Crying baby

[Sarah Anne]

Hello,

I started caring for a 10 month old baby girl. I also have a 9 month old and a 22 month old of my own. This poor little girl cried all day and I mean cried all day. She was quiet when i took her and my own children for a walk and she was quiet when i out her in a swing. But, apart from that, she screamed bloody murder. My own children were crying cause she wouldn’t stop. Its her first time away from her mom ever and she was feeling it. I did everything possible to make her feel at home, but nothing worked. Not only do i feel like a failure to her, I feel like a failure to my own kids. I did tell the parent that her child was very upset, but she is going back to school and was having her own stressful situation. I didn’t make much of a deal to her as she was tired.Has anyone had experience with non stop crying kids?? Does anyone have some advice or success stories? Please help! Im scared for tomorrow to be a repeat!!

[Suzie_Homemaker]

She won't stop until she's had time to adjust. She's a baby! This is normal.

She has been taken from her home, with her Mom, and her toys, and put with a stanger, in a strange house, with strange children, strange toys. I bet you would be crying too if I plucked you out of your life and put you in a wholly unfamiliar environent, with unfamiliar people, food, places, and were you were unable to communicate.

Give it time. She has to learn you are trustworthy. She has to learn that her Mom will return every day for her. And she has to learn that she's okay being away from Mom for a awhile.

You made progress. You know that she likes being outside and she likes being in the swing and she likes both to such a level it momentarily distracts her. So build that into her transition time so she can trust that at least once a day she will be doing something that allows her to forget for a while that this is all new.

If she's full time, you'll see an improvement anytime between end of week one and maybe as late as 4 weeks or more in your care. Drop off on Monday's can take a bit of a back step because she will have been home for the weekend and might have believed her old life was back.

If she's part time, it will take longer because she will be switching between the two places. MWF part timers are the worst when not used to being away from home because every second day, it's all swtiched on them and there's zero stability.

[Busy ECE mommy]

Yes, totally normal. It could take 3-4 weeks even if the child is full time, until the child knows what to expect from a daily routine.
If the child is part time, it could be much longer, as the routine is not consistent day to day.

[TahliaMcGavin]

Thanks for the information, it will be useful to me.