Infant Care 12 - 24 Months
Tummy Time & Independent Play
Tummy Time & Independent Play
Tummy Time & Independent Play
To develop both Gross Motor Skills (crawling, rolling, sitting up, walking) and Fine Motor Skills (pincer grasp, hand strength) infants must experience Independent Play and Tummy Time. This enables them to explore freely, work on their motor skills and reach their developmental milestones.
Infants will spend a significant amount of their waking hours on the floor playing and exploring in a safe play area both inside, and outside in the shade. Infants must be able to be put down to play while in care.
Feeding
Tummy Time & Independent Play
Tummy Time & Independent Play
Infants must be able to take a full bottle of breastmilk or formula at appropriate intervals to begin care and/or drink milk and water from a cup, depending on their age.
Baby Led Weaning:
We do not use Baby Led Weaning (BLW) as a source of nourishment. While it is great to have infants explore foods and work on their oral motor development, BLW does not offer enough sustenance to satiate a hungry baby.
Your infant is consuming a lot of food when you are feeding them baby foods. For example, one jar of baby food holds an entire banana. Infants that are BLW are simply exploring textures and tastes and are not actually consuming food in the beginning stages.
We are happy to allow your infant to explore foods in addition to regular feedings of baby food.
Infant foods are provided and are homemade.
Sleep
Schedule
Schedule
We follow safe sleep practices under the Guidelines and Best Practices of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and Community Care Licensing (CCLD)Title 22 Regulations.
The guidelines are listed here:
Infants must be placed down in a crib/pack n play to sleep without blankets, and toys and may not be swaddled. Pacifiers must be free of attachments.
Infants will be checked for signs of distress, every 15 minutes while sleeping.
It is important that you begin this practice before your infant begins care to insure an easy transition into the child care environment. Children that are not familiar with being placed to sleep without swaddling and pacifiers without attachments will struggle with this transition.
It is also important that you follow through with our sleep schedule on the days your infant is not in care, this will also help with the transition into a new sleep schedule. This transition can take a few weeks.
To follow best practices for safety, at nap time we will place your infant on their back in a crib for sleep. The infant nap room has music playing, a ceiling fan running in addition to doTERRA Lavender essential oil diffusing.
We are unable to rock infants or hold them while they sleep as we are caring for many children at one time.
Schedule
Schedule
Schedule
Infants are included in preschool activities such as circle time if they are awake and art when appropriate. They begin the full toddler curriculum when ready, usually around 18 months of age.
Infants will be on a consistent sleep and feeding schedule while in care. This is adjusted with the age of the infant. Your child will have a shorter nap in the morning and a longer afternoon nap from 1 pm-4 pm with the rest of the children in care. Eventually, your child will have one nap in the afternoon from 1:00 PM- 4:00 PM. It is most important that your child be able to nap in the afternoon to provide a calm quiet environment for all children in care.