Child care at home
Child care at home comes naturally to parents and there are different stages of child care at home and stages child development.
Primarily we can classify 5 stages of child development by age.
Therefore the kind of comfort required for children at home too will differ.
Child age development stages and child care at home or outside is something every new parent want to know about to be well informed about situations thay are expected to face with the child.
New parents are exited, happy, scared and a bundle of emotions to say the least….
As your tiny tot grows up from being a newborn to a difficult to manage toddler, you too grow in experience of bringing up a child.
Then comes the preschooling stage and schooling stage where your concerns are a little different than the earlier years.Then before you know it, your baby is a teenager with a mind of her own and ability to see the world differently than yours.
Each stage of upbringing a child has different joys and challenges…
Read below if you want to hear more about different stages of child care at home and tips and tricks on how you can handle different situations with ease…
Get introduced to practicing and experienced pediatrician and mother , Dr. Radhika Ananthakrishna. Watch her below speak about few basic pointers to be followed in taking day to day care of children at home.
Day to DAY Child Care at Home
- Nutrition
- Hydration
- Excercise
- Sleep
- Hygiene
- Purity of air & environment
- Visit to the Pediatrician
- Medication
- Vaccination
- Mental Health
1. Newborn assessment and tips to handle infants
Though most of the birth takes place in a secure environment of the hospitals, yet parents of newborns are anxious. You have medical staffs around for those first few days. After that child care at home is upto the care giver, mostly the parents…
If parents are aware of few basic knowhow, child care at home may become easier. At least anxiety levels would not shoot up everyday with the smallest of things.
Also parents are better prepared to decide when professional help is required, what is normal with baby, How not to panic in different situations and many more.
If you are a new parent or want to prepare yourself better for the new addition to your family, you need some TIPs for new parents..
In case you have chance for a premature baby, it is a good idea to have some basic ideas about turn of events that may occur in case of preterm babies.
This way you will not be overwhelmed and will be in a better position to handle situations.
Have a newborn assessment checklist. This may help you have a better night sleep in days to come.
As a parent you may be curious to know how your newborn see you or why baby’s look may look like a blank stare at times:)…
What are the factors to look out for in newborn babies and how their vision develops over time and what you need to keep a check on…
When is it time to visit an eye doctor if you feel there is a problem….
Read the interesting article below by eye specialist Dr. Maithri Arunkumar..
There are some common childhood complaints like fever, vomiting, abdominal pain etc that cause worry to every parent at some point.
When do you rush to the doctor immediately and when can you watch the child at home for sometime before visiting the paediatrician?
What are the signs that doctors try to check on their first visit in such cases…
Check out the below clip by paediatrician and mother, Dr.Radhika Ananthakrishna.
Common complaints and child care at home and beyond
- Fever
- Cough & Cold
- Diarrhea
- Headache
- Abdominal Pain
- Rashes
2. Toddler age group and toddler child care
Once your baby enters the toddler age from being a newborn or infancy stage, child care at home becomes a different ball game suddenly.
Baby suddenly moves around, food habit and pattern changes, may sleep and rest lesser than earlier and many more…
Toddler age range is the age of rapid changes in shape, height, intellect, communication, habits and every dimension possible.
This is also the time to prepare for preschooling years ahead. Children require certain habits and behaviours to be developed which later becomes difficult as the child grows.
Toddler age is perhaps the most important and confusing period for a parent and child care.
Behaviour at this stage is a concern and constant panic for many parents.
Toddler age discipline at every age and stage is something to watch for.
Toilet training is another important habit formation which many parents struggle with.
Healthcare and safety, hygiene, preschooling years ahead and many more.
Communication and Speech development( Why would a child start stuttering), eyesight and how vision develop, motor skill, social skills, all need to be kept in mind for children of this age as this is the start of formative years. Any couse correction if required need to start right now!
Child care at home needs new information and planning which you will receive from friends, relatives and most importantly parents of your child’s newly acquired friends from the park and the school!!.
