Daycare in Silkeborg Municipality, age 0-3 years

The Day Care provides a small, manageable environment with close emotional bonds to one adult.

It is the same adult, the child-minder, who tends to the child’s needs throughout the day in a comfortable atmosphere, and this will give the small child a safe and well-arranged day in the Day Care.

In the Day Care, the children take part in everyday-life, and they play an active part in the many activities and experiences that take place in a child-minder’s home. Lunch will be prepared, the table will be set, candles will be lit. There will be playing, dancing, hugging, and the children will be involved in the childminder’s family life.

The Day Care’s strength lies in its relaxed environment characterized by loving care. 

The Day Care involves nearness, intimacy, warmth and safety, all of which offers the individual child a feeling of being special.

Smoking in the child-minder’s home is prohibited during opening hours in the municipality’s Day Care.

Rooms that are primarily used as the children’s playrooms must be kept free from smoking at all times.

The inspection in the Day Care is attended to by a pedagogical leader.

To support our goal of a high-quality Day Care, we carry out an inspection duty that is built on a respectful cooperation between the childminder and the pedagogical leader.

It is our hope that the inspection will create a mutually binding dialogue regarding the didactic quality and development of the individual child-minder and in the playgroups.

The inspection consists of two tasks:

• A development task
• An authority task

If you wish to learn more, click on the “Quality in the Day Care” folder.

Up to 48 hours per week, from 6AM to 5PM, on all five weekdays.

More about schedules, dropping off and picking up:

• If you need to change the scheduled pick-up and drop-off times, this can be arranged with the child-minder no later than the day before, and always before closing hour. Changes must be kept within the openinghours of the child-minder.
  
  
• If you wish to permanently change the drop-off time, this can be arranged with the pedagogical leader or the child-minder. 
  
  
• Your child’s schedule time with the child-minder begins when you arrive with your child, and ends when you leave the home of the child-minder. If you drop off your child more than 30 minutes later than arranged, the child-minder cannot be expected to be waiting at home, for the sake of the other children.
  
  
• If the child will be picked up by other people than his/her parents, the child-minder must know this in advance.

The day care is closed due to holidays and vacation in the days listed below:

• Three days prior to Easter
• The day after Ascension Day
• Between Christmas and New Year’s
• Three weeks during the summer

We offer child-minding in four areas of the municipality during vacation hours (these will, as far as it is possible, be the same areas as the day care institutions).

If you need child-minding, please contact us via e-mail at dagplejen@silkeborg.dk and state the child’s name, birthdate, the name of your child-minder as well as the specific dates and area you wish to have your child taken care of.

Note, that if you use the social security number (CPR) of the child, you must send the information via a safe channel:

Go to til safe communication channel Digital Post 

You will get a notice in your digital mailbox confirming whether child-minding can be provided for your child no later than two weeks prior to the requested dates.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact the Day Care Office, the pedagogical leaders or the Head of the Day Care.

The child-minder is obliged to discuss all matters of the child’s well-being with the pedagogical leader.

The child-minder, as well as the Day Care Office employees, are subjugated to professional confidentiality regarding all information about the child and his/her parents and their private matters.

The confidentiality also applies to children after they have been resigned from the Day Care.

It also applies to the child-minder and the pedagogical leaders when or if they leave their official positions.

Each child-minder is affiliated with a playgroup. The child-minders of the group meet up and take part in activities with the children. It can differ from area to area how often the child-minders meet up in playgroups.

The joint efforts of the child-minders will give the children opportunities to test themselves in larger groups. They get to know other children and child-minders, which has a positive effect on the local visitorchild-minding.

The collaboration between the child-minders is also a great opportunity for collegial sounding between the child-minders. They inspire each other, and they discuss the well-being of the children in general.

It is important to us that children who need extra support receive it as early as possible. If we estimate that a child will benefit from the support of other professionals, the opening dialogue will take place in cooperation with the parents.

We work with:

• Health visitors
• Day Care-Institutions (nurseries, pre-schools, kindergartens)
• Social Workers
• PPL (Pedagogical psychological advising, mainly speech therapists, psychologists and physiotherapists)
• Pedagogical consultants and advisors
• The department of Disabled Children
• Libraries
• The Dental Care Unit
• Bilingual advisors

Since the day care is anchored in a local environment, the individual child-minder and playgroups will collaborate with specific people and areas. 

