How to Prepare Your Child for Daycare, Week by Week

Getting a child ready for daycare comes down to a pediatrician visit, a handful of forms, and a few weeks of nudging naps and meals toward the center’s clock. Illinois asks for a recent physical and an up-to-date shot record before a child can be enrolled, and Chicago adds a lead screening. Where you start depends on your child’s age, your start date, and whether they are coming from home, a nanny or a grandparent.

So, you’ve picked a daycare center for your little one and you have a start date already written down in your calendar. That was the hardest part, so what’s left now is a month of small tasks and preparation. The pediatrician appointment comes first, since it has the longest wait attached, and everything else fits around it: the enrollment forms, a visit to see what the room looks like, and a few weeks of gently moving your child’s schedule closer to the center’s. It can be a stressful month, trying to make sure you’ve got everything checked off your list. 

Luckily, this guide runs through it all in order: the starting date, what Illinois and Chicago require before day one, the visit you are entitled to, and a four-week countdown for naps, meals, cups and mornings, with a note at the end on how the list changes by age.

Pick the starting date first

You should aim to start daycare one to two weeks before you go back to work. That gap is where the early mornings get rehearsed, the first cold gets caught (and dealt with), and you find out exactly how long it takes you to get to drop-off, while you still have the day free to sort it out. Going back to work and starting daycare on the same Monday means two new routines landing on one family at once, which can double the amount of stress and anxiety. 

A useful tip to lower the stress levels for everyone is to pick a midweek start. That can be gentler than a Monday one, since the first stretch is two or three days instead of five before the weekend arrives. If your daycare center of choice offers a shorter week, use it for the first few weeks to ease into the new routine. Our toddler rooms run 2, 3 or 5 days a week, and plenty of families begin on three days and move to five once everyone is comfortable.

If you don’t have a place picked out yet, our guide to how daycare waitlists work in Chicago covers how far ahead to apply for each age, and how to choose a daycare in Chicago covers the shortlist.

What Illinois requires before your child’s first day at daycare

Every licensed center in Illinois has to have a medical report on file for your child, dated less than 6 months before their first day, showing a physical exam and an up-to-date immunization record. That comes from the state’s licensing standards for day care centers, and it applies whether the center is a nonprofit, a chain, or a family-run business. The pediatrician records it all on one form, the State of Illinois Certificate of Child Health Examination, which is the same form you will hand to a school a few years from now.

The immunizations the state wants to see on it are the routine ones on the pediatric schedule: polio, measles, mumps and rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, Hib, hepatitis B and chickenpox, each at whatever stage is due for your child’s age. The same rule asks for a lead screening or a lead risk assessment for children between 1 and 6, and a TB skin test for children over 1 who are considered at higher risk, which your pediatrician will judge. Parents who object to immunizations or exams on religious grounds can ask for a written waiver instead.

One housekeeping note: daycare licensing in Illinois moved from DCFS to the new Illinois Department of Early Childhood on July 1, 2026. The rules are the same ones, under a new letterhead.

Book the pediatrician four to six weeks out

The date on the form has to fall inside the 6 months before enrollment, so an exam from last winter will not do, and well-child appointments in Chicago are routinely booked three to four weeks ahead. Call as soon as you have a start date to make sure you’ll meet that timeline. Tell the doctor’s office you need it for daycare enrollment and ask them to complete the Illinois certificate at the visit, so you leave with the signed form in your hand.

If your child is under 1, their regular checkups at 2, 4, 6 and 9 months already cover the exam and the shots. Ask for the form to be filled in at whichever one falls closest to your start date.

The blood lead test Chicago asks for

Chicago goes one step further than the state. Under the city’s health code, every daycare center, preschool and nursery school in the city needs a note from your child’s doctor confirming that a child aged 6 months through 6 years has been screened for lead poisoning before they are admitted. The screening is a finger-prick or a small blood draw, it happens at the same well-child visit, and pediatricians in the city do it as a matter of course at the 12-month and 24-month checkups. The city asks for it because so much of Chicago’s housing was built before lead paint was banned, and the test catches a problem early enough to do something about it.

