Looking After Baby in Home-based Care

1001 Words3 Pages

Home based care is where the baby is looked after in a home environment, whether it’s a child minders home or their own home. The welfare and safety of the baby must be of most importance, the practitioner must ensure all the toys and play equipment are suitable for the baby depending on their age and ability and that all the toys are safe with no choking hazards. Maintaining professional relationships with the parents and the baby is essential as without a good bond with the child they wont feel safe with the practitioner, the relationship with the parents is important to ensure that information is shared correctly between the practitioner and the parent so that they are aware of any changes in the baby or the baby’s needs. Positive relationships with the baby and their parents are important to ensure that the baby feels valued and cared for. Positive relationships involve listening, respecting and supporting the baby and parents encouraging them to communicate with each other in order to meet the baby’s needs to their full potential. The practitioner must also plan to promote the baby’s development and keep the baby healthy by providing healthy food and regular exercise. The practitioner must also allow the child to have access to both indoor and outdoor environments. With home based care the baby may be in childcare often, the parents must be involved, the practitioner’s role includes keeping the parents up to date with the baby’s development, this may mean that the practitioner records what milestones the baby has reached at what age and the important things that the baby does/doesn’t do. If there are any problems with the baby then the practitioner must let the parents know at the end of each day. Routines are an extremely im... ... middle of paper ... ... through repetition of certain phrases and words in a book, picture books also help the baby learn new simple words and match them to objects such as ‘dog’. Play can be used in many ways to stimulate a baby’s development, different toys and situations will give baby’s new experiences to learn from and discover new things. Play can also help to promote the physical and social and emotional development of a baby as they will be using their muscles to move and this will help them to progress to the next stage of development, such as crawling and they will be communicating with parents/practitioners whilst playing so they will be learning how to create bonds. Meal times help to promote the baby’s social development if they sit and eat dinner with others as they will be mimicking the behaviour of the people they are with and this will set good examples for the future.

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