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Miss Lindsey 02:34 PM 01-06-2011
First of all, I live in Missouri, and the ratio for infants under 2 years is 4:1. So, I'm well within those limitations. Second of all, because I find 3 infants to be more work than 1 provider can genuinely provide, I DO have an assistant here with me when I have all 3 babies. I really thought this would be much easier with 2 people, but it really has still been CRAZY stressful with all the fussiness.

Now, I talked to Mom when she came to pick him up. I told her that it's been a rough week. I assured him, he was a great kid, so I really didn't want to just give up on him and say it wasn't going to work, but that there were going to need to be some changes to make it work if it is going to work at all. I told her that his crying and screaming is keeping the other kids from sleeping and distracting them to the point where some of THEM don't want to eat either. I told her that she basicly has two choices. One, he can stay here with me and the other babies, but I wouldn't carry him and coddle him all day to help him get adjusted...so if all the needs had been met, aside from eating which has to be his choice, then I would just put him back in the nap room in his pack n play and let him cry for a bit while I tended to other kids. 20 minutes is the max I would allow him to cry before going back to try to feed/diaper/comfort him again. If she wasn't comfortable knowing that this was going on every day, possibly up to a month or more if he takes a while to adjust to being here, then I had a few other daycare providers I could refer her to that I knew had openings, and didn't have any other infants that would require her constant attention.
She admitted that he is likely spoiled. She said she'd been trying to put him down more throughout the week because she knew that it may make it hard for him at daycare if she constantly held him. She said he had been refusing bottles for her as well, so still not sure what that's all about (maybe it IS still teething related). She wants to try it here for a while longer since she knows and trusts me, and promises to continue to put him down and walk away EVEN IF HE FUSSES to help him learn that he CAN play by himself for more than a few seconds!
She understands that I will give it another 2 weeks with allowing the crying it out, but if we see NO improvements, she will need to find another childcare arrangement for him.
It's full time...so I hope it works! But my sanity and the other little ones sanity is priceless...so we'll see how it goes!
Thanks for all the input! This is why I LOVE this forum!!!
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