Seven of our nine centers are inside the city limits, so this applies to nearly everyone who enrolls with us. Our Elmhurst and Mount Prospect families follow the state rule instead, which asks for the screening from age 1.

Spend a morning at the daycare before day one

Before you enroll, an Illinois daycare center has to give you information about its program and, according to the licensing rules, ‘an opportunity to observe during the hours of operation.’ 

Go mid-morning or over lunch, and go with a list. When is the morning snack and when is lunch? What time do the cots or mats come out, and how dark and quiet is the room for nap time? Do the toddlers drink from open cups, straw cups or sippy cups? Is breakfast served, and until what time? How does drop-off work, and where do parents park? If you want to make sure you get answers to all the important questions, print out our list of 25 questions to ask a daycare and take it with you when you tour.

Four weeks out: move naps and meals toward the center’s schedule

Start moving your child’s meals and naps toward the center’s times now. Shift each one by 15 minutes every two or three days until they match what you wrote down at your visit. That is enough to move a schedule by an hour or more before day one without anyone noticing.

A typical toddler day at a full-day center looks something like this:

These are illustrative times, and your own center’s schedule will differ by half an hour here and there, which is exactly why you ask about it at the visit. Our centers, for instance, run from 7am to 6pm with breakfast, lunch and two snacks served in the room.

Babies under 12 months are the exception here. Infant rooms feed and nap each baby on their own schedule, so there is nothing to shift. Our guide to what to expect from infant care goes through how that works in detail.

Three weeks out: cups, bottles and eating with other people

For a baby, the one skill that makes the first week easier is taking a bottle from someone who is not a parent. If your baby is breastfed and has never had a bottle, or only takes one from you, ask your partner, a grandparent or a friend to give one feed a day for the next three weeks, at roughly the same time the center would. Babies who will happily drink from a bottle held by anyone tend to settle into an infant room much quicker.

For toddlers, practice three things over the next three weeks. The first is drinking from the kind of cup the center uses, since a child who is used to a sippy cup can be very put out by an open one at lunch. The second is eating with a spoon and their fingers, even messily, so they’re not waiting for a teacher who has several other children to help. And the third is sitting at the table for the whole meal instead of eating on the move. Ten minutes at the table, three times a day, is plenty.

Tell the center about any allergies or intolerances in writing before day one, and ask how meals are handled. At LadyBug & Friends, the kitchen is nut-free and menus are set by a clinical nutritionist, and the details are on our nutrition page. If your child eats very few things at the moment, say so on day one.

Two weeks out: rehearse the morning and the drop-off

Run the real morning plan on two or three weekdays before you actually have to. Get everyone up at the time you will need to on a daycare day, get your child dressed and fed, and leave the house at the real time. Then make the actual drive or walk to the center, and carry on to the park or back home afterwards. You’ll find out how long the whole thing takes and whether breakfast at home is realistic or if your child should eat at the center instead.

Keep the order of the morning the same every time. Your child wakes up, gets a diaper change or goes to the potty, gets dressed, eats breakfast, puts on shoes and coat, picks up their bag and heads out the door. A morning that runs in the same order can be slow one day and quick the next without the schedule falling apart.

The week before: the note, the labels and the bag

The enrollment form your center gives you runs to several pages, and the licensing rules are the reason for that. A center has to collect your child’s doctor, daytime and evening emergency contacts, every adult allowed to collect them, the hours of care, and ‘information regarding the child’s individual development, habits, medical needs and other factors critical to the child’s well-being.’ That last line is your cue to write a one-page note for the teacher before you are asked for it. Put down how your child falls asleep and what they call their comforter, the words they use for hungry, thirsty and potty, what they will not eat, what frightens them, and what calms them down. Bring the signed Illinois health certificate along with the form. 

