WOW...eww.. yuck.. no

I now remember why I was against daycares in the first place. Talk about a toxic nightmare. I left there in tears thinking about if this was my only/last option and how I couldn't do it. I sat in with the 10-13 month group. The first thing that caught my attention was the dust and dirt all under the plastic cribs that the babies were crawling under. Then the corners which were crusted with grime. There were 7 children there, all in which had runny snotty noses. And each time that a teacher would clean their nose (which took a little while for them to get to) they would start running again. Which led me to ask what the sick policy was. Fevers of 101 would get them sent home. Wow, it takes a child to be that sick to not be there. I then ask if sick kids go to different rooms. No. As I ask this, the snotty nosed child drops his toy, which he's been teething on, and another baby picks it up and it goes straight to her mouth. This happens several times, so I ask how they clean the toys. I mean, shouldn't there be a yucky bucket so they don't pass germs? I get the answer, they bleach the toys during naptime and when they leave. BLEACH! My heart jumped out of my chest at the thought of an infant sucking on a toy that had just been soaking in bleach. No matter how diluted. This is 2009, there are MANY non-toxic cleaners that kill 99.9% of germs. So then I start surveying the room at the toys. My heart is racing as I glance at all of the plastic Elmo and Cookie Monsters. Not that I have anything against Sesame Street, it's just those are the toys that are normally on the recall list. Then there are tons of other mindless plastic toys filling the shelves. I then start thinking if anything had been recalled and did they know it or not. Those of you that know my toxic fears, know it took everything out of me to not say a word and to play it cool. At least the government has recognized my fears and on Feb. 10 the new law will go into affect that no toy sold shall have .01% of lead or pthalates. But, that doesn't mean they have to ditch those toys and buy new ones. I then watch the teachers give the infants hand fulls of cookies, which then it really hit me that Ella's diet would be affected on top of everything else. So everything I've believed in as a parent and raising my child would have to change for $400 a month. Is it worth it?? No. I can't bring myself to pay a center $230 a week so they can allow my healthy child to be exposed to sickness, toxins, poor diet and cheap education. What am I going to do?