Feeding the Little Ones–A dilemma of young parents
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
by Dine Racoma
During the past few months that I have been visiting CRIBS, I had one outstanding observation among the crawlers and toddlers–they are not difficult to feed, and they are not really difficult to take care of. Young babies that they are, from infants to 2 years old, or slightly older, they are pretty much different from our pampered children. By pampered, I mean children who are being take cared of by parents, yayas, or relatives.
The kids who are in an orphanage, at least in CRIBS, seem to be by default, a disciplined lot–maybe because they have no choice. Or maybe, by routine, by instinct or by they way they are raised, they know that they have no particular person to rely on, except the caregivers who are here now and gone tomorrow, the volunteers who come and go, and the regular staff who are there but not really interacting with them on a regular basis, like the kitchen staff, admin staff, cleaning staff, nurses, doctors, and caregivers.
They have their routine–wake up on a certain time in the morning, given their baths, fed their bottled milk, their bowl of porridge mixed with vegetables and a little meat, banana for dessert, in the morning, afternoon and evening.
When fed, only a few of them would misbehave–it must be their body clocks which tell them that if they miss their meal, they would have to wait for the next one.
How different they are from most of our pampered kids–there are a lot of parents whose dilemma is how to feed their children. Parents need a lot of innovation, just to make their children eat. I was not any different during the growing years of my 4 boys and 3 girls. I remember how I would hold a teaspoonful of food, mimic an airplane with matching sound, that would eventually land on the mouth of my Angelo or Monica (or the other kids who followed for that matter). Or told fascinating stories in between feeding them. It took a lot of practice, though, such that after a while, I simply gave up–if a child did not want to eat, so be it. Common sense told me that a child would not die of hunger, as he or she would eventually feel hungry and eat. And yes, it worked wonders, I was victorious–they would eat. Am so proud of my 2 granddaughters, Pia (5) and Cate (3)–it seems like Angelo and Caren did not have the same dilemma. They are so well behaved and charming, they do not have a yaya to look after them.
While most mothers feed their kids with cereals, processed foods, fruits and juices, the babies in the orphanage are fed with a balanced diet that is in a bowl of porridge–rice mixed with vegetables and meat. While some pampered kids do not finish their food, or sometimes would not eat at all, the babies in the orphanage eat with gusto–when I was new in CRIBS I could not believe that an 8-month old baby could finish up his or her bowl of food.
While most of our kids have us their mothers, lolas, or yayas following them wherever they go, shield them from anticipated danger, do not give them freedom to move around the house or the garden, afraid that they might be hurt, the babies in the orphanage are allowed to crawl on their own, learn their first steps on their own, climb their cribs on their own, and play on their own. They do not have anyone exclusively for themselves. It is amazing to see them on their own, though one who comes for a visit cannot help but pamper them with loving care albeit temporary.
They are lucky if there are volunteers in the allotted time (9-11 am and 2-4 pm everyday in CRIBS), they are given extra attention and care. Otherwise, they are on their own with one caregiver on duty for the crawlers, one for the toddlers and one for the infants. Sometimes, there are volunteers from schools who are completing their community hours required by the schools.
Well, they deserve the care of people outside their circle, people who are not family but are willing to take care of them at least temporarily, and later on the love and care of adoptive parents who will consider them their very own. After all, they have no one to call their own at the present.
Maybe young mothers can learn a lesson or two on the way that the orphans are raised by their caregivers. It makes a lot of sense, don’t you think so?
This post also appeared in The D Spot.
