CHOOSING A CRECHE FOR YOUR BABY.

A creche is a place where small children are left to be cared for or looked after while their parents or guardians are at work or doing something else. As parents or guardians we sure love our babies, but there are times we can not excuse ourselves from making a decision; enrolling them in a creche. This decision may be prompted by the fact that we need to get back to work, bag a certificate, or do something pressing. A creche should not be a nightmare for your child, rather it should be a home away from home. In other words, a creche should be safe, clean, comfortable, and lively.  There are many factors parents should consider when choosing a creche for their adorables, some of which are as follows:
LOCATION: One of the crucial factors you must put to consideration is location. Do you want a creche close to your house or work place? This will be determined by you, some mothers want it close to their offices so that they can easily excuse themselves to breastfeed their babies; if he/she still suckle.
THE BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT: An ideal creche as stated earlier should be an extension of the child's home. To ensure this, parents should look out for a creche that has a good building; well fenced and gated. The environment should be clean, suitably air-conditioned, ventilated and lit. It should have constant water supply. The cots; well and safely positioned and neatly layed with clean bed linen. There should be shelves for safe keeping of your child's stuff such as changing clothes, feeding bottles, diaper, etc.
OPERATIONAL POLICIES: Effective policies which guide the day to day running of the creche must be in place. These policies which amongst other things must spell out boldly the opening/closing time, modes of handling emergency situations, provision for holidays, etc. This will assure you that the responsibility of your child's care is being taken seriously.
SECURITY AND SAFETY: There should be adequate security measures put in place, the building should have high walls which will not enable any child to walk out of the premises carelessly.  Parents should have authorisation cards, while each child should be provided with an identity card. Electrical points should be safely locked for the optimum safety of the children.
NUMBER OF STAFF AND THEIR COMPETENCY: whether your child will be well cared for depends largely on the number of caregiver available in the creche, as well as their competency. If the ratio of care givers is lower to the ratio of children present in the creche,  the possibility of your child getting a proper or adequate attention is also low. So, it is always worth the stress to ensure that the creche has enough staff, not just many but competent as well. Staff who are well educated and up to date as regard child's developmental theories. Who are loving, caring and compassionate.
HYGIENE: The hygiene of your child should be of keen interest to the creche, is the creche hygienic enough? You can easily determine this by paying an impromptu visit to the creche, this will enable you have a prior knowledge of how hygiene friendly  is the environment, facilities and the caregivers. You need to be sure of this so that your child does not get infected as a result of enrolling her in a creche.
CURRICULUM ADOPTED: The activities open to children is very crucial, these activities can either hinder or enhance their growth and development. A standard creche  should have a well structured curriculum, which should be child-centred.  Activities that are centred on the child help him discover knowledge with minimum supervision. The activities should be age appropriate; Physical activities,(dancing, singing, jumping, running), daily storybook session, quiet time, meals, rest and naps.
DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE MATERIALS: Children basically learn from a younger age through play, hence age appropriate books and toys should be made available. Books should be less wordy, but more pictorial. These materials go a long way in engaging and stimulating their tender minds, this is what they need for their all round development.
ASK AROUND: You need to conduct your own research by sampling opinions of parents around you who have older children. You will get recommendations from them based on their personal experiences. You can also do a Google search on creche facilities in your community.
The fact that a creche is expensive does not necessarily makes it better, all the aforementioned factors will help you choose a creche for your child without regrets.