How to Find A Good Babysitter For A Child With Cerebral Palsy

It is often difficult for anyone to find a good babysitter when you need one. It is even harder when trying to find someone that you trust to babysit your child with cerebral palsy. One reason is because children with cerebral palsy have difficulty moving their muscles in the same way that most people do. Often, their muscles are either too tight or too floppy, and this may impact the torso, head, both arms and legs or just one side of their body. Also, some children with cerebral palsy have speech, feeding, cognitive, emotional, and behavior issues. Children with cerebral palsy may have mild involvement and just move or talk slightly different, or they may have more severe involvement and be completely dependent on others for their care. This can be intimidating to a baby sitter. Below are some tips on finding a good babysitter for your child with cerebral palsy.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• telephone
• computer

1. Relatives may be a good option if they live nearby you or in the same city. If you have multiple relatives, you may want to rotate between them so that one person does not get "burned out" on babysitting. When choosing the person, make sure they understand everything that needs to be done such as use specialized feeding or seating equipment, use adaptive toys, or hold the child a certain way.

2. Ask other parents of children with cerebral palsy that you know for any recommendations of babysitters that they use. Also, members of a support group may have some ideas. You can contact the group even if you are not yet a member.

3. Place an add at the local college in departments that may have students trained to work with special needs children. Suggested departments may be psychology, nursing, pre-med/ science, speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and special education. Even if they are not fully trained, they may be more than willing to learn. Ask for their references if you feel you need to. Also, have them come over your home or meet in public to get to know your child. This lets the potential babysitter know "what he or she is getting into"...you would hate for someone to be scared off.

4. If you take your child to therapy, ask the staff who they would recommend for a babysitter. The clinic may even let you post an ad on their bulletin board or website.

5. Ask staff in charge of the children's ministry at local churches if they know of any good babysitters for children with cerebral palsy or other special needs. Sometimes larger churches have a special dept. for children with disabilities. They may also let you post an ad in their newsletter.

6. Ask your child's physician if they have any good ideas. They may have other mothers of children with cerebral palsy that a staff member could contact and ask for recommendations on babysitters.

7. Find out if your family is eligible for respite care. Many children within an early intervention program, who are on Medicaid, or have applied for a CLASS program are eligible for respite care.

8. Go to the health and human services dept. website for the state that you live in and find babysitters & daycare providers who are licensed and/or certified providers. Although these providers don't necessarily have experience with special needs children, you at least know that they are held up to a certain standard of care. Call different people on the list and you may get lucky enough to find one with the experience you are hoping to find. If not, find a provider who has a small amount of children she cares for and is willing to take care of your child. A child with cerebral palsy takes a little extra time and care so don't be alarmed if you are charged more per hour.

9. Once you have decided on one or more babysitters to use, make a notebook about your child for them. It can have medical information in it such as food allergies, when medicines are given, how to use the wheelchair, how to put on leg braces, etc. It can also have a list of favorite toys and foods. Make it a "Get to Know _____" book, and fill in the blank with your child's name.

10. If the person or people that you have chosen to babysit your child are not yet certified in CPR or first aid, then ask them to take the class. You may even want to offer to pay for the class; it is usually an inexpensive class to take.

Tips & Warnings

• Be as honest as possible with the person when interviewing them on the phone or in person
• Make sure the babysitter thoroughly understands your child's special needs

[teachermom]

on 8/18/2009 Great article! Good quality babysitters are very hard to find.

[chrisanimelo444]

on 8/3/2009 Very good article! Very informative! 5*

[kristara]

on 8/1/2009 Great advice to find a babysitter for a child with special needs 5*