Know Your Infant

Digital Information Kit for Families with Infants/Toddlers. Created by Alina Qurshi for HDFS 2410. Click links to the right to access project and specific elements!

[know-your-infant]

Sources included in infographic!

[know-your-infant]

Children’s Literature

Reading my seem a bit too advanced for infants and toddlers, however it is very important for early brain stimulation and language accessibility. The act of, “Reading with infants and toddlers contributes to the development of language and prereading skills. But more important, it encourages the interaction of the early childhood professional and the child” (Hasson, E.A, 1991).

All Are Welcome

This book is about everyone having a place in the world. I think this is a good book for toddler aged kids because it can help prepare them to know that they are not alone and to respect people that are different from them. It can help children prepare for preschool and teach them how important diversity is. This book promotes self love and individuality. This book also discusses empathy and cultural sensitivity, along with gender sensitivity. It scored high on all of the rubric guidelines.

What's Inside My Lunch Box?: A Lift-the-Flap Book

This book is about lunches around the world. It has pop ups for infants and toddlers to interact with, all while talking about healthy meals and culture. For example, the American lunch has chicken tenders, milk, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, broccoli, and macaroni. This shows a relatively balanced meal that a child would like to eat and can teach them to be entertained by food. This is very important for child development because it can help form a relationship between food and entertainment and help the child learn to enjoy their food.

What’s in There? All About Before You Were Born

This book is very interesting. Many toddlers have questions about where they come from. A parent could use this book to quell questions like that and explain a new pregnancy/younger sibling to their child. This book talks about child formation and prenatal care in a way that is easy and not scary for a child to learn. This is important because a lot of older siblings feel left out when there is a new child in the mix and this is a way to help them feel involved.

Sources: Hasson, E.A. “Reading” with infants and toddlers. Early Childhood Educ J 19, 35–37 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01616937

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Influencing Factors: Socioeconomic Status and Prenatal Care

Healthcare is a touchy topic for most people, and there are a variety of reasons why people can’t or won’t access it. Prenatal healthcare is extremely important to maintain the wellbeing of the mother and baby. There is a large number of mothers who do not have the opportunity to access affordable healthcare, this is mainly due to socioeconomic status. Low income families cannot afford to get prenatal health care even if insurance covers a portion of the cost. America has the highest rate of maternal and infant mortalities out of any developed countries because affordable healthcare is not accessible to everyone in this country. According to the textbook, "Unfortunately, 6 percent of pregnant women in the United States wait until after the first trimester to seek prenatal care or receive none at all" (115). This causes the potential for extreme complications during the later two-thirds of the pregnancy, because a lot of issues are caught during the first trimester. Another reason why mothers do not access healthcare is because of drug and alcohol abuse before and during the pregnancy. People who abuse drugs and alcohol are often times uncomfortable with sharing their uses with a medical professional, and this is why expecting mothers do not want to go to the doctor. This can harm the baby physically during pregnancy, and cause birth defects that can impact the child's development.

Accessibility to  prenatal healthcare and healthcare in general is so important to maintain the wellbeing of everyone around us. There is actually a work study that I will be in this semester called Moms2B (Links to an external site.), which is a program run by OSU that helps high-risk, low income women gain access to childcare education and resources that can aid them in bringing a healthy, well developed child into the world. This program has dramatically improved the infant mortality rate in Ohio, and I think there should be programs like this all over the United States. My idea would be to make programs like these more accessible, and free to all mothers. Resources like this can save lives and improve healthcare barriers.

Source: Berk, L.E. & Meyers, A.B. (2016). Infants and Children: Prenatal through middle childhood (8th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Source: “Moms2B I Ohio State Obstetrics Gynecology.” I Ohio State Obstetrics Gynecology, wexnermedical.osu.edu/obstetrics-gynecology/pregnancy/moms2b.

