9. Look at changing area. how they dispose the diapers. are the soiled diapers exposed?
10. Impt: look at the children. are they happy? are they engaged in activities?
11. Impt: look at the teachers. how they handle the babies, how they feed them. Are the teachers happy, confident. Talk to the teachers.
12. Discipline. ask how the teachers discipline the children. if they don't discipline at all, you may want to think twice.
13. If quite happy with the above, ask for a trial period, though it seems nowadays infant care and childcare centres don't give trials. ask abt the trial charges.
Even if you are sure happy with the place, still ask for a trial period. otherwise, if things don't turn out well and you want baby to leave, you may have to pay for 2 months.
very useful tips..on the point 13: for ours, if withdraw bb from the infant-child-nursery-kindergarten care centre after trial period of 2weeks for infant care, may have to be placed on waiting list for the next stage should we still want.
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