I have no experience or information about the day cares. I will be start working soon and my 6 month old will need to be attended either in a day care or at home by baby sitter. How much a good day care costs on average.
If you did work how did you manage to take care of the babies? Do you prefer day cares or nannies?
Re: Day Cares
I don't have any direct experiences with daycares as I never used them. I chose to stop working outside the home until my children were kindergarten age. But from what I have heard from friends and coworkers, daycare can run anywhere from $1000-$1500 a month, depending on where you choose to send your baby (run of the mill daycare vs a fancy shmancy montessori based daycare). I live in Texas, but I'm pretty sure these prices are standard across the US.
Another option I've seen are the desi aunties that do babysitting from their homes. They will be considerably cheaper. There is a desi aunty I know of who started babysitting from her apartment after her husband was deported. She had no other way to earn an income, so this was a good way. She charges $3/hr, and a little bit more if she has to supply the breakfast/lunch (meaning her cooked food).
Most of my girlfriends had their mothers or MIL's watch their babies for the first year or year and a half, and then resorted to daycare.
It can get very costly. I would weigh the pros and cons..sometimes it will cost you more to send your baby to daycare than you would be earning and bringing home.
Re: Day Cares
I tried going back to work when munchkin was 5 months, that didnt work… and then when she was almost a year, tried again… and I really disliked the childcare/daycare.
At 18 months, I eventually put munchkin into the same daycare I tried when she was 5 months, and she was there till she was ready for school (so about 3.5 years).
The reason why I opted for a daycare as opposed to nannies was because I found the daycare a lot more safer and secure and it also allowed munchkin to interact with other kids, learn (in terms of eating, dressing, literacy, maths etc). Also, the daycare happened to be located in the CBD and stayed open for a lot longer than the suburban daycares. We wanted to not be rushing after work through traffic to pick her up, so opted for somethign that would be close to us, incase of emergencies or just pure convenience. It also gave us time in the morning and after work to spend with her 
I truely believe, if I hadnt sent her, she wouldnt be the social bee she is now 
She’s mashallah an extremely confident child and very aware of her surroundings.
Re: Day Cares
I agree with khattichic.
Do your research. Go around and visit places. Daycares sometimes ask you to setup an appointment but I always went without appointment to check how everything was.
Visit as many places as you can and if you go the babysitter route again visit as many as you can and then decide. In daycare meet the teacher where your child is going to be placed. Ask how long has the teacher been in that class. The child gets attached to the teacher and you dont want the teacher to be changing every month or so. Its very disturbing for the child.
If both you and husband are working make sure the place where you send your child is close to one of you so you can pick the child up easily in case of an emergency or you dont get stuck in traffic etc.
You would need to supply diapers, wipes, food etc so include that in your cost as well.
Re: Day Cares
In our area, the day car cost about $1200 and that too for a half day.. I was super upset knowing that they keep the baby only until 12:00pm.. i checked with a desi auntie but she wasn't first aid or CPR certified and I didnt want to send my baby there. I was offered by a bahu of another desi auntie and she wanted to charge $10/hour and still call it a favor.. I didnt get good vibes from her!
My mom stayed with us for a while and later husband and I switched hours.. I work days and he works evenings and weekends.. Alhamdulillah we had that flexibility otherwise one of us would have quit working for sure.
See what works best for you.. it can be expensive and sometimes not worth it.
Personally I would probably opt for an institutional day care than the home run business or nannies just because of the safety factor but then again I have no experience so cant say anything about it. Also, I wasnt comfortable sending my baby to a place until he can talk so I didnt invest too much time in it.
visit and do as much research as possible.. after all it's a matter of your child!!!
Re: Day Cares
My mom had been staying with us for a while but went to pakistan for about 4 month (returns today :) ) Anyways, i looked into several daycares by our house and the good onces were charging anywhere from $1000-$1500 per month. I was really worried abt him getting sick while at a day care...so when a cousin recd. a desi auntie and i spoke to her and meet up with her before my mom left...checked out her house, asked several questions (such as how many other kids will she have while taking care of mine, who else will be in the house, how long has she be doing this, her charges etc...) Alhamdulillah she is great. My little one loves it at her place, and she only has one other kid to take care (i love this fact since less chances of my baby getting germs, n of course he gets more attentions.) He is charging us $800 per month.