Wee Care

Joshua and I are working in the Wee Care section of Mother's Choice, and we're doing childcare and staff education. 

There are 13 children in the Wee Care division of the Baby Care portion of Mother's Choice, dedicated to the care of babies and children with special needs. Most of the children have a varying degree of Down's Syndrome, but some of them appear to have other special needs as well. The younger ones, about 1 year old, are somewhat easier to care for, because they're more like very young infants. The older ones, up to 6 years old, are sometimes challenging because you find yourself expecting them to do more. It seems that even those who are close to 6 act more like 3 year olds. 

Childcare has been exactly like it sounds. During the day shifts, we arrive at 7:30 in time to start waking up the children. We change them and then feed them. Then there is an hour of random play -- the length depends somewhat on how long it takes to wake up the other children. Then there is some group singing and story telling. Then lunch. Then more play. Some of the play involves completing "homework boxes" that are assigned to each child. The occupational therapist and speech therapist assign specific skills training to the children, and the caretakers work through the tasks and mark them off. In the States, this type of play is akin to completing an IEP or individualized education plan. Josh really gets into the IEP play. It's interesting to see how certain activities, like threading a shoelace through a thick dot-to-dot picture or completing a puzzle, fulfill specific skills training. 

The staff have very high expectations for the children, particularly in behavior, and it's impressive to watch them interact with the children. One child, Joel, tends to tantrum and potentially harm himself or those closest to him, and specific staff have been assigned to him to help manage him. He's a sweet boy who likes to sing, but when he gets frustrated, he gets really loud. He will try to hit himself to get the staff to pay attention to him. Joel really likes Josh and will call him "gou gou" or big brother. When we were taking a lunch break, Joel actually dragged the other staff member around looking for gou gou. He's a very friendly and very precocious child. 

Some of the children were born into the local hospital by mothers participating in the Mother's Choice programme, but most of the babies are born in hospital and are transferred to MC later on. One little girl, Natalie, a three-year-old, has spent her first years in life in the hospital and was only recently transferred to MC. She has not had as much interaction - some of the staff believe she had been confined or strapped to a hospital bed most of her short life - so she has lots of development catching up to do. When she first arrived, staff members told us, she didn't smile. Now she can scootch herself to a corner, stand, sort of, leaning against the wall, and will clap her hands and smile. She has a great personality, but because she doesn't really know what to do with human touch, she usually leans away from it. If you say her name, talking soothingly to her, she will usually let you hold her hands and will walk about 5 steps before leaning back and sitting down hard. It took some time to get used to her rhythm, but I really enjoy working with her. 

One thing that struck me right away was how homey the facility is. There are four main rooms that we work in, and other than the fact that there are 13 babies around and at least that many staff, plus a cook and a cleaner, it sort of feels like a giant preschool or day care. The babies mostly have one on one contact with a caretaker, and we are with the children constantly. There are also physical therapists, speech therapists, and occupational therapists around. They take children individually for special training.  I think those babies get more one-on-one than many "normal" babies at home. I know that I would probably set my kids up in a play room and run around the house cleaning or something at times. Then again, I don't really know, because I don't have kids. Moms out there, do you constantly play with your kids? 

After the IEP play and Random Play times, we usually feed the kids lunch. This often takes the longest, because some of the kids eat slowly. I fed Tanya the other day, a little one-year-old with mild Down's Syndrome. She is learning to eat with a spoon, but she usually requires elbow support. If you support her hand too much, she drops the spoon and waits for you to feed her. Clever lazy girl. 

Cyrus, another boy with DS, has a harder time with lateral movement of his tongue. It takes a much longer time to feed him, because you place the food in his mouth (whenever he's looking straight on and not distracted by sounds) and have to wait til he can work all of the food to the back of his mouth. He has a healthy appetite and can usually eat about 6 oz of food. It's usually a pureed meal of some sort. 

After feeding, we usually change the kids, play a little, and then suddenly it's milk time. This time you feed them 4 to 6 oz of milk or formula and sometimes water. After this, which is a very wet experience for all involved, we usually bathe the kids. And by bathe I mean shower them while they sit on little stools. I have gotten fairly wet, despite wearing huge galoshes and a rubber apron. Heh. We also sing "This is the Way You Wash Your Hair" to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus." I've already gotten tired of that song. Do you think we could sing some other songs?

After baths, which take some time, we start putting the kids down for naps. Sometime in there a few people get to eat lunch in shifts. I'm usually so hungry by that point that I'm a little slow when the babies try throwing toys. I have no idea how moms do it. 

We finish our day around 4 in the afternoon. Sometimes it's a little later, depending on what we were doing at that moment. We usually stagger back to our flat- about 10 mins away - and collapse on the couches for a few minutes. I've taken to quick naps out of pure exhaustion. HAH. 

Our night shifts are different, but that's for a different story.

We don't have pictures, because we can't take pictures of the kids. We'll try get some shots of the building and the play yard.