Childcare for babies

[khowarth]

My husband and I will be moving to Singapore in May. As we will both be working we will require full time childcare for our son who is currently 5 months old. We will be living close to Orchard Rd.I will not commence work unitl August. Is a full time maid the only available childcare? If so, are there any tips for acquiring a maid as I am concerned about leaving my child with an unsupervised maid.

[tlixl]

Try contacting the Ministry of Community Development and Sports' Child Care Services Branch at (65)3548368, or try the website at "http://www.gov.sg/mcds/ccs". They might be able to help you, tho perhaps not for a child so young. Some elderly women also look after children in their home - there's a very good one in my neighbourhood who took care of my youngest brother from the time he was under a year old for ~S$300/mth. Mostly you can only find pple like her through word-of-mouth, though. Don't know anything else that might help. Most child care places I know abt are for kids above 2 yrs.

[AA]

Try contacting the KK Hospital.  This is a maternity hospital, very new, very modern and very central as well.  I remember seeing a newspaper article that they take in babies as young as 2 months old.  The fees may be on the high side though and I think the places are very limited.  Worth checking out.  Sorry I couldn't locate the phone number for you to call - perhaps another netuser may be able to help out.

[expat]

Check this site for the messageboard under Careers & Employment. There are some good suggestions there about having nannies - perhaps you could do a nanny-share with another expat family.

I agree about your concerns with a maid after seeing the message here about the maid who was ill-treating a child in her care; I guess the maid resented having to do all the housework as well as mind the baby. Or another family I knew (husband is American and his wife runs a jewellery business in Singapore) employed two maids; one to do the housework and the other one to look after the children.