The Dangers of Day Care

I visit a message board occassionally and this morning there was a message that a baby born in August of 2005 had died:

"katie is now in heaven died sept 6th she was the smartest and most beautiful little girl in the world she was a very happy and enegetic baby who had just begun to walk i dont understand why she died i dropped her off at daycare and was called 7 hours later to be told she had stopped breathing she had gone down for a nap to never be awoken im so mad and upset an cant stop crying this was the first time she was in daycare in her life and had only been their for a week and half and never took a bottle well since she was breastfed but they didnt bother checking on her for almost 3-4 hours from what the sheriff said their doing a full investigation i just cant imagine everyday is going to be with out her she is survived by her big brother whos only 2 and 1/2 and mommy"

I can't imagine what Katie's mom is going through. But it is stories like hers and like this one that make me refuse to ever put any child of mine in any day care. I'm not saying accidents can't happen at home or with a child's parent or that SIDS cannot stike at any time or place. But how much more attentive would a parent be to his or her own children rather than a complete stranger who simply gets paid to. For a parent's own child, there is so much more invested than any amount of $$$. A parent invests not only time, money, energy, effort, etc. in his or her own child but also a part of himself or herself. Just as there is no way any day care provider could take the place of a parent to that baby, there is no way any day care provider could care for that child the way its own parent could.

I'm not blaming parents who do use day care. There are circumstances when it may very well be necessary. However, personally, if was merely a matter of dollars and cents, no amount could outweigh the risk of something like this happening to one of my own children. No amount could be worth it.