Forest of the Plains

Jacob has been attending a daycare facility two days a week since February. When I was in college I worked at a couple daycares and also had some child development practicums. I understood that daycares operate on a continuum from “oops, we got mad and threw your 6-week-old into a wall, sorry” to “meeting every need in a developmentally appropriate manner exactly the way you would like it to be done”.

Generally Jacob’s daycare is middle-of-the-road. He is fed, changed, played with, and spoken to nicely. He smiles at the regular workers as well as at the regular other kids. He has not had mysterious bruises or spiral fractures and he doesn’t start screaming as soon as we arrive.

Nevertheless, sometimes things happen that surprise me. Such as the director’s child being allowed to eat candy at will while the other children are not allowed to do so. Or a frantic phone call because the breastmilk was to be supplemented with 2 ounces of soy formula and soy made another child throw up, so they’d really rather not give Jacob the soy without a doctor’s order. Or today:

“I hope I didn’t feed him the squash too fast. He was a little fussy and when I started feeding him faster he stopped fussing. He finished the jar and I went outside to tell Mandy something and when I came back he had thrown up the squash.”

These are the questions I wish I would have asked: So, my 7-month-old was left alone inside and he happened to throw up while he was unsupervised? How long was he unsupervised? Did he throw up because he was crying hard because he was alone? Was he left in the high chair or in a safe place?

In a month Jacob will be at a new daycare and we have extremely high expectations for his care there. I wonder what things will surprise me there?