Seeking a babysitter for my young boy starting in March -a couple trial days in February. I'll be going back to work in March. My lil one will only be four months then. He's our first and only so we are extremely concerned about finding the right caregiver. There are so many horror stories out there about abusive and negligent sitters or daycares. Newborns are especially demanding of patience and I find it hard to trust a stranger to be as gentle as we are with our lil one.

So far I can only find a payed site online, care.com and I can't afford the membership fee to find a suitable sitter. I'm not comfortable with kijiji either. So how do you find a sitter if you know few people and your family aren't able?

Does anyone know of a better site or agency? Do you have a particular sitter in the Ottawa area that you found exceptional to refer?