Having your child in a quality daycare program can be comforting and essential for working parents. But even the best daycare arrangements have disadvantages. For example, you are bound by the hours of the daycare facility and the holidays on which it closes. A late pick-up can be costly and the center's proximity to work or home can be a logistical challenge. And there are other challenges to be considered by anyone looking to place a child in daycare.
Fast-Spreading Illness
Your child may never have picked up a cold or ear infection in his young life, but a week into daycare and your whole family may be battling fevers and runny noses, or worse. The April 2005 issue of Pediatrics reported a Harvard study that showed that "viral upper respiratory and gastrointestinal infections are the two most common illnesses that occur in children enrolled in daycare, and that secondary attack rates within families can be as high as 27 percent for respiratory illnesses and 70 percent for gastroenteritis," according to the report from Children's Hospital Boston, which is affiliated with Harvard. The report also noted the value of frequent and thorough handwashing with antibacterial soap as a means of reducing the spread of illness in the home.
Different Rules
You and your child may have worked out a "time out" or reward system that seems to change inappropriate behavior to better behavior. But in a room with a dozen or more toddlers or pre-schoolers, teachers aren't likely to have the time or opportunity to work through all those issues with every child, every day. That's why it's vital that parents and teachers discuss or perhaps compromise on rules and discipline issues to provide the child with some consistency between daycare and home.
Unhealthy Influences
When it's your child's turn for snack day, you might try to do the right thing and bring in healthy fruit or maybe cheese and crackers. But the next day, another parent could be packing junk food. Likewise, words you never utter at home can come bounding out of the mouths of babes who hear them from their "classmates." Before enrolling your child in a particular daycare center, visit it and try to get a sense whether this particular program reflects your values and priorities (or comes close to doing so, anyway).
Guilt
Of course, the biggest concern with daycare is probably guilt. Handing over your child to someone else, even for just part of the day, can be troubling for most parents. It's especially so when researchers determine that daycare can lead to a weaker bond between mother and child, particular in the infant and toddler stage. A 1999 study out of the University of North Carolina (published in the November 1999 issue of Developmental Psychology) received considerable attention when researchers explained that the bonds between mother and young child were not as strong if the child was in daycare as opposed to being home with the mother. UNC researchers also noted that "The effect is small, however, and may not cause meaningful differences in such relationships." And the study did note that mothers who made extra efforts to be sensitive to their child's emotional needs could help compensate for the daycare effect.
