Barbie's Family Child Care

I have discovered over the years that I can be very particular about what I will do or will not do when it comes to caring for infants. Many of the reasons for my actions are due to my concern for the safety and the health of the infants. However, some of the reasons are more of a practical nature--it is more convenient for me to some things one way and the health or the safety of the infant is not at risk. So the following is a list of how I do things when I am caring for infants. If you object strongly with any of these items, please let me know. I may be able to explain better why I do something or you may be aware of a reason why my actions could be unsafe and I can learn something from you. If we find that your methods of infant care are vastly different than mine, we may decide that your infant will thrive better in another child care setting.

I believe that an infant will be healthier overall if he or she is breast fed so if you wish to breast feed your child, I will happily support you in this effort. I also understand that breast feeding is not the choice for many parents and children and I will support your choice to feed your infant formula.

I am on the USDA food program which is a federal program run by a local organization. They partially reimburse me for food that I serve to the children, provide nutrition training and visit three times a year to make sure I am feeding the children healthy meals. If your baby is breastfed and you supply breast milk for me to serve your baby, I can claim those meals on the food program. My understanding is that they want child care providers to encourage breastfeeding. If your baby drinks formula, I can supply the formula or you can supply the formula. If you want me to supply the formula, let me know and I will let you know what brand of formula I supply.

If you decide that you want to supply the formula, you will need to supply prepared bottles each day. You will also need to let me know what brand of formula that you are using for my food program records. Please use a brand with Iron added. Unless you are already certain how many bottles your infant will take in a day, please overestimate how many I will need until we are certain. You will also need to send some emergency formula in case I run out or in case there is an emergency and you are away longer than we plan. This emergency formula will need to be single-serve cans or bottles of ready-to-feed formula.

Breastfed babies will need a supply of frozen milk to leave here for back-up or emergencies. (Ready-to-feed formula may be sent instead or in addition.)

For both formula and breastfed babies, I prefer to use regular, plastic bottles rather than the type with the plastic bags or oddly shaped bottles. Please, no vented bottles or other fancy gadgets either (unless there is a medical need for a different bottle). Also, I find that infants usually do better if they use only one type of nipple on the bottle.

You will need to determine how much formula or breast milk to put into each bottle also. Again, I prefer that you overestimate this. However, once I give a baby a bottle and she drinks from it, I cannot give that same bottle again. So if she will only drink 5 oz at each feeding, you can send 6 oz bottles rather than 8 oz bottles. I will let you know how much she drinks at each feeding and I will let you know if you need to put more in the bottles. There are few things more pitiful than a hungry, crying infant!!!

If you want, I will warm your infant's bottle before giving it to him. For breastfed babies or babies just switching from formula, I prefer to warm the bottle to almost body temperature. When needed, I will warm the bottle in a container of hot water (water heated in microwave, not bottle of formula or breast milk). However, since this is not necessary with respect to the nutritional value of formula, I prefer to give cool formula to babies who will drink it. If a young infant prefers to drink the formula warm, I will do that but as he gets older, I normally warm the bottle less until he is willing to drink the formula straight from the refrigerator. This is a matter of convenience for me--it takes less time to prepare this way. And he will get use to drinking cold liquids so it will be easier to switch to milk and juices.

I will not add infant cereal or anything else to an infant's formula unless I have a note from the doctor and permission to speak with the doctor about why this is necessary. I feel that cereal should be eaten from a bowl and the formula should be taken from a bottle.

I will not add medicines to an infants formula (or to other foods). Medicines should be given by themselves. I have a variety of medicine dispensers and I will work with you and your infant to find the best way to get medicine into your infant when it is needed.

When your infant is 4-6 months old, I will encourage you to start feeding her some baby foods like cereal and fruits and vegetables. Once you have tried a number of these foods at home and are feeding her breakfast and dinner daily and lunch on the weekends, I will feed her baby foods at lunch time. I will supply these foods. I feed the babies infant cereal plus a fruit or a vegetable to start and then move on to meats and meat alternates like cheese as they get older (9-10 months). I will ask that you continue to try a variety of foods with your baby and let me know when you've tested new foods. If you would like, I can give you a list of foods to try. I would like to encourage you to try to give her some 'real' food at times rather than always feeding her baby food from a jar. Very ripe bananas can be mashed up and fed to a 4 month old and other foods are easy to prepare. I will gladly give you more ideas when the time comes. I feel this helps the infant get use to table foods more easily and often fresh or even frozen fruit and vegetables can be more healthy than the jar baby food. As long as I know you have tested a type of food for allergic reactions, I might give her different versions of that food...pureed, cut up or whole...depending on the food and her ability to chew things.

Once your infant can sit up independently, I will have him sit in a small chair at a very low table. This is part of the Montessori philosophy. As he becomes able to crawl and climb, he can also get into and out of the chair independently. This is great for his motor skills, self-help skills and self esteem. It is also much safer than a high chair.

By 12 months or so, I usually have infants (young toddlers) eating almost everything the older children are eating. We can discuss the specifics of this closer to that time. I would not feed a 12 month old hot-dogs and a few other foods but unless she is allergic to something, I will offer her everything on the menu without substitutions.

When an infant is young, I allow the infant to sleep whenever he is tired. If he is use to being rocked to sleep, I will do that until he is older and we can help him learn to go to sleep by himself. I will ask you to help with this by working on this at home too. The recommended way to lay a baby down to sleep is on his back. I will not put anything in the crib with the baby except a blanket and a pacifier, if needed. That means no pillows, toys or bottles. I consider this a safety issue.

