Childcare Network

I would like share my experience with the infant room. When I was researching a center I came across these wonderful reviews (Google) that persuaded me to enroll my baby here. These 5 star reviews already posted are for older age groups, and those rooms may very well be wonderful. (And one is written by the co-director—is that even fair?) Again, I only have input for the infant room. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this facility for your baby. What I want most is safety, followed by caring, nurturing caregivers. I do not believe the two main “teachers” provide these essentials. I have entered the room to witness many unsafe situations, including the babies’ arms/legs wedged between crib slats (while they are trying to twist their body in the opposite direction to get freed) and nobody responding to their screams. I saw this on three separate occasions and had to dislodge them myself. I also saw one tiny baby-maybe 2 months old-face down asleep on a pillow unsupervised. Very scary. This same infant was face down screaming on another day, but you could not hear her well, since she was in face down in a pillow. I had to turn her over. Obviously she was started to roll over, but unable to flip back over herself and should have never been placed on a pillow. I finally went to the directors when it was my baby that may have been placed in an unsafe situation, without response. I came to pick her up and she has a large new bruise on her forehead. I am aware that babies get bumps and bruises, but I was upset that nobody noticed (and it was a large bump with the bruise-very obvious). They did not know she had gotten hurt. I know my baby and can guarantee she cried when that occurred. I am saddened at the thought of her being hurt and not getting any hugs, etc. A similar incident happened her last week there.

I also witnessed babies cry for many minutes while in their cribs, ignored. Although I realize some babies do need to de-stress by crying for a couple of minutes prior to falling asleep, I do not believe in cry it out methods. I have witnessed these caregivers leave the babies this way for more than 10-15 minutes, maybe more (I usually do not stay long enough for them to “calm down”). I was always upfront with the ladies that I do not want my baby to scream in her crib until she passes out from exhaustion. They always assured me she would sleep. In fact, she took several naps daily, until I brought up my concerns about the babies left screaming for lengthy periods to the administrators. That is when she suddenly stopped napping there.

They also failed to give her a bottle for a 5 hour stretch, even though they said they had given her 4 ounces of solids (WAY too much in one sitting) a few hours prior (I came early to pick her up and discovered an “extra” full bottle). This is not even the correct way to feed an infant.

I was also uncomfortable with the two caregivers always asking me (judging) about my baby’s sleeping arrangements at home. I do not believe it should be their concern and I certainly do not need parenting advice from these older ladies who I have never even seen play with any of the babies. It also bothered me that I never saw them playing with the babies-even during my hour long visits prior to enrollment, which should have raised a red flag. There is another older lady that comes toward the end of the day sometimes, Mary, that does get on the floor and play with them. I wish she was there more often.

I also had to complain that the ratios, state mandated, were rarely met when when first enrolled. There is not any center that is perfect, but I felt our needs were not met and was very disappointed. Please thoroughly review all your options before you make a decision on where your baby will be when you are away.