9 Essential Items to Take to Infant Day Care 

TLC Schools- Plano, TX

9 Essential Items to Take to Day Care for an Infant

Taking baby to infant day care?  Whether you are a new mom or a veteran mom, taking your baby to daycare for the first time is always a new adventure. Dropping your baby off at infant daycare for the first time will already be an emotional experience for you, so being prepared will help lessen the anxiety. Talk to your daycare provider and ask them if they have a list of mandatory items. They might even have a “mom group” that you can ask for tips and advice; As the old saying goes, “Mother knows best!”. There are items that you will want to pack for daycare daily and things that you will leave at daycare long-term.

Items to Leave at Daycare

If your child is going to spend more than a few days a week at infant day care, it is important to leave essential items there so that you don’t have to haul them back and forth. It will also guarantee that you won’t run out of anything that your baby needs. You do not want to spend time rushing around picking up things at the last minute.  

• Crib sheets and blankets
  • Check with your daycare to see what bedding they allow for infants. Drop enough off at the beginning of the week and take them home to wash at the end. Make sure to wash them immediately, so they don’t contaminate the rest of the laundry.
• Diapers
  • Drop off two packs of diapers, and when they are low, your daycare will notify you. 
• Wipes and diaper cream
  • Like the diapers, having a pack of each at the daycare will be one less thing that you have to remember in the morning. 
• Extra clothes and shoes
  • It’s always smart to have spares and spares for those spares. Leave extra seasonal clothes and shoes in case of accidents. 

Items to Take Daily

To keep you organized, get a diaper bag specifically for infant day care. This way, you can pre-pack and then grab it and go when you’re out the door. Keep a plastic container filled with items specifically for daycare so you can replenish your bag easily. 

• Bottles
  • If your baby is feeding every 3 hours, take 3-4 bottles daily. Your daycare might suggest that you take bottles at the beginning of the week, and they will wash them every night and give them back at the end of the week. If your baby is on formula, you might be able to leave the formula there as well. 
• Medication
  • If your baby requires medication, make sure to go over everything with your provider. Tell them if they take it at specific times, with or without food, and if it needs to be refrigerated.  
• Burp cloths and bibs
  • Buy a pack of each and some spares, specifically for infant day care. Send as many bibs and burp cloths as you send bottles.  
• Baby food and snacks
  • If your baby has started eating food, pack enough for each feeding and extras, along with snacks. 
• Favorite toy 
  • This might be the most important item to pack for daycare. This is your baby’s reminder of home, and it will comfort them when they get stressed. 

tlcschools.com- Plano, TX

COVID-19 Concerns

As COVID-19 locked everything down, people started sanitizing and cleaning everything to stay healthy. The same goes for hospitals, schools, and infant day cares. Institutions caring for children, adults, and the elderly took extra precautions and created particular cleaning protocols to ensure safe and healthy environments. Talk to your daycare provider about your COVID-19 childcare concerns to learn what protocols they have in place. Your daycare provider should also have their COVID-19 practices on their website for transparency. TLC Schools in Plano TX, has a page on their website, tlcschools.com, dedicated to the COVID-19 practices they have in place. 

Final Tips

A final tip for parents taking their infants to daycare is this, LABEL EVERYTHING. If you are looking to change daycares or aren’t sure which places offer infant care, the best thing to do is search for infant daycare near me and research everything you can about each provider. They will be caring for your baby for the week, and they must be trustworthy, respectable, and take the COVID-19 virus seriously. 

Read our article on Childcare and Covid-19 help here.