Looking For Some Suggestions

[cmclean24]

One of the families puree whatever they had for dinner the night before or breakfast the day of and its sometimes like frenchtoast with eggs or tacos, its really gross anyway and they shouldn't need that, also they should be able to eat a piece of toast and eggs with their fingers instead of needing that.
Also, just the normal things like applesauce, peas, carrots...and I have tried giving the child the same things but cut up, and also tried blueberries, grapes, bananas, etc and they will not eat it, its really frustrating. I am driving myself nuts with all of these schedules, eating and napping being so different but when a child gets here at 2 until 7 lets say, then they go to sleep at 3 until 4, when they wake up they are very hungry, but everyone else has already had lunch and their snack, so now that they are going to eat, my son wants food too and some other children, so its like a chain reaction and I dont know how to fix it. Along with the cups/bottles. Every child I have here even over the age of 1 has milk in a bottle, and the parents are determined to get them to finish them.

[cmclean24]

I tell the parents this is group care and they need to try to get their kids on my schedule. It sounds mean but it is the only way that works for everyone. I would be flexible with nap times for those under 12 months as long as it does not interfere with meal times. For those over 12 months they feed themselves. Those on bottles get a reasonable amount of time to drink/eat then they are done. When I feed yoghurt etc to the younger ones I line them up in highchair each has own yoghurt own spoon they each get one spoonful then the next gets a spoonful and so on. I just leave their spoon in their dish while I feed the next. The only bottle I need to give at the moment is the one before nap.

However, I only have 2 under 2 and the youngest I've had (other than my own 2) was 11 months. I can't imagine having 5!

I would suggest deciding the following based upon what works best for YOU and your licensing/food program regulations

1. Are you going to provide puréed food or have parents provide it?
2. What age do you stop serving puréed food at your house?
3. What age do children go to one afternoon nap?
4. What are YOUR set times for nap? Mine are 10 & 2 for those taking 2 naps a day and 1pm for those taking one nap.
5. What times work for you for snacks & lunch?
6. When do you stop giving bottles and require sippy cups or at least self feeding of bottles?

Then tell the parents these are your regulations & requirements & that they need to help their child get there. Focus on: these are important skills for your child, they adjust better when they are on the same schedule at home and here, your child will be more content when they can meet their own needs and not have to rely on someone else (within their developmental ability of course).

Thank you, that is some good information, but what if the parents are really trying to work on it with you? I'm just so annoyed and wanting to give this up as everyday I am more and more stressed.
So the best thing to do is, drinks only when eating at the table, no pureed, just finger foods, scheduled naps and 5 different highchairs, 5 different bowls/spoons..thats a lot of work haha

[NeedaVaca]

I would get a schedule in place. All of my kids self feed by 12 months, so your older group should start working on these skills. For those you spoon feed you should be using individual bowls and spoons for sure. You will run yourself ragged trying to have individual schedules for each child, the parents need to understand part of group care is having group schedules.

[cmclean24]

8-18m? Just two kids? I would like to know how many kids you care for daily and their ages

eg.
8mo
10mo
14mo
18mo

I would be giving ALL kids between 8m-18m TWO naps, one am nap and one PM nap, with everyone eating lunch at the same time in between. So that the little kids have a PM nap at the same time as the older kids. Aside from very young infants who I would feed on demand, I would be getting EVERYONE on the same schedule. Bottles at 8/10/12/4 breakfast at 8, lunch at 12, snack at 4. I would be feeding meals first, THEN offering bottles afterwards. All cups and food at the table/high chair only, etc.

It sounds like you have a lot of adjustments to make to help your day go smoothly.

Everydays different so I cant tell you how many of each age everyday, it never goes over 5, but some days there are 3 and some days 5,
an example of a day is 2 10 month olds, 1 year old, 14 month old and an 18 month old. What would you do then? Most of the children I take care of only have one nap so I cannot make it into 2, if they are tired, they are tired and I put them for a nap, I don't wait until "nap time" comes around.
So at all those 4 times you mentioned giving them bottles, do you put all the children in their highchairs again just for those? 2 of them I assume are snack, and 1 is lunch but what about when the child wont drink it at anytime of the day?!

[MarinaVanessa]

I don't mean this mean or snarky but are you allowed to have 5 kids under the age of 18 months by yourself? I mean the reasons we (in my state) aren't allowed to have that many that young at once is because it IS hard to manage all their needs by yourself when they are so young.

I've been mulling over this also. I have a license for 8 kids but to have 8 only 2 can be infants and 2 have to be SA. I don't typically take on SA kids and without the SA ones I can have 6 kids. If I have 6 kids only then 3 of them can be infants but I CHOOSE to only have 2 infants anyway because it is time consuming. Even then I only keep one between 0-1 year and one between 1-2 years (or two 1yo's). I personally would not want to have more than 2 kids under 2 years old, it takes up a lot of time.

