DD's stuff going MIA at daycare. How to handle this nicely?

[MNmomtobe]

DD started daycare last week. All has gone well so far. I dropped off and DH picked up( the opposite week I drop off and pick up). So that is how the problem happens. DD's infant seat has a "boot" on the end of it that I use to hold a small blanket and a few washclothes to sop up drool. Her name is on all these items. She does have her own cubby where we have a few blankets, 2 backup outfits for her that are labeled that we are required to keep there for staff to use on her if needed.
Well I noticed that we were missing one of her blankets and asked DH about it. He said there was no blanket in the infant seat when he picked her up. So I asked about it today and the infant teacher said it was probably in the dirty laundry. I picked her up today and asked the afternoon infant teacher about it. She said she didn't know then asked if it was green. It was wrapped around another child. She handed it to me and I showed her DD's name on the tag. I know this a minor deal but it still annoyed me a little. I thought "don't they check for names before letting handing off an item to any kid?" Then I looked at her sheet for the day and the morning infant teacher had written that she found our yellow blanket in the dirty laundry (we dropped this off earlier last week). I didn't even realize that that blanket was missing too. So one week in daycare and two blankets went missing. Should I just take everything out of her carrier before I drop her off?

[Lovingliv]

Hugs for the daycare start...it is not easy. Now, you are supplying them with blankets? I would not leave anything there...just because you have them labeled does not mean (obviously) that you will get them back. Too bad really. My daycare was really awesome in the infant room,,,not so good in the toddler room. Good luck and I hope it gets better!

[deborah_r]

Not sure if this is the case with your daycare, but in our first couple weeks I was upset that DS had stuff that wasn't his sometimes and we couldn't find his stuff sometimes, but we found as they got used to his stuff, it happens very rarely now. I understand your irritation, believe me - DH showed up early to pick up DS and found him sleeping on a bare cot (DS was 2 when he started) while another little girl slept with his blanket and pillow. We were pretty miffed!

[bubbaray]

Oh, man, I've had this issue too and our DCP is a (licensed) home-based, not a center. For the past 1.5 yrs, DD has been the youngest, so how her stuff could go missing is beyond me -- all the other kids were at least a year older and beyond that stage, KWIM?

I kinda lost my marbles over sippy cups for a while. It just drove me batty that some other kid might have my DD's cup --- ewwww. I discussed it (um, ok, I really DID try to be nice about it) with our DCP and she assured me that she was not giving DD's sippies to the other kids. I also got labels (mabels labels) and use those now.

HOWEVER, blankets are a completely different thing. I would ask your DCP how they manage head lice if they let children share blankets, pillows, etc.. I doubt they have a problem, but if the public health people got wind of the sharing of blankets, I doubt they'd be so understanding.

FWIW, I do try to leave only things I don't mind losing at DC (other than DD, of course, LOL!). All of DD clothes there aren't labeled, but she is the only kid her age, besides, I don't leave clothes there that I care about.


Melissa

http://b3.lilypie.com/rppJm7/.png[/img][/url]

http://bd.lilypie.com/fYrCm7.png

[Jenn98]

I only have a moment, but my advice would be to bring as little as possible to day care and to bring things you don't care about if you have to. Sometimes it gets crazy in centers and things seem to grow legs and walk away. It's been my experience that the less a parent brings the easier it is to keep track of. And things will go missing - that's just the nature of having so many teachers/paretns/kids walking through the door. Your extra clothes and other things should all be stuff you wouldn't be heartbroken over losing. It's hard and it sucks, and I'm sorry, but that'd be my advice! Good luck!!

[sethsmom]

DS is in a small, licensed in-home daycare (10 children from 0-2 years). The daycare provider actually gave each child a color. Though I wasn't happy about orange, I've come to realize that it's a whole lot easier for me to find his things when all I have to do is look for an orange item. Even if the children in the daycare don't have assigned colors, perhaps you could only bring items of a certain (uncommon) color or pattern. That way the workers would come to recognize her items more quickly. And if something does go missing, you don't have to try to remember what it looked like. Just say, "it was the cloud-pattern blanket!"

[MNmomtobe]

Funny that you mentioned this. The labels that I ordered a few weeks ago from stuckonyou arrived yesterday. They are all a dark pink shade. I will iron them on all her stuff to make her name easier to read!