Daycare
How to Tell if Daycare Is Not Working for Your Child
The pressure to "stick it out" when daycare isn't working is enormous: the program took weeks to find, the spot may not be easy to replace, switching...
7 min read
Daycare
Expert guides, tips, and insights to help you and your family live healthier lives. From preventative care to wellness strategies, find everything you need to make informed health decisions.
Daycare
Signs of Difficult or Prolonged Adaptation to Daycare
The hardest part of evaluating daycare adaptation is that early difficulty looks similar whether the child is just adjusting normally or whether somet...
7 min read
Daycare
Separation From Parents and Its Effect on Behavior
The disconnect surprises every new daycare parent: the teachers say she had a great day, and 20 minutes later she's having a 45-minute meltdown about...
8 min read
Daycare
How Daycare Handles Screen Time
Screen time in daycare is often underestimated by parents because it's invisible — children don't always mention it, and many programs don't volunteer...
6 min read
Daycare
Which Self-Care Skills Develop in Daycare?
Most parents notice it in the first month: their child is suddenly putting on their own shoes, eating with a spoon without a fight, or asking to use t...
6 min read
Daycare
Separation Anxiety in the Daycare Setting
Separation anxiety is the single most common worry parents bring to the first weeks of daycare. The good news is that the developmental science here i...
7 min read
Daycare
How to Evaluate a Daycare's Safety Standards
Safety in early childcare isn't a feeling you get on a tour — it's a set of specific, verifiable practices. Children under 5 spend roughly 30 to 50 ho...
7 min read
Daycare
How Daycare Teaches Children to Follow Rules
A toddler ignoring "no hitting" for the fifteenth time isn't defying you—they're still developing the impulse control to act on the rule they technica...
9 min read
Daycare
Daily Schedule in Daycare and Its Impact on the Child
Walk into a well-run toddler room at 11 a.m. and you'll see something specific: children moving on their own toward the snack table because they know...
5 min read
Daycare
Why Rushing the Daycare Adaptation Process Can Be Harmful
Most daycare settling-in plans are shorter than what the child development research supports. Places need to be filled, contracts start on a fixed Mon...
7 min read
Daycare
Should You Change Your Child's Daily Routine Before Daycare Starts?
A child starting daycare is already absorbing a lot at once: new building, new adults, group of unfamiliar children, separation. If their daily schedu...
5 min read
Daycare
The Role of Routine in Daycare Settings
A two-year-old in a routine-rich room is a different child from the same two-year-old dropped into a chaotic one. Predictable structure does measurabl...
6 min read
Daycare
The Role of Parents During Daycare Adaptation
When a child is having a hard time settling into daycare, the conversation usually centers on the child—their temperament, the program, the key person...
7 min read
Daycare
Should You Change a Child's Daily Routine Before Daycare Starts
Your 18-month-old has a 10:30 a.m. catnap and a 1:30 p.m. main nap; the daycare has one nap that starts at 12:30. Your preschooler eats lunch at 11:15...
6 min read
Daycare
Returning Home After Daycare
You pick your child up smiling and twenty minutes later they're crying on the kitchen floor over the wrong color cup. This is so common it has a nickn...
7 min read
Daycare
When Is the Right Age to Start Daycare
The "best age to start daycare" question is one parents lose sleep over, often unnecessarily. Decades of research point in a clear direction: quality...
8 min read
Daycare
How to Reduce a Child's Anxiety Before Starting Daycare
Worry about starting daycare is normal. The whole thing is genuinely new — different building, different smell, different adults, a long stretch witho...
7 min read
Daycare
What to Do if Your Child Refuses to Go to Daycare
A child who fights you at the door turns the morning into a war zone for everyone. Before you assume your child hates daycare or that you've made the...
9 min read
Daycare
What Research Says About Daycare and Child Development
Few questions weigh on new parents like this one: will daycare hurt my child? The good news is that this is one of the most studied areas in child dev...
9 min read
Daycare
How to Reduce a Child's Anxiety Before Starting Daycare
Your child is anxious about starting daycare, and now you're anxious about their anxiety. That feedback loop is the first thing worth interrupting. At...
8 min read