When to enter your child into daycare is a personal decision and may depend on many factors, such as ability to take time off from work and other financial restraints. If staying home is an option, the longer parents can wait after an infant's birth for placement in care is best to allow time for bonding, for the umbilical cord to fully heal, feeding established and for other newborn newness on the part of both parent and child to dissipate and a routine set.

Idealistically, this adjustment period would be between 3-6 months. However, because many working moms have only a six-week maternity week and their families rely on their income, this is not always practical.

In placing calls to numerous daycare facilities, the prevalent practice is that healthy and full-term infants can be accepted into a daycare program at 6 weeks of age. Many institutional-type facilities are not equipped to handle special needs for infants born prematurely or with special medical needs at this very tender age.

If considering taking your infant to daycare at 6-8 weeks, be sure to ask a lot of questions about staff qualifications, ratio, structure of the day, and other details. It is important for parents to be comfortable and confident of their newborn's care while they are work.

Also consider hiring an in-home provider such as a nanny or professional caregiver or taking your infant to an at-home child care provider, at least until your baby is older.

The good news is that there are a lot of options available for parents to make informed choices and know their kid will receive quality care.

Resource: Jill Ceder–verywell