Even secure children experience a rise in stress levels during the first nine days of nursery or creche, according to research at Cambridge University, and the levels remain high for as long as five months, even after the child has stopped fussing and has appeared to settle.
"It is stressful for both infants and children to start spending extended periods of time in noisy new environments separated from their trusted sources of comfort and support," writes study author Prof Michael Lamb of the faculty of social and political sciences, Cambridge University.
The research followed 70 children, aged 11-20 months, and found that many children try to compensate for the separation from parents by heightening their demands for attention at home in the evening, a situation familiar to many parents.
Lamb does not believe that daycare itself is harmful, but thinks that the impact of separation could be softened by reducing the amount of time children spend in nursery, offering more individualised attention in childcare settings and ensuring that childcare settings are small and home-like.
The transition from creche to home in the evening is crucial, Lamb advises, suggesting that parents should spend child-focused time with their offspring before bed.
Martina Murphy, of the National Children's Nurseries Association (NCNA), believes that parents should try to reduce the time their children spend in daycare by arranging to be home with the child one day of the working week, or by collecting the child earlier from nursery as often as possible. The fact that some children are spending 10 hours a day in daycare, five days a week as a result of longer commuting times for parents, is of concern to the NCNA, Murphy says.
Parents should always spend the first two weeks in a new nursery with the child, gradually building up the time that the child spends there without the parent, Murphy advises. Any good nursery will have an open door policy that encourages the parents to do this, she adds.
National Children's Nurseries Association, 01-4601138