Simple Tips to Help Ease Your Child’s Transition to Day Care

A child’s transition from home to daycare is not an easy one. It is a time of change for both the child and the parent. As a parent, you might have done extensive research on the daycare options available and zeroed in on the best option for your child, yet you might still be plagued with doubts and fears. Your child is going to be away from your watchful eyes and guidance. Feeling some separation pangs are expected and normal. Give it some time and things will settle down eventually. Meanwhile, here are a few simple tips to help your child settle down at daycare.

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• Make your child as independent as possible. Let them get used to doing simple things on their own like feeding themselves, clearing up the toys and cleaning themselves after using the washroom. The more independent the child is, the easier the transition to daycare will be. The child will feel better knowing that it is possible to manage even if their parents are not around.

• Try to find out the day care’s schedule and follow it at home. The child might be used to a different eating and sleeping schedule than what is followed at daycare. As a result, a sudden transition to daycare might involve a sudden change to their eating and sleeping patterns and might result in the child becoming cranky. By gradually introducing the new schedule at home, your child will have enough time to get used to the change.

• Let your child take a comfort object to daycare. For most children, this is usually a favorite toy or blanket. However, anything that they feel comforted by will work just as well. Having something familiar with them in the new daycare environment will give them a sense of security.

• It will also help to visit the daycare a few times with your child to get them used to the new place and people. If possible, let the child start off with spending a few hours at daycare and then gradually increase the duration.

• Once your child starts daycare, dropping them off and saying goodbye might be difficult for both of you. You might want to stay on for a bit longer and comfort your child but the best thing to do would be to keep the goodbye short and sweet. This is because once the child realizes that it is possible to prolong the parents’ stay, they will make a practice of it. Leave and let the experienced daycare staff handle the situation.

Every child is unique and hence predicting how long they will take to settle down is not possible. When going through the difficult transition phase, it is important to remember that this too shall pass. Till it does, following the above tips will definitely make it easier for the parent and the child.