Essentially Kids

"I do not recommend anyone take their children to Essentially Kids. I read the DHS complaints on this place today and apparently an employee named Ms. West left a toddler in the bathroom until their parents came in looking for them. This place has more complaints and violations than any other place in Skiatook. I hate leaving lengthy reviews, but suffice to say I did not like this facility and should have read the reviews first. I was in a desperate situation needing child care asap which is why I ultimately took a chance with this daycare. Below is my actual experience with this facility: I never recieved a handout or book stating the facility's policies or procedures. I had to ask for all my receipts. They will not give them to you and you have to ask for your tax information. Jeanna the director said she only prepares them for those who ask for them. They have a bunny in the big kids room that attracts flies during the warmer months. It does not smell great either. On more than one occassion the child to teacher ration was over. At one count there were 12 kids, with one under 2 years of age in the room with one teacher. I did complain to the director, Jeanna. She said she switched the teacher's schedules to allow for another teacher, however, this still continued to happen some mornings. Maybe one of the teachers was just late a lot. I went in to drop my children off and the teacher was not in the room. I had to ask the kids where she was. She was in the kitchen cooking and the children were unsupervised. They lost all the pacifiers I sent with my youngest PLUS his winter coat. I received maybe 2 daily updates showing what my child ate, how much he slept, his daily activities, etc. My son came home on more than one occassion with a dirty or urine-full diaper. Every day it's like an easter egg hunt trying to find my youngest's coat/hat/back pack. My kids would come home covered in dirt and smelling like Pine Sol each day. It's amazing how bad the Pine Sol smell can be considering the place does not appear to have used it. Maybe it's a really fragrant air freshner. The day I told them my kids would not be back, a small bottle with pink hand sanitizer bottle was sitting on the play refrigerator in the kids area. The last straw was being told I could not leave my youngest child because he threw up the day before. I rushed from work to pick him up. I got him home and he told me his food went down the wrong hole in his mouth. He had choked on his food and thrown it up. He was running around pleased as punch as soon as we got home. The next morning the teacher told me I couldn't drop him off because he threw up at 12 and he couldn't come back for 24 hours. I protested explaining my son said his food went down the wrong pipe but she insisted I couldn't and confirmed with Jeanna the director. I told the teacher this was ridiculous, he didn't have a fever and told me he had choked on his food. He was never even sick. Of course, without a handbook to review their policies or rules I did not know this "rule". Most facilities will allow a child back as long as they have not had diarrhea or a fever. Having picked up my little one the day before they could have easily verbally notified me of this policy. I thought I was free to go to work and it turned out I could not."