I do transitioning in - specially with infants - because from my experience they have always been more beneficial than when I have had to start an cold turkey child due to circumstances not allowing the wean in ... i HATE listening to babies cry so for me it is worth the investment to wean them in as it builds trust for both the parent and for the babe and this lowers anxiety levels that babe feels off the parent and feeds off of!

However I agree that a 'day here and there' is not ideal.

I have parents come for ideally three 2 hour play dates prior to the child having to be here more if they are able too ~ ideal two in the morning time like 8- 10 and another day 10-12 and one in the pm 3 - 5 ~ these I admit are for the benefit of the PARENT and MYSELF mostly because they allow the parent to get comfortable seeing the program in action and to meet all the parents at pick up time and be 'introduced' to the program so that their 'anxiety' about leaving their child here is basically non existent cause they do not have to 'imagine' what is going one they have seen it first hand ... plus they allow ME to see how the parent handles their child, soothes the child when upset and so forth so that I have an idea what the child's cues are for feeding / sleep /diaper and so forth. During these play dates I also ask the parent to LEAVE the play area and go read a book and just 'listen' for us so that they are out of site and I can see how the babe is going to do and try to soothe them myself and if they are having a anxiety attack and are not wanting me than the parent can come back and help to assure them that 'mama or dada ALWAYS comes back and you can trust Reggio in the meantime' .... this is specially important for children who are not 'daycare ready' and have never been cared for by anyone but a parent cause daycare is VERY SCARY for them!

Than ideally the week or two before the parent is suppose to start work full time I have them start coming EVERY day but on a short weaned in time frame .... so on the Monday they come at their normal drop off time so mom and babe start getting use to getting up and back to work routine and babe stay for a planned 2 hours but if REALLY not coping mom gets a call to come back, next day based on first days experience we increase the time and so forth until the Friday before they have to start they have worked up to a full day and usually doing this I end up having a child starting Full time on the Monday who does not CRY ALL DAY and I am able to comfort and sooth them as needed if they do get anxious.

When I started out fresh with no kids I staggered my start dates by 2 week intervals ... my first kid was my nephew - he did not need weaning in Than I had a 2 year old who started cold turkey after her 3 play dates with mom cause she was 'ready and eagar' and did not need a wean in .... so I had her and my nephew for a week start and had another child doing 'visits' with their parent that week and they started solo the next week and the week after and so forth ... so I never had two kids BRAND new at the same time!