According to the licensing regulations, I must have the infant sleep in a crib until she is 12 months old. After that, I prefer to have them sleep on a mat on the floor. I do not necessarily start this on the child's birthday but I will start it shortly after if I feel she can sleep in a room with the other children without waking everyone up by crying. This method of having infants sleep on mats is part of the Montessori philosophy. Sleeping on a mat gives the infant/toddler more independence. She can get into bed and out of bed by herself and she is not confined by bars while sleeping. I find that older infants and young toddlers do very well napping on a mat. They learn to stay on their mat when it is time to go to sleep. They are also very safe since they are on the floor (not climbing out of the crib and falling 4 feet or so to the floor.)

Unless we have agreed that I will supply diapers for an additional fee, you will need to send diapers for your child. You will need to send a full package of diapers when your child starts and you will need to send new packages as I request them. I usually try to ask for more diapers one or two days before they are really needed but please send them as soon as I ask for them, so we don't run out. (Your child will be in diapers for a long time, so just stock up on diapers!)

I will supply baby wipes. If your infants needs diaper ointment, you will need to supply that. I personally prefer the Desitin Creamy ointment as it works well but is not difficult to wipe off of the baby. You will need to fill out a medication form for ointments. I will give you the forms with instructions. else I need for diapering your child.

Please send your infant to child care in comfortable clothing that can get dirty. During the day, there are many reasons an infant might get his clothes dirty and I do not want to have to worry that an outfit is too nice to get dirty. For the same reason, I ask that you send two complete sets of extra clothes in case I need to change your infant's clothes during the day. (This includes pants, shirts, socks and undershirts if you want him in an undershirt.) His clothes should also fit comfortably--not too tight and not so loose that he can't crawl around. (Please no dresses for the infant girls--they are cute but very hard to crawl in.) Also consider the fact that I often have to change quite a few diapers in a day. Please do not dress your infant in clothing that is difficult to take off. Pants that have snaps on the legs are great and pull down pants are also nice. But tights are unnecessary and difficult to maneuver, and one piece outfits that do not have snaps on the legs are impossible. Don't fret over this a great deal--if I come across an outfit that is just too hard to remove, I will put a new outfit on your child, and, if I remember, I will let you know that the first outfit was too difficult. Please do not overdress your infant either. I keep my house at a comfortable temperature. During the coldest days in the winter, long pants and long sleeves and socks should be plenty of clothing for inside. More clothing than that can be uncomfortable and confining. You will need to also send appropriate clothing for outside daily too. So for a cold day outside, you may want to send a Winter coat and either snow pants or other warm pants for on top of the inside pants along with hats and mittens and shoes or boots if there is snow outside. We do try to go outside daily unless the weather is rainy or really cold or really hot (by my estimation). Children do not catch colds from being outside and colds do not get worse from being outside or from feeling cold. If anything, the fresh air is better for them than the air inside with the other children who have runny noses. You will have to trust me to dress your child appropriately when we go outside. If I feel it is warm enough, I will not put coats on the children. (Remember, Children do not catch colds from being outside and colds do not get worse from being outside or from feeling cold. The worst that can happen to your infant if he is not warm outside is that he will be fussy for me. Then we will either come inside or I will put more clothes on him.)

I know that some people think that caring for infants is just feeding them, diapering them and putting them down for a nap, but I consider those routines to be just a portion of my job. I feel it is important for an infant to have plenty of time for playing on the floor. I will provide a safe area for your infant and I will provide her with a variety of toys. It is important for her to have time playing on her stomach and on her back while on the floor--at home as well as in child care. I do put infants in a bouncy seat at times and occasionally into a car seat, but I will not use a playpen or a walker ever. I have on occasion used a baby swing for an infant; and exersaucer type toys may have a use for a short time. However, I think it is imperative that an infant has many chances to play on the floor in order to learn to roll over, crawl and eventually walk.

I do not just put an infant down on the floor all day with a couple of toys, I often sit near her and interact with her or I sit nearby while I am busy with the other children. I will also help the other children interact with her in a safe way and always with my supervision. I would also carry her around or hold her while I am doing something with the other children at times. If a baby is really fussy, I may put her in a front carrier or babysling so I can carry her for longer periods. But, again, I feel it is very important that she has times during the day that she can work on her muscles and her gross motor skills, on the floor.

We also try to go outside daily as long as the weather permits. Sometimes we go for walks and sometimes we play in the backyard. Immobile infants may play on a blanket on the ground, nap in a stroller or bassinet, or sit in a car seat or bouncy seat. Once an infant can crawl, I will let her crawl (supervised of course) around on the upper portion of the deck. Please send pants and shoes that can get dirty. I won't put a crawler down on really wet ground but occasionally they may find some wet areas.

This description of how I care for infants is just a portion of the policies of Barbie's Family Child Care. Please make sure that you read the policies related to illnesses, medications and what you need to bring. Other than the diapers, extra clothes, and bottles of breast milk or formula, I really do not need you to bring anything else. I have plenty of toys, washcloths, bibs, blankets, sheets and everything. If you would like to donate an item to the child care, that would be fine but I have difficulty keeping track of who sent which bibs or washcloths and toys often get lost once they get into the playroom--so if you send something, you may not see it again. I would also like to emphasize my request that you not leave items in your baby's bag unless it is something that I need to take out for our use here (diapers, extra clothes.) And please clean out the bag each evening (there may be food ,or worse, stuck to those dirty clothes I put in the bag). Another important policy to remember is that you need to send your infant to childcare with a full tummy, a clean diaper and clean clothes for the day. Remember, that while I will do my best to attend to your child’s every need while she is here, I also have other little ones in my care who need my attention. So things go much more smoothly if infants are comfy and full when they first arrive. And the one on one time with the parent while having that first bottle of the day is very important for both the infant and the parent.