[MamaBearCanada]

Thank you, that is some good information, but what if the parents are really trying to work on it with you? I'm just so annoyed and wanting to give this up as everyday I am more and more stressed.
So the best thing to do is, drinks only when eating at the table, no pureed, just finger foods, scheduled naps and 5 different highchairs, 5 different bowls/spoons..thats a lot of work haha

5 under 18 months is going to be burnout for most people because you are right it is a ridiculous amount of work. I would suggest trying to replace 3 with older kids. Here we can only have 3 under 2 and that is only if we don't have any older kids. You are going to need a firm hand with parents and a solid schedule. You will need to be super organized.

[cmclean24]

Sorry, I thought you were being hypothetical in your post.... I didn't realize that you meant that were the ages of your DCK's.

I don't mean this mean or snarky but are you allowed to have 5 kids under the age of 18 months by yourself? I mean the reasons we (in my state) aren't allowed to have that many that young at once is because it IS hard to manage all their needs by yourself when they are so young.

In your case, you are going to have to do some back stepping to correct the issues you have.

For example ALL your DCK's that are over age 12 months should be eating on a regular meal/snack time schedule. With about 3 hours in between each meal and snack.

Those kids should also be proficient or atleast somewhat on their way to being proficient with self-feeding. I usually start introducing kids around age 6-8 months to self-feeding foods at snack time so by the time they are 12 months old, they are doing atleast 75% of the feeding on their own.

I think what you will need to do is start working with the parents on having them start getting their kids to self feed and use utensils.

For the bottle fed babies, I require parents to feed them their first bottle in the mornings PRIOR to drop off and within a time frame so that they (the babies) don't need to be fed for atleast 90 minutes after arrival. That way I don't have to worry about getting a bottle in anyone within the first hour and a half of opening.

Another good rule of thumb to follow with little kids is to serve what you serve and let them choose if they want to eat or not. If they choose to not eat, then they are the ones hungry until the next snack or meal time.

I would also let parents know that you can't force feed a child and they really can't expect you to make their child eat a specific amount of ounces each feeding.

It is really important that the parents work WITH you in getting their children on a regular routine for meals and snacks or you will never be able to fix this issue...unless you suddenly grow a few more sets of arms.

Hang in there...with a little effort on everyone's part, it can be fixed.

Thank you, thats how I feel, like I need way more arms, its hard to do it myself, but no there is no law that we cannot have 5 children under a certain age like 1 or 2, only if you are licensed, which I am not. We are allowed 5 children under the age of 10 no matter what..so yes I need parents to work with me and I am getting drained. I'll see what I can do but it affects my little one as well, he is 14 months old, he can eat tons on his own and he is on a schedule of snacks and meals, etc, but he does like his milk randomly throughout the day still. I'll try several things, but I will just have to make it clear to the parents that I can't always do what they have scheduled, they may have to make my schedule theirs..thanks

[NeedaVaca]

Everydays different so I cant tell you how many of each age everyday, it never goes over 5, but some days there are 3 and some days 5,
an example of a day is 2 10 month olds, 1 year old, 14 month old and an 18 month old. What would you do then? Most of the children I take care of only have one nap so I cannot make it into 2, if they are tired, they are tired and I put them for a nap, I don't wait until "nap time" comes around.
So at all those 4 times you mentioned giving them bottles, do you put all the children in their highchairs again just for those? 2 of them I assume are snack, and 1 is lunch but what about when the child wont drink it at anytime of the day?!

I would get them all on the same nap schedule, that will be a huge break for you! My kids love being on schedule, they eat better, nap better, play better! They like knowing what to expect. There is no way I could have 5 different nap schedules!

[lovemykidstoo]

Everydays different so I cant tell you how many of each age everyday, it never goes over 5, but some days there are 3 and some days 5,
an example of a day is 2 10 month olds, 1 year old, 14 month old and an 18 month old. What would you do then? Most of the children I take care of only have one nap so I cannot make it into 2, if they are tired, they are tired and I put them for a nap, I don't wait until "nap time" comes around.
So at all those 4 times you mentioned giving them bottles, do you put all the children in their highchairs again just for those? 2 of them I assume are snack, and 1 is lunch but what about when the child wont drink it at anytime of the day?!

I was wondering too about the question BC had about if you're licensed and do they allow these ages of children in care at the same time. Here I am licensed for 6. Out of those 6, 4 can be under the age of 30 months and 2 out of those 4 can be under 18 months. There is a reason for that and you are living it now. It's too much! You either need to get these parents and children on a schedule or term 1 or 2. It's too much for anyone to do that. As far as the food that these parents are bringing, I would be putting a halt to that now. Tell them that you will supply the food that you don't want them to send it anymore. If they continue, just keep sending it back. They will get the picture after awhile. Pureed food after a year is ridiculous. Over a year should be able to use their pinchers and pick it up on their own.