We wish to make the children’s transition from child-minding into day car- institutions as easy as possible.

As such, we have a close relationship with the local day care-institutions.

Conveyance of child-minded children

Should the child-minder wish to bring the child to a forest or a beach in his/her own car, this can only be allowed with a written permit from the parents, and only if the children are securely fastened according to the rules and regulations of The Road Traffic Act.

When using public transportation, seatbelts are not mandatory.

When you sign up your child through the digital placement service, you will have to declare if the childminder can bring your child on car trips using his/her own car.

Listed below are the questions you will have to answer:

• I consent to the fact that my child can be transported by bicycle, for didactic purpose and using safe precaution
• I consent to the fact that my child, as an exception and for didactic purpose, can be transported in a private car by a permanently employed member of the Day Care

What we aim for

We want healthy, top-quality food to be a well-known and natural concept for the children.

The food must be age-appropriate and varied.

The diet must ensure that the children receive the right amount of energy and nutrients and that this corresponds with the current recommendations of The National Health Service of Denmark.

As a way of securing the children’s inclination of eating, it is important that the meals take place in a calm and cozy atmosphere.

“We decide the meals; the children decide how much.”

Meals in the Day Care

It can be difficult for young tummies to contain large portions of food, which is why the Day Care offers up to five meals throughout the day.

In the Day Care, drinks and beverages consist mainly of water and milk.

We kindly urge parents and child-minders to work together on the subject of the child’s diet- and eating habits.

The meals take place in a calm and cozy atmosphere to promote and encourage the children’s enjoyment relating to eating.

During mealtime, we will take our time to have conversations with the children, listen to them and enjoy the food.

The child-minder will sit and eat with the children whenever this is possible. To stimulate their joy of eating and to further promote their motor function, the children can feed themselves using fingers, forks or spoons when they show an interest in doing so.

If the child is dropped off early or was unable to eat breakfast at home, the child will be able to have breakfast at the child-minder’s house.

Milk in the Day Care

The National Health Service of Denmark recommends that cowmilk should not be served to children during the entire first year of their life. Only breast milk or formula is suitable.

Cowmilk contains three times more protein than breast milk, yet is low in iron.

Research has documented that too much protein during infancy can cause excess weight later in life.

Organic food

The Day Care does not, at present time, request that food must be organic.

Diet in the Day Care

Healthy dietary habits are established during childhood and follow us into adulthood.

Many children consume most of their daily diet in the Day Care. As such, it is important that we make sure that the children can eat healthy food.

Silkeborg Municipality has a general nutrition- and dietary policy aimed at children and adolescents. Using this as a point of reference, a working party has been set up to produce a dietary policy for the Day Care.

Working with the dietary policies

Once a year, the parents’ association board discusses if any changes are necessary for the dietary policy.

When a new person is employed within the Day Care, he or she will be informed about the dietary policy.

A “dietary manual” has been produced to enlighten and inspire the child-minders.

Dietary restrictions/Special diets

Special diets are diets that are part of a child’s treatment, e.g. diets for children with diabetes.

Dietary restrictions are diets in which one or more types of food are omitted due to allergies or celiac disease (gluten intolerance).

If the child needs a special diet or dietary restrictions, the parents are REQURIED to present a dietary plan from the child’s doctor.

• Bring your own feeding bottles.

Children from other cultures

The diet presented in the Day Care is based on customary Danish food, but with respect for the dietary habits found in other cultures.

The rules of conduct and traditions of different cultures are valued, meaning that the child will never be served food that goes against the religious or cultural regulations that the child is raised with.

The child-minder and the parents arrange how to celebrate the child’s birthday.

The celebration can take place in the home of the child-minder, or the parents can invite the child-minder and the other children to a birthday party at their house.

The birthday meal can be served in exciting ways.

The food is NOT the key element. It doesn’t take much to make a day festive. Flags, flowers, candles, singing and playing can do a lot.

In the Day Care, we take photos for many purposes, both educational and to show our surroundings what takes place within the Day Care. As such, you are required to consider the following questions when you enter your child into the Day Care:

• I consent to photographs and recordings of my child being shown for didactic reasons (sparring/presentations with didactic purposes)
• I consent to photographs and recordings of my child being shown to the parents and children in the Day Care/Institution
• I consent to photographs and recordings of my child being shown on Silkeborg Municipality’s public website, including the Day Care’s/Institution’s website

It is crucial that the child is dressed appropriately for the current season. Make sure that you always bring a spare set of clothes – accidents do happen. It is important with good shoes/boots for outdoor activities, and slippers for indoor use.

