What You Need to Start Daycare
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Ok, so you’ve gotten your little one into daycare (which is an amazing feat in some major metropolitan areas) and now you need to make sure you have everything you need. In addition to the required paperwork and health form (sometimes a specific one is required that you will need to request from your doctor’s office), the daycare should provide you with a list of supplies needed for the classroom. It’s typically something like this:
Infants
Extra clothes (2-3 pairs)
Socks, and shoes if they’re walking
Diaper cream
Crib sheet (usually pack-and-play size)
Sleep sack (under age 1)
Pacifiers (if they take them / need them for naps)
Daily bottles (usually prepared already – i.e., breastmilk already in bottle, or formula already mixed)
Daily food (many daycares won’t provide food under age 1, and some even longer)
Cup for water
Silicone bib for eating
Can of powdered formula for emergencies (not always required)
Diapers and wipes (some daycares provide these items and others require you to bring them)
Sunscreen
Family photo
Toddlers & Preschoolers
Extra clothes (2-3 pairs, including underwear and socks if potty training)
Shoes (often close-toed are required for safety)
Masks (hopefully not for too much longer!)
Cot sheet (usually full-size by that age)
Blanket
Water bottle
Pull-ups if not yet potty trained
Sunscreen
Family photo
Of course, things might vary by daycare, so it’s always a good idea to ask yours for a list if they haven’t already provided it.
Favorite Daycare Items
Sleep needs – I stick with inexpensive crib sheets, sleep sacks and blankets for daycare, so I don’t care too much if something inevitably goes missing:
Feeding supplies
You likely already have a favorite bottle for your infant, especially if you’ve been formula feeding. If you’re just transitioning from breastfeeding to pumped milk, the Evenflo (5 oz and 9 oz) is my favorite since it most closely resembles breastfeeding.
Straw cups for milk – the Zoli is a great starter straw cup for practicing; once they’ve mastered that, I like the Munchkin weighted straw cup (7 oz and 10 oz) for replacing bottles around a year; and then when they no longer need a weighted straw, the OXO Transition (6 oz and 9 oz) is my favorite (truly leak-proof, unlike many)
Water cup for infants and young toddlers
Water bottle for older toddlers and preschoolers
Silicone bib (these aren’t my absolute favorite for at home, but they’re good inexpensive ones for daycare)
Containers for purées and food – some daycares won’t allow glass, and in any case I find these plastic cubes great and easy
Lunch box for infants/toddlers – the PackIt is my favorite and comes in a variety of sizes to fit your needs
Lunch box for preschoolers – if you’re sending food for your preschooler, either because your facility doesn’t provide it or because your child has special food requirements or is a picky eater, the Bentgo Kids box is great and easy (also be sure to check out my Toddler Lunch Ideas for Preschool blog)
Sunscreen – mineral is best for babies/kids, and my favorites are Blue Lizard and Thinkbaby
Backpack – if your daycare doesn’t provide you with a special bag for their stuff, you can have fun picking out a cute backpack – the SkipHop ones are a great size for young kids.
Masks – hopefully we won’t be needing these for TOO much longer, but our favorites are the character masks from Gap Kids (soft, comfortable, easy to put on, inexpensive, machine washable + dryable).
Daycare Labels
Once you have all of your items together, you get to go through the fun task of labeling everything. Some people with neat handwriting choose to just take a sharpie to tags, bags, etc. If I did that, all of our stuff would be lost because no one would be able to read my child’s name. Plus, I don’t want to mark most items in permanent ink.
Instead, I purchase adorable stick-on labels from Name Bubbles, and even though they may seem a little expensive at first, I’ve found it to be worth every penny – they’re easy and they look great; I actually take pleasure in sticking them onto all of our stuff, and even ordered more to put on toys we would bring to the park or play dates so they didn’t get lost. You get to design cute labels for your child, including picking a theme, a font and a color scheme (my daughter chose unicorns this year, and I chose safari animals for my son). And you can easily go back to order more if you run out. I like the daycare pack to label items and shoes, and then a bunch of the small round labels for all articles of clothing.
Ok you’re ready! Now you just have to mentally prepare for the tiny milestone of sending your precious little baby off to daycare for the first time (I’m not crying, you’re crying).
Try not to worry too much. It can be a tough transition for both of you, but you’ll both adjust within a week or two, and most little ones thrive at daycare. Besides, you’ll still probably see them plenty as they get sent home every other week during the first couple months with a cold, virus, hand/foot/mouth, roseola. [insert crying face again] [now insert crazy face] [now insert mind-being-blown face as you get yet another call from daycare letting you know that your little one registered a fever of ≥100.4 and must be picked up immediately]
But, as long as you’re prepared for the possibility of several illnesses and missed days of daycare in the first few months (talk with your boss ahead of time, have a plan to switch off with a partner, recruit family help, and/or hire some ad hoc babysitters), try not to worry too much about that either. Most daycare illnesses are minor (albeit still frightening if you see a fever spike), and many daycare kids build up their immune systems after the first few months and get sick less often than those who don’t go into a school setting until kindergarten. When we lived in NYC, some of my daughter’s friends who had nannies or stay-at-home moms actually got sick just as often if not more, since they were going to classes and play spaces where daily health checks weren’t happening and things weren’t regulated as much as in a daycare facility.
That is just an anecdotal view from my personal experience, of course – but all to say, IT WILL BE OK. Hang in there for the first few weeks/months, and then enjoy watching your little one learn, grow and develop into independent little people. One day they’ll come home and know all of their body parts, and another day it will be colors, and one day they’ll say “May I be excused?” and bring their plate up to the sink – and you’ll think, whew! daycare must have taught them that and I don’t have to worry about it now.