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Influencing Factors: Culture

Culture impacts almost every aspect of an infant/toddler’s life. From the food, entertainment, and family relationships. Cultural differences are present from the beginning of a child’s life. We see this in differences in child development as well. For example, there are differences in child temperament across the world. (Berk, L.E. & Meyers, A.B, 2016). Culture affects how a child interacts with the world around them and the mindset they hold dear. A child’s first exposure to other cultures is typically a daycare or head start program. The role of the practitioner in influencing the child are arguably the most influential to the relationship between that practitioner and family/caregivers of a day care in infancy and toddlerhood. Many families chose to enroll their child into a daycare or head start, and it is very important to communicate what the family needs the practitioner to do. The way that the family views outsiders that have the function of teaching their children social norms and development is very important and can differ greatly between cultures. For example, if a parent disagrees with their child's caregiver practitioner on something that differs in their culture, the professional needs to develop a plan that respects their culture, but does not sacrifice the integrity of the way the community of daycare works. Additionally, a disagreement should not harm or restrict the child from getting access to the opportunities that the day care provides. I think values and morals should be the responsibility of the families and the child to develop, while social norms and educational skills should be the responsibilities of the practitioner. A good, communicative relationship between the parents/caregiver and the practitioner can impact their role in the child's education in years to come because if the parent works closely with the teacher and is kept abreast of what the child is doing and learning, then the parent will be much more able to help the child instead of leaving it up to the child to retain what is learned.

a. Source “Building Partnerships: Guide to Developing Relationships with Families.” ECLKC, 4 June 2020, eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/family-engagement/developing-relationships-families/building-partnerships-guide-developing. 

b. Source: Berk, L.E. & Meyers, A.B. (2016). Infants and Children: Prenatal through middle childhood (8th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

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Influencing Factors: Nutrition

Influencing Factors- Nutrition  

    Nutrition plays a very important role in childhood development, as eating can be something that exemplifies and can relate to ideas of self sufficiency, self care, and body image. Nutrition can be a valuable chance to bond with your child, “the eating experience provides not only sustenance but also an opportunity for learning” (Liu YH, 2013). Having a healthy and properly developing child can be attributed to being conscious of their nutrition and relationship with food.

   The best way to practice positive nutrition with a child is to follow some simple guidelines. The first guideline is to make sure your child is getting an adequate amount of basic nutrients and vitamins they need for their age group. If you have an infant that would be confined to formula or breastmilk, breast feeding has been proven to have more benefits than bottle feeding; if that is feasible, it is a great option to consider and explore. However, if you have an older child that eats solid food, then their diet should consist of a variety of grains, proteins, fruit, and dairy.

   The second guideline is to make nutrition a chance to learn. Nutrition can provide families with an opportunity to bond and teach their child to be self-sufficient. As a child grows and develops, their relationship with nutrition and hunger changes. Children transition from learning what hunger and fullness are, to relying on parents to satisfy their needs, to then becoming aware of hunger and how to communicate and fulfill their needs (Liu YH, 2013). Physical and mental growth through nutrition in the first few years of life can set the child up for a more productive transition to their next developmental stage. Letting children develop their own feeding habits with the help of the parent is the best way for them to practice being in control of their own needs. To do this, practice allowing your child to tell you when they are hungry, as well as how much and how quickly they want to eat by watching their disposition (Liu YH, 2013). Self sufficiency can be learned through nutrition and can extend to their childhood and beyond.

   Advances in Nutrition, Volume 6 states that, “young children with adequate nutrition, nurturant caregiving, and opportunities for early learning have the best chances of thriving”. A lack of nutrition can cause a multitude of problems involving the child’s health and development. Malnutrition (whether it be over or under eating) can affect how much a child grows and their relationship with food, body image, and their behavioral and mental health. Malnourishment can also cause physical ailments, such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.

a. Source: Liu YH, Stein MT. Feeding Behaviour of Infants and Young Children and Its Impact on Child Psychosocial and Emotional Development. In: Tremblay RE, Boivin M, Peters RDeV, eds. Faith MS, topic ed. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development[online]. http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/child-nutrition/according-experts/feeding-behaviour-infants-and-young-children-and-its-impact-child (Links to an external site.). Updated September 2013. Accessed September 15, 2020.

b. Source:Maureen M Black, Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Sylvia Fernandez Rao, Integrating Nutrition and Child Development Interventions: Scientific Basis, Evidence of Impact, and Implementation Considerations, Advances in Nutrition, Volume 6, Issue 6, November 2015, Pages 852–859, https://doi.org/10.3945/an.115.010348

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