We recommend Velcro fasteners. They offer the child the possibility of being self-reliant at an early age and to experience the sensation of “I can do it.”

Spacious snowsuits offer scope for individual achievement when the child is climbing, running or sitting on the damp ground.

Even children as young as 10 months will benefit from being able to experience and move around in nature, instead of sitting passively in a pram.

Memo:

• Diapers
• Underwear
• Bibs
• Soft toy
• Dummies/Pacifiers
• Towels
• Disposable wash cloths
• Tissues in case of a cold
• Extra clothes
• Boots/shoes for outdoor use
• Rainwear/Wellies
• Snowsuit, cap, gloves, scarf
• Slippers (indoor shoes)
• Plastic bags for dirty laundry
• Duvet and pillow
• Prams with approved harness, bug net and rain cover

The child-minders are happy to guide you regarding clothing and footwear. For the children’s safety, strings and cords (from clothes, jackets, etc.) must be replaced with elastic bands.

Pacifier strings are advised against.

What happens if your child-minder is ill?

You will be notified early in the morning by telephone in order to arrange visitor child-minding for your child.

Visitor child-minding means that your child, for various reasons, visits another child-minder and will be taken care of as a visiting-child for a temporary amount of time.

In our Day Care, we always guarantee that your child can stay with another child-minder, if your childminder is on vacation or ill.

It is an important part of our job to make you and your child as comfortable as possible with the visitor child-minding.

In some areas, child-minders are employed with permanent spots for visiting children, and they always welcome children from their other colleagues.

The child’s main child-minder will visit the temporary child-minder as far as this is possible.

Parents are always welcome to visit your temporary child-minder before placing your child in their care.

• Your temporary child-minder’s most important job is to create confidence and a good everyday-life that includes the needs of every individual child
• The child-minders visit the temporary child-minders 
• Parents are always welcome to visit, before your child is placed with the temporary child-minder

What happens if your child is ill?

If your child is ill:

We cannot accept sick children in the Day Care.

The child is considered sick, if her/his normal state is affected and he/she cannot take part in the normal day-to-day activities.

Notifying the child-minder

You must notify your child-minder, if your child is ill and will stay at home.

Ready to return?

Whether or not the child is feeling well enough to return to the child-minder can be assessed from the following:

• The child is eating and drinking regularly
• The child does not have a fever
• The child is back to his/her stable mood
• The child shows an interest in playing
• The child can partake in everyday-life in child-minder’s care

Read the Health Visitor’s guide regarding illness – and pain relieving medications at the bottom of this page.

In the Day Care, we approve child-minding homes with pets.

Hygiene and safety measures must be met. The child-minder and the pedagogical leader are responsible for this.

Silkeborg Municipality’s child-minders are under the impression that many children frequently receive painrelieving medications (Panodil; paracetamol) when they are ill.

Children under the age of 2 should, in principle, never be given pain-relievers without a doctor’s advice.

This means that you must always contact your family doctor if you suspect that your child needs painrelieving medication.

As a parent, the very best thing you can do when your child is ill or feeling unwell, is to provide care, attentiveness, and plenty of water and food that meets your child’s appetite.

Children can become well and healthy in a matter of hours – but they can also develop critical illness in a matter of hours.

To prevent illness, hygiene and hand sanitation is crucial for both you and your child. Hand sanitation can reduce the number of sick days for everyone.

Always wash your hands before mealtimes and cooking food – and after going to the bathroom and blowing your nose.

Your child’s immune system – and yours, too – is strengthened by a happy, stress-free everyday life, a healthy diet, sleeping an age-appropriate number of hours at night, fresh air, play, and exercise.

If your child has been home due to illness, he/she can return to the day care when he/she is healthy and feeling well, has no fever, shows no signs of contagiousness, does not need more care than on a normal day, and when he/she can handle standard activities without difficulty.

Advice or guidance

You are always welcome to contact Silkeborg Municipality’s Health Visitors’ telephone: 8970 1727 – if you need advice or guidance.