Serenity started nursery October 2022. She goes two days a week and she absolutely loves it! I was reluctant to put Serenity into nursery as back then she was still quite fragile. She still couldn’t sit up and was having intermittent NG tube feeds. The main reason for Serenity going into nursery is the social aspect, I wanted her to be around and learn of other children – I think this is so important. It does help me with work too, I am able to do my site visits on the days she has Nursery.

Choosing a nursery

It took me a while to decide on the nursery she would attend. I looked round quite a few and they never seemed ‘right.’ They were all just small rooms, full of children and full of toys. I didn’t want this for Serenity as they seemed like boisterous environments and I was scared of her getting hurt as she is so tiny. I did find a farm nursery. After visiting this I knew it was perfect, they have the toys in the room to play with but they do so many activities and learning plans, and its on a farm so they go for farm walks. I loved this for Serenity, I thought it would do wonders for her development and its such a lovely place.

Mainstream nursery

Serenity’s nursery is a mainstream nursery. I thought this would benefit her the most learning of other children to accelerate her development. She gets on fine, the nursery are aware of her extra needs and the staff are very helpful. Serenity has a 1 -2- 1 at the nursery so she is constantly watched, just so she doesn’t get trampled on by any of the other children. They have two rooms, one for younger children and babies and the other for 2/3+ year olds. Serenity will stay in the younger room for longer due to her size. She isn’t NG fed at the nursery, she used to have her feeds at home however she does not need the tube anymore. The community nurses will train nursery staff for NG tube feeding if required. I raised this when she first started and the staff seemed very keen to have the training, although it was never needed in the end anyway.

Appointments

I still make Serenity’s appointments around nursery but she has had some professionals go into the nursery to help the staff too. She has a special chair with extra support for sitting and posture which was delivered by the Paediatrician Outreach Team. There is a group of people that can sort equipment out at nursery’s if your child need the extra support. In addition to this, Serenity had Occupational Therapy ‘Intervention’ which means an OT will do set of sessions, 1 session every week for 6 weeks to focus on a particular area. Serenity’s was rolling over and sitting up. To help me, they did some sessions with me, and also went into the nursery to show the nursery staff how they can help Serenity develop in these areas too, so she gets the support at home and at nursery. Now Serenity is under a new Physio in the area we have moved to, the Physio goes into nursery to teach them Serenity’s exercises in order to get her to start crawling.

I am very happy I put Serenity into nursery for 2 days a week. I had a lot of anxiety about other people looking after her and feeding her. I gave the nursery strict instructions on her diet and texture of foods and they comply with this. Serenity’s development has improved since going to nursery, she makes a lot more sounds, she can remember things and actions we do together like high fives or pointing to her ears or nose etc she has also learnt nursery rhymes! Its worked wonders for her mental development and I may think about putting her in for an extra day!

There is also funding available to help with the costs of Nursrey when they turn two years old. Your health visitor may be able to help with this in the UK.