[LaLa1923]

For some of you that have 4 or 5 children everyday and they are all between 8 months and 18 months, and they all have different schedules, arrival/departure times and naps..which means snacks and lunches can sometimes vary, which also means you may just finish feeding 2 children and then 2 wake up so then you feed those ones, but then other ones are crying because now they want food again...so what do you do?
Also, when feeding 4 or 5 children at a time how do you manage all different spoons, bowls, etc?? Do you also go around all day and monitor that no child is touching another childs sippy cup? Do you find that they just want to see the new cup for a few minutes and then they move on to something else? Please send me some ideas and opinions as I would really like to hear them, I am having some problems with families and their expectations and I cannot really fulfill them up to their standards and feel I am doing a great job.

Everyone naps here and eats at the same time. I have an 8 month old and an 18 month old as well. The only difference I have is the 8 month old take a very short nap in the morning. (less than an hour)

[cmclean24]

Thank you for all of the responses, but again if I do get them on a good routine, how do you go about it when they will not eat what you put out, I'm talking about fruits and vegetables, all cut up nice...so then I try other things like breads, pastas and rice..and they wont eat those either, I'm just not sure what to do sometimes, if they dont eat, then they dont eat? Then when their parents ask me what they ate and I explain it, then I'm the bad guy..because they say well he or she eats that at home or nope, they only eat zoodles, kd, pizza and cheesies at home..nothing healthy, well thats even more annoying.

[cmclean24]

Everyone naps here and eats at the same time. I have an 8 month old and an 18 month old as well. The only difference I have is the 8 month old take a very short nap in the morning. (less than an hour)

Thanks, but thats not the case here, I cannot have them nap at certain times when lets say 1 arrives at 7, 1 at 9 and 2 at 10...and then my own is just getting up about 8, what do you do, they will not all sleep at that time as some just got up at home from a sleep, and some only have 1 nap at home too...really, its a different situation for everyone, even noise level plays a factor and some scream for 30 minutes before they fall alseep (even at home) so its disruptive to the others..

the naps are the least of my worry, its the eating right now, but thank you

[lovemykidstoo]

Thank you for all of the responses, but again if I do get them on a good routine, how do you go about it when they will not eat what you put out, I'm talking about fruits and vegetables, all cut up nice...so then I try other things like breads, pastas and rice..and they wont eat those either, I'm just not sure what to do sometimes, if they dont eat, then they dont eat? Then when their parents ask me what they ate and I explain it, then I'm the bad guy..because they say well he or she eats that at home or nope, they only eat zoodles, kd, pizza and cheesies at home..nothing healthy, well thats even more annoying.

So when the parent says that they eat something at home that you also serve is it because they are feeding them? If that's the case, then I woudl just keep serving and eventually, they will get the picture that you're not going to feed them, that they have to do it themselves.

[cmclean24]

So when the parent says that they eat something at home that you also serve is it because they are feeding them? If that's the case, then I woudl just keep serving and eventually, they will get the picture that you're not going to feed them, that they have to do it themselves.

Thank you, I'm too sure if the parents feed them it, for example grilled cheese, I cut it up and the 18 month old wont eat it here but at home she will apparently, but she is so used to eating so unhealthy at home that its like pulling teeth to get her to eat fruits and veggies

[NeedaVaca]

Thank you for all of the responses, but again if I do get them on a good routine, how do you go about it when they will not eat what you put out, I'm talking about fruits and vegetables, all cut up nice...so then I try other things like breads, pastas and rice..and they wont eat those either, I'm just not sure what to do sometimes, if they dont eat, then they dont eat? Then when their parents ask me what they ate and I explain it, then I'm the bad guy..because they say well he or she eats that at home or nope, they only eat zoodles, kd, pizza and cheesies at home..nothing healthy, well thats even more annoying.

You offer a healthy meal/snack, they either eat it or they will be hungry. They will learn soon

Thanks, but thats not the case here, I cannot have them nap at certain times when lets say 1 arrives at 7, 1 at 9 and 2 at 10...and then my own is just getting up about 8, what do you do, they will not all sleep at that time as some just got up at home from a sleep, and some only have 1 nap at home too...really, its a different situation for everyone, even noise level plays a factor and some scream for 30 minutes before they fall alseep (even at home) so its disruptive to the others..

the naps are the least of my worry, its the eating right now, but thank you

If they aren't napping on a schedule then you will have problems feeding them on a schedule, they kind of go hand in hand.