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Infant Care – Some Thoughts About Quality
Lori Carraway
WSU Cooperative Extension Snohomish County
If you are a new parent, you are probably dealing with many decisions about returning to work and finding the best care for your baby. Feeling torn between wanting to work and wanting to be home is quite normal but not often workable. Therefore, your choice of a loving, responsive infant caregiver is a very important decision.
While you work, a caregiver provides the emotional, physical, social, and cognitive nourishment for a baby’s healthy, whole development. Most babies thrive with a relaxed, sensitive, responsive caregiver – if that caregiver is consistently available and has a deep appreciation for the infant’s uniqueness. S/he needs to be comfortable with and accepting of baby’s sensory needs such as sucking, touching objects, and body contact. S/he must also have keen observation skills and react promptly to baby’s cues.
Everyone knows that infants need to be safe, fed, changed, and bathed! Research has shown, however, that quality infant care means more than just meeting a baby’s physical needs. Does your caregiver really ENJOY babies? Does s/he use physical routines, like diaper changing, as opportunities for talking with, nuzzling, cuddling and playing with your baby? Is s/he ATTENTIVE and RESPONSIVE to baby’s subtle cues and bids for attention? Does s/he minister to the infant’s well-being consistently and calmly, even when colic or general distress overpower baby’s naturally good temperament?
Most babies will "tell" us what they need. Caregivers who INTERPRET infant signals correctly, by RESPONDING appropriately to hunger (with food) or to a bored or lonesome infant (with soothing words and body contact) teach that the world is a good place. Caregivers who PICK UP babies as they begin to cry, teach trust. Meeting an infant’s needs AT THE TIME AND IN THE WAY needs arise, fosters SECURE ATTACHMENTS. Securely attached babies have better language skills and cry less frequently at age 2 than those who are left to cry or whose schedules are designed for the adult’s convenience. Intelligence and trust grow from loving attachments with caring adults.
But
love is not enough! Developing babies need to be bathed in rich and encouraging LANGUAGE.
Gentle caregivers who offer full sentences, expressive voices, and descriptive words,
provide lasting gifts for infants ("Yes, Joey, the soft kitty uses all four of his
feet to play with the little red ball!" or "Hooray for you, Dana! You kicked the
mobile and made it jingle, jingle!"). These are the resources from which deep
language understandings and vocabularies grow. Infants also need opportunities to LEARN BY
DOING! Caregivers should offer expanding opportunities for exploration (even with mashed
potatoes!). Competent caregivers know when to intervene and when to watch. They promote
early self-confidence and curiosity. These are the foundations from which we LEARN HOW TO
LEARN.
In choosing a caregiver, you choose a partner in your child’s development. Loving and learning are inseparable in infancy. So, look for a long-term partner who delights in your child, who listens, and who works happily and openly with you.
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