With September comes a crucial step in the lives of many families, a time generally feared, sometimes desired, but that for the little ones is always a great change. If your baby goes to the nursery for the first time, here are seven tips to "survive" the process, in order to make it less hard for everyone.
Really, looking at the doors of nursery schools these days one might think that some tragedy is going on, with cries around here, shouting over there, children who do not part with mom's arms ... The elders also had a bad time in these cases, even when our little one is happy to go to school (please, don't forget me!).
So, if your baby goes to kindergarten for the first time, it can be a trance for him and for you. But we can improve the adaptation of children to kindergarten in several ways, and we must pay special attention to this process if it is the first time the baby goes to school, the first time he leaves mom and dad for others They take care of him.
Talk about the nursery
Maybe not if we have it with four months, but as soon as they start to acquire linguistic competence you have to talk about what will be your nursery or nursery school. What you will find there (other children, friends, caregivers, toys, songs ...). Anticipating the moment of school can be done through words, but also through games, placing dolls on the school stage.
In this way, children will be clearer where they are going and will not be surprised by the fear of staying (without parents!) In a place completely unknown and new to them. The next point also helps to avoid this.
Meet the nursery school
One way to complete that anticipation of what it will be to go to school is to approach him. Talk to the teachers to that allow you to know the center with the baby, in a kind of adaptation that will also serve ourselves, since we will also be calmer knowing where and with whom our children will be, if the facilities are safe ...
This "recognition" can be done even before choosing school, the baby can accompany you to know the different centers and so they will not be totally new. But once we are clear where they will stay, it is convenient to return. Even before the adaptation period proposed by many schools begins, if we wish we can talk to those responsible for allowing us to make a "visit" before, in which we will explain everything to the child.
Say goodbye to your son
No matter how hard it is the moment of the farewell, we must not avoid it and disappear as if we had swallowed the earth, because it is the worst thing that can happen to the scared child who stays in a new place. It may be that seeing them cry makes us cry, but even if we are crying, we must try to convey tranquility to our son and explain that we will return soon. We can also try to be the member of the couple less likely to cry who dismiss him directly at school if we do not want to see us cry to not worry more. Be that as it may, but it is not saying goodbye, because if we "disappear" without more, the child will feel that he has been abandoned and will not understand anything.
Reduce time in nursery school, adapt
Throughout the year, you may need the child to spend many hours in the nursery, but at the beginning it is convenient that this time not be extended. Whenever possible, it is convenient to reduce the hours the baby spends for the first time in the nursery, take it only a few hours or half a day, even asking for help from relatives if we cannot pick it up before, or going between work hours to take it out and be with it ...
In this sense, the adaptations that many schools make are beneficial, although they are not always long enough (sometimes, the first day you leave the children a little leaf and the next day we turn to six).
A good diet, at school and at home
Many babies who go to kindergarten for the first time they are breastfeeding and it is not the best time to stop. Moreover, it does not have to be this way but it is recommended that they drink breast milk up to two years or more, so we must know what their policy is on this issue, if they allow us to go to breastfeed or if they give them the bottles of breast milk that we will have previously extracted, that have adequate ungular to keep them, to breastfeed if you want ... As it happens that with the changes children eat less, offer more breast in the afternoon and at night, when you are together . In this way you will also facilitate milk production to continue at a good pace.
Most likely, they already take complementary food, watch that they do not lack vitamins and minerals, that they have a complete and balanced diet so that the defenses, which will begin to be needed more than ever, are functioning at full capacity. Both breast milk and a healthy complementary diet will help improve the child's defenses.
The children's dream is altered
On the other hand also the little ones sleep more hours and we must try to get enough rest, both at home and at school. You have to tell the teachers how often they sleep, at what time ... so they try not to alter these habits or at least not disappear at all or suddenly. There are babies who nap before eating, others after, others sleep more than once ... and those schedules should be known at school.
Anyway, the first days are usually a generalized disorder, so you may notice it more tired if you have not been able to get enough sleep at school and have to go to bed at home before. But that is not the only possibility, because on the contrary it could be that the nerves prevent you from sleeping, it may require more attention, that you wake up at night, have nightmares or pee if you had already left the diaper for the night…
A lot of patience, accompaniment and love
As you can see, there is no definite and unique pattern for what happens to babies the first time they go to daycare. But what seems clear is that bad drinks are better spent in company, so these difficult days we will have an extra dose of patience so that our children do not feel alone, to overcome fatigue, lack of sleep, the pain that gives us leave them for the first time as if "escape from the nest" ...
Many emotions come together these days and we have to be strong and patient to understand everything the child is going through, accompany them as much as possible so that the process is calmer and less painful. Because in the end, as much as it may cost at the beginning, we will see that the little ones are able to adapt, that the whole family adapts to this new stage, that in the nursery school they will have a good time and they will learn.
Let's not fool ourselves, most likely it is not a few weeks but a few months, but in the end we all enter a new rhythm is before, during and after the process of adaptation to the nursery when our children have to feel by their side, that We will be there and they will be fine even though there are times when we are not physically with them.
These tips will help you "survive" if your baby goes to daycare for the first timeSurely many families who read us are in this situation these days and hopefully they will be useful. In addition, I leave you one last tip: immortalize the first day of school with a photograph, when they release their babis or their lunch bags ... They grow up so fast! And in a few years we will see those images together and (almost) we will have forgotten that we did not have a good time then ...
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | Some tips to choose nursery school, Five tips to help children in childcare adaptation
