Infant care or take care of baby yourself at home (FTM)

There are pros and cons. I send my boy when he is 2 months old. Even though I have helper, but my mil don’t want her to take care because she wants her to prioritise housework. My mil doesn’t want to help to take care too. Both me and my husband need to work so we have no choice to put him in infant care. He tends to get sick easily and got HFMD quite a lot of times. But other than that, I feel that it’s ok because he is trying to build up his immune system. Now he’s 14m and his body is stronger. As a first time mum, I do not know how to teach him, the school helps a lot. I was worried that he will just be lying down there but when he starts do new things like bubbling or grabbing things, you knew that the school teaches him a lot. He gets to socialise and make new friends which is good. Because if I am thinking to send him when he is 18 months or older, I think he will not get use to it and cry. For helper, I feel is by luck to get a good one. Mine used to be good but when my boy gets older, she starts to be lazy. She will only help when you asked her to do things, if not she will not care. And she will prefer to do housework than taking care of baby.

I enrolled my child in infant care when she was 5 months old, as I was returning to full-time work when she turned 6 months. However, she fell sick almost every other week. She was also hospitalised twice — once at 7 months due to RSV, and again at 15 months due to HMPV. Her school attendance was poor, barely reaching 50%. Eventually, I withdrew her from school and let her stay home to recuperate. She returned only when she was close to 18 months old and had fully recovered. Despite having previously adapted well to school, she experienced separation anxiety upon her return. Things only began to improve when she started playgroup (PG), likely due to stronger immunity from vaccinations and the help of daily supplements. If u are considering to send ur child to school at a young age, probably can consider those with lesser babies, higher teacher to children ratio in school.

pros: if ifc is reliable and well managed, can leave it to them to take care of baby while we go to work with a peace of mind. then when we come back after work we only need to take care for the evening and maybe middle of the night if baby needs to drink milk. the ifc will engage the babies and have activities for them plus monitor their development Cons:baby will most likely fall sick often as there is exposure to other babies and adults, ended up baby will need to stay home to recover, once back in ifc might fall sick again then cycle repeats not being able to witness key milestones in person ie for me I only saw the video of my one yr old walking as it was sent to me by the ifc for me now I am not considering ifc for my second child as I want to try out getting my helper to assist to take care at home

Got a helper and I’m glad I did. Give me and my hub some mental wellness especially the newborn phrase. The nighttime is quite difficult due to frequent wakings and I have to work. Not only does a helper can help in cooking and housework and able to take care of my son during weekends and me and hub can run errands. It will be difficult at first to have a live in helper but as the days goes by, will be used to it. But of course getting a good helper is really based on luck.

i sent all my 3 kids to IFC at 3mths. even though most say the baby will just lie down there and do nth. but i see that my kids ifc do engage them by reading and sensory play. they will teach and monitor their development. it depends on what you are looking for.. some worry that the child will fall sick but this is inevitable regardless of age. if to ask me to teach them at home, i don’t think i have the mindspace and energy to do it. so i leave it to the school.

To me, personally, husband and i wanna have children because we wanna raise them. I have suffered 9 months not to let anyone else get the pleasure to raise them and see their firsts 💕 of course it will be overwhelming and tiring the first few mths but itll all be worth it. The picnics, the venturing out and impromptu learning along the way. There’s so much to do together! And so far my children dont get sick often.

I sent my baby to ifc at 4 months, only because I was going back to work and there's no one to look after the baby. It is challenging to look after a baby for a FTM. I suggest hiring a confinement nanny to learn the basics, and going to prenatal courses to better prepare yourself (though nothing compares to the actual thing haha)

my preference for care by family members

newborn is too young.