CHCECE005 - Importance Of Feeding Babies Individually

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MJ1991
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CHCECE005 - Importance Of Feeding Babies Individually

Post by MJ1991 » Sat Jan 09, 2016 6:28 pm

Hi all,

I am having a bit of trouble in the Provide Care for Babies and Toddlers unit (CHCECE005).

The question is:
Discuss the importance of feeding babies individually rather than in large group formations.

I don't exactly have an answer yet as I'm a bit confused about this, in my student workbook it says "Babies and toddlers should be fed individually rather than in large group formations or at tables in one group or set up in high chairs in a row. These types of meal times do not foster the language, self help skills or positive psychological development that meal times and snack times should help develop in babies and toddlers."

My experience so far kind of contradicts this, I am doing my traineeship but I'm 10 months in and in those 10 months I have actually worked in 2 different centres, the first centre I worked at in the babies room (0-1yr) the babies were put in highchairs, most of them at the same time as per their routine, however the high chairs were never set up in a row, they were set up in a semi circle fashion which allowed the babies to look at each other and share interactions, each baby that needed to be fed by an educator was done one-on-one but other than that they were fed as a group. The centre that I currently work at I am working in the babies room (0-2yrs) however because of the age, some of the children are in highchairs and some at a table, on a usual day we have 4 children sitting at the table 2 on each side and they eat meals/snacks together and interact during this time, at the same time there are 4 younger babies in the high chairs that again are set in a semi circle fashion they are all over 1 year old and are pretty good with feeding themselves but we do assist when needed, all of the babies interact with other and the educators too. The same goes for the toddler room (2-3yrs) the toddlers all sit the table together, this is actually 3 tables set up as one but laid out so each child can see each other. I fail to see how "these type of meal times do not foster the language, self help skills or positive psychological development that meal times and snack times should help develop in babies and toddlers.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

Melanie.


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Lorina
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Re: CHCECE005 - Importance Of Feeding Babies Individually

Post by Lorina » Sun Jan 10, 2016 3:15 pm

I completely agree with your comments! It could be very hard to feed children individually rather than in a group due to supervision requirements and number of educators within the room... At centres I have worked at like you, children are grouped together during meal times and this works extremely well as they watch each other and converse while they eat. It makes for a very pleasant experience... I'm actually surprised to have read that question given to you... it's going to be hard to find why it's important to feed children individually...

Sorry this is no help!

:geek:,
Lorina

MJ1991
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Re: CHCECE005 - Importance Of Feeding Babies Individually

Post by MJ1991 » Sun Jan 10, 2016 5:50 pm

Lorina wrote:QR_BBPOST ised to have read tha
Hi Lorina,

Thank you very much for your response it's actually helped a lot.
This question has been frustrating me the entire time I have been working on this unit, it's one of the first questions and I decided to leave it to last hoping I would find more information having found no information that actually supports feeding babies and toddlers individually I decided to actually look up the definition of "discuss" just to clarify my understanding and came up with this "talk or write about (a topic) in detail, taking into account different issues or ideas." So...apart from what is written in my workbook I think I might already have my answer that it's better and more realistic feeding them as a group, provided the tables, chairs and/or highchairs are set up in a way that the children can interact with each other.

Thank you again for your help.

Melanie.

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