Baby sitting tips

Baby sitters are getting younger and younger every year, and A lot of things can happen on the job. You might have to change an occasional diaper.

"What we're going to do is wipe from the front to the back," explained RNA and baby sitter instructor Susan Barney.

But there's far more significant things than learning how to distract a baby with talking or tickling during that process.

"We're going to talk about what happens when a child chokes. You always hear about first aide and CPR and choking. But of all the things that ever happen, choking happens the most frequently. So I want to teach what you to do. So as soon as the child is big enough that they can crawl. So when they're 6 or 7 months old. They start crawling. They're going to put everything into their mouth that they can find," demonstrated Barney.

What you want to do is support the baby with your leg and arm and have the baby facing downward. Pat them about 5 times and then flip them over and take two fingers on their chest and push just like this.

"I've learned that not all the ways I babysit are probably not the best ways to punish kids. But there are other ways that probably work just as well or better," said Dillon Webb, who is taking the class.

I asked, "So what can you do to discipline an out of control child as a baby sitter?"

Barney answered, "We talk about the inappropriate things, like they can never spank, slap, shake, scream at."

I asked a followup question, "So what can they do instead?"

"Two things, one is to have the child lose privileges. One of the best things is timeout," answered Barney.

That timeout needs to be short and boring, and about one minute per year of age. Baby sitters also need to be aware of predators.

"I don't baby sit for strangers, they could just steal me," said Bo Webb, who is also taking the class.

You may not think of requesting baby sitting as a way to do a kidnapping, but it's far better to know the family your baby sitting for than to work for a complete stranger.

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Howto & Style

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