Introduction: The transition from a family to a new child care environment is the first major transition in a child's life. Babies and toddlers during this period are not yet emotionally and cognitively mature enough to be able to regulate their own emotional states during separation from their parents for longer periods of the day, so they feel distressed when entering child care. Purpose: The purpose of the diploma work is to review the literature and to identify the child's experience of the transition from a safe family environment to a new and strange child care environment. Methods: The descriptive method of work was used in the diploma work, with a review of professional and scientific literature. We included articles published in the last 10 years (2012–2021). Sources were searched in Taylor & Francis Online, ERIC, ScienceDirect and PubMed. The PRISMA diagram shows the flow of the literature review. Results: The main stressors for infants and toddlers when entering child care are: separation from parents, the new child care environment, unfamiliar people and new routines, and social interactions with peers. The results showed significantly higher cortisol levels during the separation phase, while cortisol levels were only slightly elevated when the parents were still present. Elevated cortisol levels were still observed after 4–6 weeks in child care. The cortisol pattern of toddlers in child care differs from that in the family environment. The number of hours the child spends in child care, the age of the child and the child's secure attachment to the child care teacher have been shown to be important factors in relation to cortisol secretion. Discussion and conclusion: We have found that infants and toddlers face several stressors at once when they enter child care, so the transition can be an emotionally challenging and long process for them. Most of the time, the children hardly showed any signs of positive mood and for a while they continued to show signs of separation anxiety. We were reassured to find that the children calmed down later in the home environment and no longer felt internal distress, as they had significantly lower cortisol levels in the evening. One of the main limitations of the diploma work is the poor availability of independent research on children's experiences (and behaviour change) in the transition from family to child care. In future work, it would be useful to investigate what children experience when they enter child care in the Slovenian context. In addition to the need for further research, it would be sensibly to include the topic of the transition from the family to the child care environment in the preparation for childbirth and parenthood and postpartum midwifery treatment, as midwives would prepare parents in advance for this important period of transition to out-of-family environment.
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