Infant daycare shortage

[grateday]

Phone call after phone call.......I would love to change over to a infant only childcare but my son is preschool age. That is the only thing I can think of to solve the issue.

How can a growing area keep up the with the childcare demands especially infant childcare. Really wish that there was a solution but the only other solution I see is to have corporations step in.

Corporate sponsered centers will help with some of the demand.

[Josiegirl]

I Know. We have the same problem in our area. I've had several calls lately from moms who want to go back to work but have no one to watch their baby.
One of my dcms has waited a year for me to be able to take her twins. My other 2 dcms who are having(or have had)babies will now have to wait a year. They're having to go to centers, which they didn't really want to do.

There was a local woman who did infant care only, she had 3 at any given time. She had to 'kick them out' at exactly a year old. I got several of her kids over the years. She always had a waiting list.

[Second Home]

Here you can have 2 children under 2 if you are a provider working alone . If you have a full time assistant you can add 1-2 more infants to your license.

I recently put an ad out for an infant opening and had lots of calls . many had hours later then I am open so they had to be turned away . I did 3 interviews in 1 week and filled both spots . I am still getting calls even though my infant opening ad is taken down .

[Controlled Chaos]

Same here. I am licensed for 8 and can have 2 under 2. I have done the math for hiring an assistant full time to take 4 infants under 2, or I could take just 3 infants by myself if I only have 6 kids total. I would just have to charge soooo much in order to make the money I am now. I also prefer the 15m and older crowd anyway. I get half a dozen calls for infant care every week. I will have one spot open up in November (my dd turns 2) and there is a current family who just had a baby, waiting anxiously to take the spot. My infant wait list is 10 children long (recently updated, many occasionally come for drop ins). There is a real shortage.

[Nisaryn]

I offer infant only care and can have 4 under 2yrs but I'm planning on kicking them at 18months so I have one getting ready to go. I already have a pretty long wait list because I only do infants, the nice thing is that it's less kids but I can charge a bit more than others in my area. I charge the top rate and still have no problem getting kids, I make about the same that I did teaching elementary school.