This ended up being a tough Tip Sheet to write, and in a sense it's not finished yet. As one poster said last week, choosing a place for your child to spend his or her days while you're at work is one of the most important and personal decisions you can make as a parent.

So it feels like more than any other, this list depends on specific recommendations from parents who have actually used child-care providers in Baltimore City. We didn't get many different names, which I think is in part a reflection on the paucity of good options out there in the city. Especially for infants, the competition can be tough, and the monthly cost easily higher than your mortgage.

We did get a lot of one name: Downtown Baltimore Child Care. (You can read what parents had to say here and here.) My children didn't attend, but I know lots of parents whose children did, and all the families seemed to love it. There are two locations in the downtown area, and one takes babies as young as 4 months.

Here are a few others I've heard good things about:

--Tide Point Day Care in Locust Point announced it would close in August, but has apparently found a way to stay open. It's one of the few day care centers that takes small infants and stays open past 5:30 p.m., if that's what you need.

--I've mentioned Govans Presbyterian Preschool before. We were there for years and loved it, but it's only for kids over 2. It does, however, have uniquely flexible hours, which let families choose everything from a couple of hours of morning preschool a couple times a week to full-time care.

--Cleo likes Cedarcroft School, 419 Cedarcroft Road, 410-435-0905, for preschool, as do other parents I know.

--Baltomommie mentions Bryn Mawr Little School, which also takes infants, and A Child's Place, for kids 3 - 6.

Now I'm hoping you'll chime in with your experiences at these places and others, with tips for parents just wading into this.