Then comes the bag. Everything that goes into the room needs your child’s name on it, and a permanent marker on the tag is fine. For the first day, pack:

• Two complete changes of clothes, including socks, in a labeled zip bag.
• Diapers, wipes and any cream if your child is not yet potty trained, or several pairs of underwear if they are.
• Bottles, formula or expressed milk for a baby, labeled with your child’s name and the date.
• One comfort item for nap time, if your room allows it.

Your center’s own list is the one to follow, since rooms differ on things like sunscreen, sleep sacks and whether they want a water bottle from home or not.

What to expect in the first two weeks at daycare

Keep pick-up at the same time every day for the first two weeks, even if work would let you fetch your child early on a certain day. Your child does not have a watch, so they work out when you are coming by what happens right before you arrive, whether that is afternoon snack or outdoor play. If you turn up early one day, the next day they will start looking for you at snack time and the last hour will feel long to them.

Move bedtime earlier by half an hour for the first few weeks. Your child will be on their feet, talking and playing with other children for eight or nine hours, and they will come home hungrier and more tired than after a day at home.

Your child will probably also catch a cold in the first month, since they are sharing toys and cups with a new set of children. Before day one, ask the center for its sick policy, so you know what temperature sends a child home and how long they have to stay away.

During the day, let the center tell you how it’s going. At our centers, photos and updates on meals, naps and activities go out through our parent app. During week one, those updates are the quickest way to see that the schedule you spent four weeks shifting is working. If your child cries at drop-off, that is a normal part of the first weeks, and our guide to separation anxiety at daycare covers what it looks like at each age, how long it lasts and how to make the goodbye easier.

Does the list change with age?

The list gets longer as children get older, not harder. A 4-month-old needs the health form and a bottle from someone else. A 3-year-old needs those plus a cup, a spoon, a morning routine and a working knowledge of the word ‘potty.’ There is no age at which a child cannot settle into a good room with familiar adults in it.

Starting at 3 to 6 months

The list is short: the health certificate, the lead screening if you live in the city, and a bottle from an adult who is not you. Infant rooms follow each baby’s own feeding and sleeping pattern, so there is no schedule to shift. Write down your baby’s cues, how they like to be held for sleep, and how much and how often they feed, since that is what the room will run on in week one. 

Starting at 12 to 18 months

A 1-year-old is usually on two naps, or on the way down to one, and toddlers at daycare sleep once, after lunch. Ask the teachers when the children eat and nap and start moving toward those times a month out. Then ask what the children in that group use and practice with the same things at home. Some centers give toddlers open cups and others use straw cups or sippy cups, and rules on spoons, shoes and outdoor play differ from center to center. If your child can learn a few words, teach ‘more’ and ‘all done,’ the two a teacher needs most. 

Starting at 2 years old

A 2-year-old can do a great deal of their own preparation. Practice sitting for a story and a song for 10 minutes, since group time is a real part of the day in a twos room. Agree on the words your family uses for the potty and pass them on to the teacher, whether or not training has started. And talk about daycare in the order the day will happen: ‘First we eat breakfast, then we go to school, then you play, then lunch, then nap, then I come and get you.’

Starting at 3 years old or later

By 3, the preparation is mostly about independence: pulling pants up and down, washing hands, putting on a coat, or recognizing their name on a cubby. Practice those at home and praise the attempt, not the result. Children this age also do well with a visit to the room before they start, so they can find the bathroom and see where their things will be. 

What to tell a child who is 3 or older

Children aged 3 and up understand far more of what’s going on than a toddler does, and their main concern is whether you’ll come back for them or not. So, in the weeks leading up to their first day, sit down with them and walk them through the day the way it will happen. 

Tell them the name of their teacher, what the room is called, and what they’ll be doing: playing, learning, having snacks and lunch with other children, sleeping or resting after lunch, and then playing some more until they get picked up. Tell them exactly who is coming to get them and when, using a moment they’ll recognize, like ‘after lunch’ or ‘after snack time.’ 

