Help on Explaining to Parent Why 12mo is to Follow Same Sched - As Everyone Else

[megoddess444]

Ok, so here is the background. I’ve had this infant since 4 mo. She comes everyday, all day. She comes between 7-830, everyday, never the same time. (Dads not working right now- another story)

At arrival I alway get the same story ( she’s hungry, because they never feed her when she wakes up) I feed her at 8am with the other kids. If she comes after 8, I give her a bottle at arrival. I have her on a schedule, it works great. Wonderful baby.

Now that she turns 1 in two weeks, I told mom; “heads up, when baby turns 1 she will now be on the same sched. As the other kids. Therefore if she doesn’t arrive before 8 am, you will have to feed her first. Ex. If baby comes at 8:30 she will not get breakfast and will have to wait until 10am snack”

Moms response was “ you won’t give her breakfast”? My answer, not if she comes after 8am.

Mom is also afraid baby will be hungry and cry all the time if I have her on the same sched. As everyone else.

Why is it so hard for parents to feed their children before dropping them off at daycare? Or, drop them off before 8 if you want me to feed them.

Please help me with a good explanation to give to this parent. Something with a bodda-bing would be greatly appreciated.

[Ms.Kay]

I have the same problem with 2. 3yr olds. When I say breakfast is at 8...it is served at 8...a mom came today and acted like she didnt know what time it was.

Following this thread!

[Indoorvoice]

It's not hard for them, but it's even less hard for them to give you that job. I don't think you need to explain it, they won't hear you anyway. You put it out there and they can either hop on board or take dcg back home when they try to drop off unfed. My usual response is "I'm unable to be in the kitchen all morning and still meet everyone's needs so mealtimes are strict"

[jenboo]

Blame it on licensing or the food program ::

That's what I do

[megoddess444]

Love it! That’s my usual go-to. Guess I better break out the food program feeding guidelines.

[Mom2Two]

Yeah, it doesn't add up.

If they wanted to bring at a predictable time, I guess they could arrange it with you, but random arrival times with a hungry baby doesn't work. Babies have no patience--they can't wait while you juggle the other kids to find a free moment when it wasn't what you were planning on doing.

If it were me, I would tell them that they need to bring their baby fed, clean, with a fresh diaper. And I would put that in my policies.

And it's crummy parenting to not feed their own hungry baby in the morning. They need to change their own schedule.

But I wouldn't word it that the baby needs to be on your schedule. The baby needs to be fed on a schedule that works for the baby. The issue is that you can't get an uncared baby dumped on you like that at arrival.

[Snowmom]

Please help me with a good explanation to give to this parent. Something with a bodda-bing would be greatly appreciated.

There IS no explanation.
Breakfast is before 8. If you're not here, you missed it.

Simple.

They would never have gotten away with not giving their infant it's first feeding before coming here. I'd send them back home to do it. Seriously. I 100% would have.

They have one child. I have 12. Just because they pay 1/12th of my weekly income does not mean they get to dictate policy or shirk their parental duty.

[Blackcat31]

There IS no explanation.
Breakfast is before 8. If you're not here, you missed it.

Simple.

They would never have gotten away with not giving their infant it's first feeding before coming here. I'd send them back home to do it. Seriously. I 100% would have.

They have one child. I have 12. Just because they pay 1/12th of my weekly income does not mean they get to dictate policy or shirk their parental duty.

this a hundred times

[Meeko]

I tell them the truth...that the food program has strict windows of time that meals are to be served, so they can come and inspect during that time.

Any food served outside that time window comes out of my own pocket, as the food program won't pay for it.. So...NO!

[Rockgirl]

There IS no explanation.
Breakfast is before 8. If you're not here, you missed it.

Simple.

They would never have gotten away with not giving their infant it's first feeding before coming here. I'd send them back home to do it. Seriously. I 100% would have.

They have one child. I have 12. Just because they pay 1/12th of my weekly income does not mean they get to dictate policy or shirk their parental duty.

Exactly!

You’ve already told dcm how it will be. No further explanation needed.

[CityGarden]

I would be careful to not say, "Any food served outside that time window comes out of my own pocket, as the food program won't pay for it.. So...NO!" as Meeko suggested because in my experience then the parent might just try to pay you and money is not the issue, the schedule and respect for that schedule is. DCM should follow your policies and respect them, period.

That said, provider to provider...

Do many of your dcks arrive before 8:00am? Do others arrive after breakfast time and are your other families feeding their children a significant breakfast?

While I like my policies respected I do look at my group overall and adapt as needed both for them and myself. One change I made was with morning snack / breakfast, I do not offer breakfast per my contract but noticed 1) many of my families were struggling to get here on time and 2) many of the children were starving shortly after drop off even if they were given their parents version of breakfast. Looking at those two items I adapted my morning snack at 9:15am is now equal to a breakfast in example today's morning snack is pancakes, fresh fruit and milk. My parents really aim to be here by morning snack and their kids hate to miss snack because it is so yummy - my program opens at 9:00am but you could adapt to what works best for your group. Also I recall another provider on here serves a light snack to the kids who arrive early in her program and then breakfast at the time the majority arrive, I cannot completely recall but I envision it as maybe some children arrive at 6:00am they get a banana or toast something simple then at 8:00am when most are there they all have breakfast...

Note I only make changes when it is in the best interest of the group or myself not for individual families so I am not encouraging you to do so.... just sharing my experience since this is one area I myself adapted for the better of my entire group and it paid off!

[tlemother]

At 12 months she is probably still on the bottle/ breast first thing in the morning. My 18 month old still takes a morning bottle and evening bottle and doesn't eat breakfast until around 9:30am.

[Mom2Two]

I tell them the truth...that the food program has strict windows of time that meals are to be served, so they can come and inspect during that time.

Any food served outside that time window comes out of my own pocket, as the food program won't pay for it.. So...NO!

I've wondered about this for babies. We need to feed on their cues, but food program has hours. In the end, I decided that I would simply claim the meals that the baby was here for time-wise even if the baby didn't quite fit in the window. It's the only way it makes sense.

So my dck 12 mth might eat lunch at 11am, snack at 3.30 and supper at 4:30 then get picked up at 5:30. I don't worry that her meals weren't quite in the food program window, coz what else do you do for a little one when licensing says to feed on demand for that age? And she naps from 11:30 til 1:00pm right now.

Feeding her separately isn't inconvenient coz she has her own high chair thingy.

[Ms.Kay]

At 12 months she is probably still on the bottle/ breast first thing in the morning. My 18 month old still takes a morning bottle and evening bottle and doesn't eat breakfast until around 9:30am.

Bottles and pacifiers are done at 12 mo....they are more.than capable to handle a sippy cup. IMO Bottles and pacifiers delay speech because of the ****ing motion of the tongue

[Rockgirl]

At 12 months she is probably still on the bottle/ breast first thing in the morning. My 18 month old still takes a morning bottle and evening bottle and doesn't eat breakfast until around 9:30am.

I get this, but it’s not the responsibility of the daycare provider to feed each child breakfast at the same time they’d be eating at home. Here, I serve one breakfast. Like previous posters have mentioned, if the child isn’t here when breakfast is served, hopefully the parent has already fed them!