Babies at some early childhood centres are going hungry and waiting too long to have their nappies changed, the Education Review Office says.
It has completed an eight-part series of reports advising parents on early childhood education options.
The final report was on early childhood services and looked at 74centres catering for 2031 children aged under two.
"It shows some common features of high-quality practice, such as a focus on relationships between children, teachers and families; a safe and nurturing environment; programmes that were responsive to individual children; and an attractive, well-resourced learning environment," it said. "However, there was also wide variation in the quality of education provided, with some services not providing high-quality programmes for infants and toddlers."
Some centres did not have good routines, leading to children going hungry, and waiting too long to have their nappies changed and to be put to bed.
"ERO had concerns about the quality of interactions in some centres, such as teachers not interacting with children during meal times because they were focused on cleaning tasks." it said.
Concerns were also raised about lack of compliance with official standards. Nearly half the 74 centres were not meeting all requirements.
"Parents can use this report, along with other ERO reports, to help make decisions about which early childhood services meet their aspirations," the report concluded.
Paediatrician and former children's commissioner Ian Hassall said the reports should be taken seriously.
But Early Childhood Council chief executive Sarah Farquhar said they gave a "limited snapshot".
"There may be some mismatch there between what ERO considers to be important for quality and what parents look for in terms of choosing an early childhood service," she said.
"It covers only a sample of things that parents might be interested in."
