With fewer families being able to support a stay-at-home parent, more and more children are spending their days with child-care professionals.

One of the most daunting tasks a parent will face before heading back into the workforce is lining up child care they feel comfortable with. Before returning to work, parents have many decisions to make, many of which begin months before a child's birth.

Stephanie Berning, news editor for WFSB.com and a former nanny, writes biweekly about early childhood development for WFSB.com's Junior 3 section. E-mail Stephanie with your story ideas

When looking into child care, parents must decide whether they want to bring their children to a day care center, hire a nanny or rely on family and friends to help out. If choosing a day care, will it be a home or a center?

Before making any decisions, you must first determine what the needs of your family are.

• Do you work regular 9-to-5 hours?
• Are you going to need child care on occasional nights and weekends?
• Do you have business trips that take you out of town often?
• What kind of child care do you think best follows your philosophies on raising children?

If opting to use friends and family, be sure that you can rely on them on a regular basis and make sure they understand that caring for children may be more of a responsibility than they think. If using family, be prepared to find an alternative should it not work out.

Another consideration when choosing child care is how much you're looking to spend. If you only have one child, a center would be the most cost-effective. A nanny is often cheaper, however, than paying day care tuition for multiple children. Home day cares are generally the least expensive.

Do Your Research

Whether choosing a day care or nanny, I cannot express enough the importance of doing your research.

I worked for a family once that had encountered problems from not thoroughly checking the background of a nanny. The nanny responded to an ad the family posted in a local newspaper. The family interviewed her and checked non-child-care related references.

It turned out the nanny, who they hired for a live-in situation, had mental health, drug and alcohol problems. The problems didn't come to light until several months into her employment.

In the course of having to constantly call the police and find an emergency nanny to care for the children, the family discovered that she had been drinking on the job and had emptied their liquor cabinet, replacing the contents of the bottles with water.

The same problems can be encountered with out-of-home care. A couple of weeks ago, police said they found teens operating a home day care in Stamford (Related Story). Police allege the woman in charge of the day care had gone to Florida and left her teenage children in charge of the center.

If hiring a nanny, thoroughly check child-care references and do a criminal background check before leaving them with your children. Background checks can be ordered through the state for a fee, or you can hire an independent company to screen your candidates for you.

If your nanny is going to be responsible for driving your children, make sure you get a copy of their driving record before they get behind the wheel.

When choosing a day care center, whether a home center or company run, make sure they are licensed and check if they have any violations against them. The state has great resources on its 211 child care Web site with information on all licensed facilities.

I must stress that no matter how cost-effective it is, never go with an unlicensed facility. Many run under illegal conditions that parents are unaware of until it's too late.

Choosing A Nanny

Author of the "Nanny To The Rescue" book series and International Nanny Association's 2004 Nanny of the Year, Michelle LaRowe, advises parents that "you get what you pay for."

LaRowe is an advocate of parents choosing professional nannies and strongly advises parents to utilize agencies in their search.

"Everyone wants Mary Poppins, not Scary Poppins." - Michelle LaRowe Author & International Nanny Association's 2004 Nanny of the Year

"It's always well worth it to go through a nanny agency," she said. "They offer a pool of pre-screened candidates who are not nannies because they have to be, but because they have a working knowledge and general love of children."

Nanny agencies generally charge a placement fee, but perform criminal background and driving checks and are regulated and licensed by the state. A lot of agencies also offer guarantees and replacement nannies.

LaRowe said agencies that are members of the Alliance of Professional Nanny Associations must meet strict guidelines to maintain membership, including having proper licenses and insurance.

If opting to find a nanny on your own, make sure you find someone who isn’t just looking for job to pay the bills, but is a nanny by profession and loves the job they do. A good nanny should be nearly as picky in choosing a family as the family is in choosing her.

"Everyone wants Mary Poppins, not Scary Poppins," LaRowe said.

LaRowe said that when you hire a nanny, you’re the employer, you can tell the nanny how to operate individualized care for your children, which day cares often can’t offer.

The Difference Between A Nanny And An Au Pair

Anyone looking for quality child care should steer away from using au pairs, LaRowe said.

She said the au pair program is regulated by the Department of Travel and Tourism and is marketed to parents a cheap alternative to child care.

"It's marketed to au pairs as a way to experience American life and America," she said. "They think they're going to come and see American life and party and then they end up changing diapers."

She said parents often don’t realize how many costs are associated with au pairs. Parents are required to provide au pairs with housing, a stipend, pay for college credits and cover phone bills to their home countries.

Finding A Day Care Center

Start your day care search well before you need to enroll your child. Day cares have limits on how many children they can accept, and the number of licensed ones with openings for babies in Connecticut is dwindling.

If you're planning on enrolling your baby in day care after maternity or parental leave, start looking during pregnancy. My friend put her name on the waiting list of her dream day care when she was three months pregnant, but a spot didn’t open up until close to her daughter's first birthday.

I think the biggest argument in support of enrolling your child at a day care center is the social interaction you would be pressed to find anywhere else (although LaRowe would disagree).

While many nannies do work to engage their charges socially by arranging play dates, children who may be developing slowly socially may benefit from being around children their own age at a center.

I nannied for a set of twins whose slow speech development led them to biweekly sessions with a speech therapist. While working with the therapist and play dates helped their development, their language skills didn't really start to blossom until they began going to preschool.

I have another friend whose son will soon turn 2 and didn't start putting together complete sentences until he started day care.

When looking for a day care, check to see if the center is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. NAEYC sets the strictest industry standards and obtaining accreditation is completely voluntary. To maintain the accreditation, centers must adhere to standards stricter than those set by the state.

Home Day Cares

Home day care centers generally offer smaller class sizes, a comfortable setting and more flexible hours than child-care centers. Licensed home care centers are regulated by the state, but don’t have to answer to corporate offices like child-care facilities.

Try to find a home day care that is a member of the National Association For Family Child Care. The association's accreditation, much like the NAEYC is stricter than regulations set by the state.

LaRowe said that at a home day care, you often don’t know who is coming and going from the house.

Day care centers screen all of their workers, and usually even screen those who might come in to perform work on the center.

Children who attend home day cares as opposed to center day cares are often less sick. Kids tend to catch a lot of communicable illnesses in centers because of the amount of traffic and germs.

Whatever you choose, remember to play an active role in your child's care. Check in with teachers, directors or nannies. Tell them if you're unhappy with your child's care, and always ask questions. Being actively involved in you child's care doesn't make you a meddling parent, it makes you a better one.

With childhood obesity on the rise, deciding what to fill your children's bellies with can be intimidating. In my next column, I'll take a look at childhood nutrition and how to positively influence your child's taste buds for life.