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I need to compair my situation with other moms that have to take their chilren to day care. I have always blamed day care on everything that my 10 month old has been through, being sick, not napping enough during the day, having to get tubes, spitting up alot, waking during the night, being fussy in evenings, etc. I still swear that it is all due to his day care. I have even kept him out for a week and he got better, slept better, wasnt sick anymore, didnt spit up, wasnt fussy, and the same goes for when he is home on the weekends. I dont know what to do, I have to work but at the same time I feel horrible for continuing to take him every morning. I wish that there was a guarantee that if I switched him to another day care that it would get better but what if it doesnt? My oldest has been in the same day care since he was 2 but my mom watched him before that so he never went through any of these problems. I would have a hard time switching day cares now because my oldest goes to the same one and he is about to start school in Aug, I dont want to have to go to 2 day cares each morning until he starts "big" school. I wish I could quit my job and stay at home with him, tons of other moms do and financially I just dont see how they do it. Has anyone else been through the same situation and even if they havent I need suggestions on how you would fix it?

Hello! I have a 15 month old, and I work full time as well, so I can sympathize with what you are going through.

I will definitly say from my experience that being sick alot and having to get tubes is much worse for children in daycare. My LO got tubes at 9 months old. He had double ear infections for two months straight, and ruptured an ear drum because of them. I think being sick is just something they have to grow out of. I guess once they catch all of the germs, they will just stop getting sick. Ronald isn't sick nearly as much now as he was until he turned a year old. He seems to finally be gaining some immunity, which I thought would never happen.

As far as the not napping, have you been to the school during naptime? Maybe the environment is not right for him to sleep. You could talk to the teachers in depth about what he does during naptime and why he doesn't sleep well when he is there and try to work out a way for him to nap better. See if you can take some familiar items from home (music, lovey's, etc...) that might help him sleep longer. The fussiness is probably caused by not napping well as you probably already know. I can always tell when Ronald doesn't take a good nap because he is fussy and clingy at home.

It's a possibility that he may just not like the environment, and if nothing else works (talking to his teachers and trying to work it out), you may have to change daycares to see if that helps. I just stuck it out past being sick (because if I change environments then he will be exposed to new germs), but my little guy naps pretty well and takes long naps over the weekend to make up for his lack of long naps at daycare. Changing daycares will probably initially make things worse because he will be in a new environment, and around strangers, so it may take a few weeks for him to settle in before you know if changing actually helps. Ronald recently moved up to the next classroom, and he cried at the teacher for two weeks when she changed his diaper before he finally got used to her being there. He is dealing with the stranger anxieties right now.

Keep us posted on how things are going. There are some really great women on this site, and we all try to help each other out with our shared knowledge (sometimes we can be blunt with our opinions , but we all mean it with the best of intentions). I am sure someone else can give you some advice that I haven't even though of. I hope that any of my suggestions can help or at least let you know you are not alone.

BTW... do you mind sharing where your LO is in daycare?

I'm so sorry that you are having problems with your LO and daycare. As a mommy of three in daycare I can relate to the struggles that you are going through.

I totally agree with Ronaldsmom. You need to talk to the teacher and see how they are handling nap time and other things in the classroom. And it may be hard - but if you are doing things differently at home you may need to adjust. Not that the way they do things is better than yours, but it may be causing some confusion with your LO. You may also want to try to sticking to the schedule that they do for a weekend and see what happens.

As far as illnesses go - unfortunatley you really won't be able to prevent that. My little ones have had their share of viruses - but I just chalk it up to kids playing and spreading germs around. Just think of it this way. When your little one starts kindergarten they'll have already built up their immmune systems and may not be sick as much as the other kiddos.

There is at least one thing that I would suggest though. Maybe you need to do a spot check on the daycare. Don't let them know you are coming and try to stay out of sight of your little one and just see how he behaves in the classroom. I know it may be hard because you work, but it might be worth what you will learn from the experience. Any good, reputable daycare will have no problem with you showing up out of the blue to observe how they do things. If you see anything you don't like - ask them about it.

Good luck!

And if you decide you need to switch I would definitely recommend my daycare to you. I've never had a problem - or if I have it's always been adressed immediately - and my children love it.

Thanks for all of yalls help on this. I feel better about him being sick now, I think I am gonna stick with his day care he is in now and wait it out until he gets immune to some of the germs around him. His day care is great, everyone is really nice, I just dont like the germs and I dont like how they do nap time. I also think most of the prob with the germs is others bringing their babies to school when they should really be at the dr and everyone knows how much babies put toys in their mouths. I dont think they wash the toys either, but I dunno of any day care that actually does.

He does nap well, he just doesnt nap enough. They have them take naps at 9:00 and then they wake then up at 10:30. (and then another nap at 1:00) I dont like the fact that they wake them up, that bothers me. I think that if they let him that Brad would sleep until 12:00 (like he does on the weekends). He just needs more sleep than they give him a chance to have during the day. Some babies are ok with less sleep but he is opposite than his brother, he needs his long naps during the day to function properly and to be a happy baby. I have talked to them about his napping and they say that they wake them up so they will keep on schedule but I really dont care about their schedule, his body knows what he needs and he isnt getting enough of sleep. I also feel like since he isnt getting enough sleep during the day that is what is messing up his sleep at night. He is too tired when I lay him down for bed. I try to get him to take a nap when we get home but he is too busy playing with his brother and the poor thing doesnt get much time at home from being at day care all day. But I guess maybe he will "outgrow" wanting more sleep soon. I think that it just really bothers me, I mean why would you want to wake up a beautifully sleeping baby? I just think that he is still asleep for a reason, his body needs it.

I know in the step-up nursery Ronald was in at that age, they only had one nap for the older kids, but they let them sleep until they woke up. Usually when one child woke up, the rest woke up shortly after. I would ask when they transition to one nap, and why they won't let him sleep as long as he wants to. It shouldn't mess up their schedule that badly if onw child needs to sleep longer.