China, once a model of infant day care, is now trying to regain lost ground

Cheng Qianqian, a mother of two in Shanghai, grew anxious after failing to find publicly funded day care for her 2-year-old son. After searching for help on the online platform Xiaohongshu (Red) for a month, she finally signed up with a private facility that cost almost triple her budget.

Cheng has been a stay-at-home mom since the birth of her 6-year-old daughter. When she finally decided to resume her career, she decided to put her little boy into day care.

"But when I looked around the public day-care facilities, I found that all available slots had been booked at least six months earlier," she said. "There was simply no way to find care in the middle of a term."

Many mothers resonated with Cheng's post on Xiaohongshu, sharing their experiences about how difficult it is to find affordable day care for children three years and younger.

"You have to apply at least a semester earlier," commented a user with the screenname "Momo." "Public day care usually recruits only once a year, around May, and the semester starts in September. It's almost impossible to find a place if you miss the recruitment period."

Indeed, the problem Cheng faces is widespread. According to 2024 National Health Commission survey, about a third of families with children three years and younger expected infant day care to be available, but only 7 percent could find an available opening.

That access is far lower than in many other countries: According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2018, the access rate was about 33 percent in its 38 members around the world.

The pressures of raising babies are believed to be a major factor in China's low birthrate. Nationally, births in 2023 dropped to a ratio of 2.82 percent per 1,000 population from 3.09 percent in 2015. The low birthrate is exacerbating the challenges facing an aging society because it means fewer wage earners in the future to support those in retirement.

About 90 percent of day-care facilities in China are now privately owned, according to 2023 report issued by the State Council, China's cabinet. They are either day-care classes in kindergartens or early-education institutions -- the latter being much more expensive than the former.

At the same time, most community-based public facilities, which are called "baby houses," only provide temporary services for parents who need to be away for a very short time.

"It is extremely lucky if you can find a place in publicly funded day-care facilities," said Cindy Zhang, who sent her child to a public day-care center in Shanghai's Putuo District three years ago. "In fact, parents trust public facilities more than private ones. The center where I enrolled my child had only one day-care class, with a limit of 20 babies. I followed their official WeChat account and applied as soon as registration opened. Had I been a few seconds later, I might have lost the opportunity."

Zhang said she pays 1,300 yuan (US$180) a month at the center, which also provides outdoor activities for babies and gives parents daily a report on their infants' conditions.

Private centers may provide more services, such as extended hours and activity classes, but they charge between 6,000-10,000 yuan a month. Nevertheless, parents still worry that these facilities may not be as qualified as they claim.

"As a parent, I often worried about the foods they provided at the private center -- whether they were safe for babies or nutritious enough," said Zhang Dafa, who once enrolled her baby in a facility that charged 8,000 yuan a month. "I also worried if the carers were treating babies competently or were even qualified to take care of infants."

That concern is not unfounded. There have been reports of child abuse cases in kindergartens. In one of the more highly publicized incidents, a caretaker at a kindergarten in Beijing was arrested in 2017 when multiple, scabby pinholes were found on children's legs, hips and armpits.

"This is why most parents want to keep their babies home as long as they can afford to do so or why they seek caring help from grandparents," said Zhang. "After all, children under three are vulnerable and cannot take care of themselves."

Meanwhile, Zhang and others are calling for more financial support from government to lower the cost of day care.

"When public facilities cannot meet demand, parents are forced to turn to private providers who charge way beyond what many parents can afford," she said. "And there are also suspicions that those with lower fees may not be all that well qualified."

The irony of the current situation is not lost on those with long memories. Beginning in the 1950s, China was lauded for decades for its extensive, affordable day-care system, called tuo'ersuo (托儿所), long before the practice was embraced by Western nations.

After the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949, public day care was available throughout the country, either provided by workplaces or local governments. In 1954, the country had at least 4,000 tuo'ersuo in factories, hospitals and schools.

In the mid-1990s, however, when many state-owned enterprises were handed over to the private sector, their day-care programs closed. By 2005, more than 56,660, or 70 percent of publicly funded pre-schools had disappeared, which affected baby care more than kindergartens for older children.

For almost a decade, most children have spent their first three years of life at home until they reached kindergarten age. However, in more recent years, when China's population policies changed and parents were urged to have more than one child, demand for day care rose and private entrepreneurs moved into a market largely vacated by the public sector.

Guli Guli is a day-care chain that has been operating in Shanghai and the nearby city of Hangzhou since 2017. The group now has four full-day "campuses" and seven temporary care centers, but demand for places still exceeds supply.

"Nowadays, most public day-care facilities are not especially designed for infants but rather cater to children between three and six years of age," said Su Ru, chief executive of Guli Education Group, parent firm of Guli Guli. "The two services are actually very different because children in these two age brackets have very different needs."

Su told Shanghai Daily that running a day care is very challenging. The venue needs daily disinfection and undergoes health and safety checks. Meals must ensure both food safety and balanced nutrition, and care staff need early-education knowledge and skills.

"Most parents aren't content with only babysitting-style services; they require services that assist early childhood development," Su said. "They expect their children to improve their abilities in language, cognition and athletics, as well as peer communication and adaptation to new environments. The entire market still has a long way to go."

At the recent annual sessions of the National People's Congress and China's main advisory body, delegates called for more public assistance in filling the gaps of day-care services for infants.

"We need to acknowledge that, apart from economic burdens, the costs of time, energy and potential hindrance to careers because of a baby at home are main reasons why so many young people don't want children," said lawmaker Yang Liting from Guangdong Province. "Lawmakers must promulgate regulations and service standards for day-care facilities, and education authorities need to upgrade carer skillsets and the financial support needed to strengthen the system."