Say it to them more than once, on different days and occasions, so it becomes ingrained in their minds. A child who knows who is picking them up, and that it happens every day without fail, has much less to be scared of. You can also emphasize the fun parts, like the friends they’ll make, how nice the teachers are, the toys they’ve not seen before, the playground, so the picture in their head is more colorful than just you leaving. 

Switching to daycare from a nanny or a grandparent

A child who has been cared for at home by one adult is used to eating when hungry, napping when tired, and having someone’s whole attention focused on them. Daycare runs on a shared clock with one adult to several children, and that is the real adjustment, more than the building or the new faces.

In the month before starting daycare, ask your nanny or your child’s grandparent to start running the center’s schedule. Lunch at the center’s lunchtime, one nap in a crib or on a mat at the center’s nap time, snacks at a table, and a cup instead of a bottle for a toddler. If your nanny is willing, a couple of mornings at a library story time or a park playgroup will get your child used to other children at close range. And bring your child’s carer on the observation visit if you can. They will spot the differences you would miss and can start closing them.

If you are still deciding between the two, our comparison of a nanny and daycare in Chicago lays out the trade-offs.

You’re not in this alone

As a parent, you don’t have to figure all of this out on your own. The teachers at your daycare center have walked hundreds of children and parents through their first weeks, and they can tell you what to say, when to say it, what you have to bring on the first day and where to buy it, and anything else you need. Any good center will offer parents support and will treat getting your child settled as part of the job, not something you have to work out at home by yourself, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.

At LadyBug & Friends, we look after children from 6 weeks to 6 years, 7am to 6pm, with meals included, at nine centers: West Loop, Lakeview, Lincoln Square, Lincoln & Jersey, Irving Park, Edgewater, Touhy and Harlem, Elmhurst and Mount Prospect. If you would like to see a room mid-morning, with the real snack time and the real nap, ask us for an observation visit and bring your list.

Frequently asked questions

How far in advance should I start preparing my child for daycare?

Four to six weeks before the start date, and the first call is to the pediatrician. Illinois requires a physical dated within 6 months of enrollment, and appointments are often booked several weeks out. Use the remaining weeks to shift naps and meals toward the center’s times, practice cups and bottles, and rehearse the morning routine.

What paperwork do I need to enroll my child in daycare in Illinois?

A completed State of Illinois Certificate of Child Health Examination, signed by your pediatrician within the 6 months before your child starts, showing a physical exam and current immunizations. Children between 1 and 6 also need a lead screening or lead risk assessment recorded. The center’s own enrollment form will ask for your child’s doctor, emergency contacts, authorized pickups and notes on their habits and needs.

Does my child need a blood lead test to start daycare in Chicago?

Yes. Chicago’s health code requires every licensed day care center, preschool and nursery school in the city to have a doctor’s statement that a child aged 6 months through 6 years has been screened for lead poisoning before admission. It is a finger-prick or small blood draw done at a routine well visit. Outside the city, the Illinois rule asks for the screening from age 1.

What is the hardest age to start daycare?

There is no single hardest age to start daycare. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that stranger anxiety commonly appears between 7 and 12 months, while separation anxiety often peaks between 12 and 24 months. How quickly a child settles varies, so avoid expecting adjustment within a fixed number of days. A consistent caregiver and a short, predictable goodbye routine can help with the transition.

Should my child start daycare before I go back to work?

Yes, by one to two weeks if you can manage it. Those days let you rehearse the morning, deal with the first cold, and iron out the commute while you still have the day free. Starting a new job and a new daycare on the same Monday puts two adjustments on one family at once.

How do I prepare a baby for daycare?

Book the pediatrician for the health certificate, and in Chicago make sure the lead screening is done from 6 months. Then get your baby used to taking a bottle from an adult who is not you, one feed a day for a few weeks. Infant rooms follow each baby’s own feeding and sleep pattern, so there is no schedule to change, but write down your baby’s cues and how they like to be settled for sleep, and hand that to the teacher on day one.