Less than a
third of three year olds and just one in ten nine month olds are placed in
day-care by their parents according to the latest report from the Growing Up in
Ireland study, which is tracking the lives of 11,000 Irish children over time. 
The study
found that only 11 pc of nine month old babies were in day-care compared with
30 pc of three year olds.
Sixty-two
percent of nine months olds were looked after by one or other parent at home,
while of the remainder, 12 pc were looked after by a grandparent during part of
the day, 3 pc by an uncle or aunt, 1 pc by another relative, 7 pc by a
childminder, 3 pc by a friend or neighbour and 1 pc by an au pair or nanny.
While 30 pc
of three year olds were placed in day-care centres when their parents went to
work, 42 pc were looked after by a parent in the home, 11 pc were looked after
by a grandparent, 2 pc by an uncle or aunt, 2 pc by another relative, 10 pc by
a childminder, 2 pc by a friend or neighbour and 1 pc by an au pair or nanny.
The study
found that on average the children spend 23 hours per week in their main type
of childcare.
On the
other hand, just 50 pc of the three year old were in non-parental childcare for
eight or more hours a week.
As the
number of children in a family grew, families were less likely to place them in
non-parental care. Seventy-five percent of only children with two parents were
in non-parental care but this dropped to 51 pc when there were two or more
children.
When there
was only one parent, 73 pc of only children were put in non-parental care and
this dropped to 47 pc where there were two or more children.
This
tranche of the study has tracked the lives of the children who were nine months
old at the start of the study but are three now.
It found
that since the study began, a third of the children now had a new sibling.
It also
found that grandparents were heavily involved in the live of their
grandchildren and that between two and three percent of children had moved from
a one-parent into a two-parent family or vice versa.
