Early Childhood Caring in the Child Care Centers in the Hospitals of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration

Abstract

This qualitative research is aimed to study early childhood caring in the child care centers in the hospitals of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. The 26 informants, who were recruited by the purposive sampling method, consisted of 9 registered nurses and 17 babysitters who have been working for the child care centers in the hospitals of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for at least 6 months
or since the child care centers were established and they have done their duty continuously at the centers during the research. Data were collected from December 2015 to June 2016 by focus group discussion, in-depth interviewing, observation, documentary research, field note, photographing and tape recording. The content analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The study showed that early childhood caring in the child care centers in the hospitals of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration as perceived by the informants could be defined into 6 characteristics. They included 1) it was to take care of newborns to 3-year old children; 2) it was part of the welfare of employees of
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration so that they can work unworriedly and it helps develop a bond in the family; 3) it focused only on breastfeeding their children for at least 6 months and children who were 6 months old would be fed with ageappropriate
food together with breast milk as long as possible for at least 1-2 years; 4) it was a physical, psychological and social preparation for children before school; 5) those children were looked after as if they were the informants’ own babies and they were given a better care than their own babies; and 6) those children were taken care of in accordance with the center’ six standards including health promotion, child development promotion, clean and safe food, clean and safe environment, personnel and parents’ participation. The informants believed that children were given good care in all aspects, allowing those children to be breastfed for a long period of time and enabling them to be well prepared for school. However, they encountered 3 problems, namely the incompatible policies, regulations and documents of each center, the physical structure of some centers where the areas were not properly arranged for child caring and children development promotion equipments were not enough and the insufficient personnel. The findings could be applied as basic data for developing the performance of child care centers in the hospitals of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and for improving the early childhood caring.