Good for you, jm1812, and I hope you’re successful.
I missed out on my first year of credits because my DD didn’t claim Child Benefit. As you’ll know, you can only claim the credits in the October following the end of the tax year you’re claiming for, so I didn’t know there would be a problem until it was too late. I appealed, as the guidance online at the time just said that the parent of the child being looked after had to be eligible to receive Child Benefit, which DD obviously was, as the mother of a 2 year old. My appeal was turned down - apparently I should have realised that the powers that be wouldn’t know that she was eligible if she didn’t claim.
I was advised at he time that DD should ring up and simply say that she wanted to confirm that she was eligible for CB but did not want to claim it. Once she’d done this I could get credits for future years, but could not have the missing year backdated. I’ve heard though that the simple phone call has now been replaced by a long, daunting form to fill in.