When my wife and I were preparing to send our first child to daycare, one of our first concerns was “What do they need to wear? Do we need to buy more new clothes?!”. Daycares can have many requirements about things you need to bring with your child, and choosing their clothes can be more important than you think.
Choose clothes that are clean, without tears, durable, and appropriate for the weather that day and your child’s activity level. You should also check your daycare’s parent manual for guidance. If you are unsure whether to dress warmly or not, consider using layers which will allow your child’s teacher to decide.
Choose activity level appropriate clothing
If your baby isn’t crawling or is just starting, a footed pajama or simple onesie is perfectly fine. That will keep them comfortable, and diapers are usually quite accessible, so your child’s teacher will be happy as well.
When your baby is crawling or walking, you should start making sure their legs and feet are covered so that they don’t develop sores from the friction with the carpeted floors.
Provide good backup options
Your daycare will typically ask you to leave at least one set of spare clothes at the daycare. In addition to having those clothes there for emergencies, also think about how they can help poor early morning clothing decisions.
There have been times when a day was colder or warmer than we had expected, so your children’s teachers switched them to the emergency clothes because those clothes were a better match for the day.
This does require you to think about the emergency clothes regularly and pro-actively switch them out as the seasons change. Often it is very hard to do this, and you completely forget about them until they are needed and don’t fit.
Some other things to think about
- Your child will likely have at least several poopy diaper blow-outs. We all hate it, but it happens even to the best of teachers. So be sure to chose clothes that are easy to remove and clean. The teachers will appreciate it and it might save you from having to throw out stained clothes.
- Think about the other parents. Dressing your child when staying at home is much different than when going out. I’m not saying you should bow to peer pressure, but think about how others in the daycare might view you and your child because of their clothes. We don’t dress our children in fancy clothes like some parents, but our standard for daycare clothes in a little higher than our standards at home.
- During your initial tour, and the days or weeks after your child starts, to see what other children are wearing. That can give you a good baseline of what is generally accepted.
- Let your and/or your child’s personality shine through. Don’t worry about choosing boring, uniform-like clothes to send your child in. Feel free to choose clothes that might be conversation starters or reflect things your child is currently interested it. Your child will be excited, and everyone at the daycare will enjoy it as well.