Mother Finds Success With Nanny Magazine : Child Care: Editor patterns new publication after British counterparts that are geared to families looking for household help.

A nanny magazine on the newsstands less than a year has helped make the task of finding quality child care a lot easier for American families.

Gillian Gordon, working mother of two, launched the magazine last May on the advice of her husband after she found herself short of household help.

She says that when she lived in Great Britain, she was accustomed to consulting magazines such as Nursery World or the Lady to find qualified child-care professionals. No comparable publications were available in the United States, she says.

“I was wondering where one would go to find a nanny,” said Gordon, mother of Alexandra, 3 1/2, and Liam, 15 months. The Gordons live in this New Jersey community about 10 miles from New York City.

So began Nanny Times. The first issue hit the stands last spring in the New York metropolitan area, where demand for child care is high, and in the Midwest, where many American nannies come from. It was also distributed to some hospital maternity wards and colleges with nanny training and early childhood programs.

Gordon says there was such demand that the magazine went national with the third issue.

Readers find stories on interviewing and hiring nannies and related topics, plus photos and personal ads from nursemaids and parents who are looking for each other. It also supplies information on child care as a career.

“I think more people need to be encouraged to go into it as a profession,” she said. “More women are going back to work, and a lot of people are concerned with the child-care centers and need someone to care for their children.”

Gordon points out that centers can’t answer the needs of parents who either have to work late or travel frequently.

Cathie Robertson, president of the International Nanny Assn. in San Diego, says child care is a profession. “We liken it to the nursing profession of about 100 years ago, when it was just getting started. People really did not acknowledge the importance until about World War I.

“With the nannies, it’s probably going to be a lot faster. One of the major issues we’re having in this age is child care and the importance and need for quality child care.”

While nannies are professionals and employed by families on either a live-in or live-out basis to care for children, baby-sitters require no special training and generally work on an irregular basis.

“What we’ve had to do is to educate the public to what a nanny is,” Robertson said. “A lot of people kind of think they’re an indentured servant.”

Robertson, a former nanny, and Gordon agree that the profession will peak in about five years.

“It’s going to be a huge business,” Gordon said. “It’s so hard to find somebody. We just want to make it more of a profession and encourage more people to go into it.”