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Child Care News for Parents & Carers
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September 15, 2021
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Kia ora, this week how early childhood services work to protect children from RSV. Also, Professor Priscilla Ferronato from Brazil's Paulista University explains how to teach your baby to reach and grab, and why you should.
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Preventing respiratory syncytial virus in child care settings
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Coronavirus has been in the news a lot this year, for obvious reasons, but another respiratory illness that's been attracting attention is respiratory syncytial virus (or RSV).
There was a spike in RSV cases at early childhood services over the New Zealand winter, and just because it's now spring, doesn't mean this virus can't still be caught.
KidsHealth says RSV is very common in both seasons. It's also highly contagious and can have serious health effects for babies and very young children.
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How to encourage very young babies to reach and learn
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The day your baby first deliberately reaches for something is an exciting one, because it shows that your tiny tot is gaining control of their body, starting to develop hand-eye coordination, and realising that they can use their fingers and hands in useful ways (e.g. to grab a toy).
Although your baby is born with a grasp reflex, which allows them to grip your finger when you put it in their palm, this response fades and your bub's autonomous reaching action emerges around the age of three or four months, when they try to get hold of things they want.
Now, new research suggests that instead of waiting for your young baby to exhibit a voluntary reaching and grasping behaviour, you should encourage them to handle objects from birth and show them how you use your own hands to do everyday tasks.
To learn more about this, we got in touch with Priscilla Ferronato, lead author of this research and professor at the Health Sciences Institute of Paulista University in Brazil.
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