From difficulty sleeping or feeding, an intensive full-day crash course for parents is one of the success stories of the Infant Management and Parenting Service (IMPS) at Kirwan Health Campus.
During the day-stay program a child health nurse provides one-on-one support to help the parent meet the needs of their baby.
Coordinator of the day stay program Jeanelle Leehy said the program provided an intensive step-by-step and practical approach to resolving parenting difficulties.
“The program looks at specific parenting issues identified by the parent, setting achievable goals that we spend the day working towards,” she said.
“We want to be sending parents home with practical skills and education that they can work on at home to resolve whatever issue they may be having.
“We follow up with a phone call after one week to review how things are going. In most cases parents are already seeing improvement in their situation. If not, further planning can occur or perhaps another day stay scheduled.”
Emma Pratt has been having trouble settling 15-week-old Connor Pratt and despite some scepticism decided to give the day-stay program a try after hearing about it through word of mouth.
“Connor is my first child and it is a pretty steep learning curve and most of it you kind of just have to learn as you go,” she said.
“Over the past few weeks his day naps have been getting progressively shorter and he just isn’t getting the sleep he needs.
“It just became a lot. He was becoming tired and cranky and then Mum was becoming tired and cranky and it was really becoming emotionally difficult.”
Emma said she was sceptical about how much could change with a day stay but had been “pleasantly surprised”.
“I didn’t expect it to be this comfortable and this easy to talk to the ladies,” she said.
“I’ve learned a lot already about reading his tired signs and starting to work towards him being less reliant on me to fall asleep.”
Jeanelle Leehy said the program wasn’t about telling parents how to raise their children it was about practising and supporting them.
“The parent is the expert on their baby and that is something we are very clear about from the beginning,” she said.
“We just add to their toolbox of tricks that they can use for parenting and we give them an opportunity to practise those skills here on the day.
“We want our families to go home with a plan that is comfortable and achievable for them.”
The day stay program is booked through self-referral by calling 4433 9000 and referrals can also be made to the service via local GPs and paediatricians.
