To read a further point of view from a nanny, and one who was laid off every year after the children get more attached to them than the mother then I thoroughly recommend The Nanny Diaries cant remember the author sorry, its set in New York and I think its coming out as a film soon.

Jennifer Wilson, Glasgow, Scotland

If children are thrust into a very competitive environment such as a nursery at a very early age, it is not surprising that they might become either aggressive or withdrawn. Both are reactions to feeling insecure. It's no good Mums saying "Well my child is ok - he's in day care and is happy, therefore it must be ok"- that's a bit like saying we know 90 year olds who have smoked 60 a day and therefore smoking doesn't cause cancer.
As a former teacher, who has worked with children with language or literacy problems, and now a parent and life coach, I feel convinced that most children do best at home with a parent in a 1:1 situation until they are at least 3 years old. The language skills of children who spend all their time in day care are far worse than others who have a 1:1 relationship with an adult - simply because they are picking up language all the time.

Glynis Kozma of Aspire Coaching, Herts,

We know for certain that a child needs interaction with its mother and the environment of its home during the first two years and three months of its life. We know for certain now that the human baby ought to have stayed in the womb for three years - not for only nine months.
We managed to live together with the older generation in our homes for so long that the fiirst years became like an incubator for the baby.
That is how the human brain developed into what it was a few hundred years ago.
Now we are losing this insight - and we are losing to the cicvilizations that still tend to their children - not to their purse.

Eva Sternberg, Gothennburg, Sweden

Eleanor Mills says she is not having a go at working mums - sounds like it to me! And she's well aware she is, what with her quote about "hard hat firmly on". It saddens me to think that her view of nurseries has been tainted by her nanny's experience - perhaps this woman was never cut out to work in a nursery?????

There is plenty of research being undertaken that counter argues this article. For example, Bristol University ALSPAC study has shown that there nursery care children are no worse off than those looked after at home, or by one individual carer. I truly believe that it's all down to whether parents feel their chosen nursery is a good one, and whether their child comes from a loving home environment. There is an enormous difference between excellent day care and mediocre day care. But that distinction, crucial as it is to the children who experience it and to their parents, often is lost on the rest of the world.

Alastair Mitchell, Glasgow, UK

I totally disagree with the comments in this article, and I think they are very misleading. So there has been a study undertaken on government neighbourhood nurseries scheme- how many nurseries were involved? What is the social background of the children involved in the study? How many children participated? Did these children already have behavioural difficulties? Furthermore, ADD statistics - what's to say these children wouldn't have gone on to develop ADD even if they were cared for in the home? Similar questions can be applied to the BMJ article.
Who are the experts who ask "Is it coincidence that the quadrupling of group daycare in the last 20 years has been accompanied by a 70% rise in adolescent mental health problems?" Isn't it possible there has been a rise because more people seek help than what they did before?
It's too easy to lay the blame on daycare. An extremely unbalanced article. And yes, I am a mother of a child in daycare. And he LOVES it!

Fiona Mackinlay, Glasgow, UK

I was very impressed with how clearly Eleanor Mills explained the way that loving interaction grows a baby's brain, and how unlikely it was that paid carers in a mass setting could ever give this kind of care. It took me the whole of a book (Raising Babies:should under three's go to nursery?)
to set out this argument and the supporting evidence, and I am not sure I did it as well.

I also thought she was very lucky in her choice of a nanny, and like the older mother in Lausanne, felt a bit sad about the loss of contact that she might have suffered which this Nanny experienced instead. But its a brave article
nontheless. Love takes a bit of fighting for in this cold world.

father, psychologist and author

Steve Biddulph, Launceston , Australia

Eleanor ...
Excellent article...well researched. I am going to share this with many parents and professionals. Informing families allow them to determine their individual needs -- and can help drive governmental support ... parents need to speak up!

I will use your comments in upcoming support groups for parents and caregivers.

Thank you! t.

jctorirae, owasso, ok

isn't that just the point. Your child needs you. You probably took a conscious decision to have a child. You never know how you might feel as a mother, but nursery care for the bulk of the day surely is the last resort. Children are all different and very individual in their different emotional needs. How can a nursery hope to provide this. If you have to put your child in nursery all day why not think more seriously about having a child in the first place.

outspokenmummy, tunbridge wells, uk

I have this rather sad thing to say: Do you Eleanor Mills think that what you have written here today is worth your very young children missing you at home? Would you call this work more important than the safety , sense of security and best of all, 24 hour love and discipline that being at home would give your two wee folk . Are you aware that your pay packet and what you can buy with it, and your sense of achievement in the working world obviously weigh heavier on the scale than your little people?

old Mummy, Lausanne, Switzerland

this is something most childminders have know for years, that children up to the age of 4/5 years need to be looked after by much smaller groups, not by large industrial nurseries. Why cant the government take childminders seriously and help with the cost of being a childminder.
most childminders don't earn the minimum wage and many earn only half the minimum wage, on top of that they have to pay for their own training and make sometimes very expensive changes to their own homes, all of which has to come out of their own pocket. ofsted are also trying to change them into nurseries by introducing yet more paperwork-so much for wanting to care for children now its just more and more form filling and less time playing with the very youngest babies and children.

Carol Hume, Feering, Essex

Doesn't this just mean that the quality of childcare is the issue, rather than anything else? I find it difficult to believe that one-to-one childcare is the only solution. A nanny is far too expensive for most women yet having one parent staying at home full-time is also not within everyone's financial reach.
I find the claims of a direct link between group childcare from a young age and problems in adolescence dubious also. The Nordic countries routinely have day care and have had for the past 30 years. It is, however, govt subsidised and of high quality. I don't think these countries are regarded as hotbeds of violence and aggression so clearly group childcare CAN work when it is done properly in a context of social equality. The problem in Britain is that childcare is entirely determined by household budget, and low earners who live away from their families have very little choice but to plump for the cheap, industrial nursery. What else do you expect with no support?

MB, Edinburgh,