Infant daycare for a 9 months old: a good idea?

[louloutechen]

Hello there,

My husband will be moving to Singapore in 2 weeks and I'm thinking about getting back to work but I have a 9 months old baby and I need somebody to look after him.
I know that most of families in Singapore hire live-in helpers but I'm not really confortable about that. So I would like to send my baby to infant daycare.

--> Does anyone know the average price for infant daycare for full-time?
--> Are there different categories of infant daycare, like local ones and international ones? Are they the same prices?
--> What do you think about sending a 9 months old baby to daycare?
My baby is very dynamic and really needs to play all day for sleeping well at night, and he loves being with other children. But since he turned to be a "good sleeper" very recently, i'm afraid that sending him to daycare might affect his sleeping.
--> How do caregivers manage different sleeping schedules in infant daycares?

Thanks a lot to share your knowledge and experience.

Keanai

[snowqueen]

I wish I could be more specific with the help but there are more day care centres here than you can shake a stick at so to speak. I'm already having problems deciding where to send my 15 month old to pre-school this September.

I've picked up the Young Parent's Preschool Guide from Borders - see if you can pick a copy up when you get here so you can be more specific to the area where you are going to live. I've also done allot of research on Google.

You will not get cheaper than using your live-in helper. Full time Childcare will cost you but not as much as it does in the UK.

Infant care can be expensive but it does drop when they reach preschool age at 18 months to 2 years (depending on the school). Cherie Hearts take babies from 2 months and they charge $1450 for full day and $1050 for half day but there are places which can be more or less than this.

[Nath21]

We just started sending our girl at 15 months to Cherie Hearts and have found them to be really good. The price does drop when they hit 18 months. You get a daily schedule of their feed times, their sleep times, what they ate etc etc. they have two sleep rooms for the kids and set activities. Our girl thrives there, she dosent want to come home most times and her vocabulary is coming along in leaps and bounds. We didnt want a live in helper, everyone complains about them and in my own opinion its rare to get a good one thats actually interested or has the skills to teach the children. The times are 7-7 weekdays and 7-2 on saturdays which we have only used once but found it handy. The ones closer to the the city usually cost more compared to those further out in the heartland. Locals get a discount I think from the government on cost. We pay $1470 a month (under 18 months) and drops to $970 a month at 18 months at Harbourfront. Flexi which is 3 hours a day for 5 days was $560 a month. We tried her on this for a month to see how she went and it worked well. Good luck with the job hunting that could be the hardest part of the whole experience for you if your a dependent on a EP, child care here is the best ive seen so dont worry too much. As to the age thats up to you to work out.

[funkyhomestay]

for me, i personally feel the only down side with day care is that kids fall sick very easily esp if the place is airconditioned. and also, if your child is sick, you wont be able to put them there while you are at work.

otherwise, its great.