You can also go through the link for a structured list of toddler child age development stages…
3. Preschool age and child care at home and school
This is the stage when your child is nursery age and you are thinking about how best you can start a schooling program. Child care at home and school is a pattern that parents need to adopt at this stage.
Preschool stage is also sometimes referred as pre nursery age. Broadly speaking, there are 5 things to know about preschooling your child.
You may start enquiring with the nearest kindergarden or montessory schools in your locality. You may also be in that stage now where one point of discussion with other parents is “Preschooling”:)
So, how do you decide if your child is ready for pre schooling or whether yo should wait some more? Or you may be thinking about preschool age and education benefits…
What are the factors you should keep in mind before deciding the preschool?
Will preschooling a child actually make much of a difference considering you still feel she is way too small to spend even an hour without you….
Tips from experienced parents on how to settle your child in a preschool may also help.
Well you are not alone…..most parents go through the same…
Here are some pointers that may help you decide better…
4. School going and child care at home
Now that your child is a bit grown up and ready for formal schooling, you must be having a plan already for child care at home and school.
That is why, for children who just started formal schooling, this is the foundation year for some basic habit formation.
This is the time, your child will be introduced to discipline at school and so, you need to keep in line with that.
Initial formal school days may be overwhelming to some kids as the hours are longer usually. Attention from school staff and teachers are in a different form, and regular homework pattern may be introduced with various extra curricular activities.
This is the reason, if you are a parent to a school going child, who recently started, this is a new phase of your life too.
Health of the child, whether she is getting adequate nutrition for her age and activity is to be monitored.
Hygiene, cleanliness and oral care are also two very important things that a parent needs to keep in mind with children this age.
School going students face a lot of unexpected situations in the beginning. Of course there is help at school but the fact that they need to manage all by themselves is new….
Now with the new pandemic situation where kids are doing everything online, is also entirely a new concept all by itself.
Who knows, we may be having so many changes in our regular school system to say the least.
Online or offline, no one can deny the importance of that physical touch which we miss during the pandemic.
The chatter with friends, the exchange of ideas, goofing around, the life examples by teachers, the substitution classes, the sports activities, sharing lunch room and endless fun….
We said ” School life is the best part of anyone’s life”…seems to have diluted in the pandemic…
As hope keeps us alive, there are a bunch of things as parents you can do whether your child is attending school in any form.
Though this worldwide pandemic have changed things a lot, there are also patterns that you can follow if your kid is school going age.
Engage your child in a way that helps them improve academic performance and sports.
We have a some tips and guides for parents of chldren who are attending school or planning to join formal schooling.
5. Parenting teenagers and child care at home
Before you realise, your tiny tot has grown to be a teenager.
She is already in middle school. School going children this age need your understanding in a different way than earlier.
Education for your teenage child starts getting a bit more serious and time consuming than the earlier years. That is why, this time you need to keep a fine balance between making the child independent while not it letting loose completely.
Teenagers still need guidance but they are fairly independent than before. As a result,you need to understand that and work in balance with your grown up baby.
Teenager behaviour management strategies need to be learnt while you are dealing with them. So keeping that balance between a friend and a parent is essential.
Parenting teenagers could be a little tricky at times , especially for your first child as you are inexperienced.
We often tend to think of them as kids and so expect them to behave a certain way.
But very often that does not happen at this age.
Dealing with teenagers require maturity, understanding, accepting, supporting and above all know that your kid is an individual with a mind of her own.
How much ever you want she may not always behave the way you want them to be at all times.
Moreover you can expect physiological and physical changes in your kid at this age.
As a result, your child may look, sound and behave a bit differently during adolescence but that’s completely natural. As a parent , you just need to deal with teenager behaviour and be a bit informed.
Technology is changing very fast and teenagers have easy access to all sorts of gadgets in these times. Parents have to be vigilant too. As we cannot avoid gadgets at all times, young children specially at adolescence may tend to be exposed to abusive content. That is why, parents need to carefully counsel the child if need be.
Remember your kid is one generation ahead of you.As it has always been for ages, do not expect things to be your way at all times!