Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

126 Children’s Needs – Parenting CapacityPossible impact on healthParents need to understand what constitutes a danger to children of this age andbe able to protect the child. Children should not be left alone; their physical needsshould be met and they need to be protected from physical or sexual abuse.In order to protect children from harm, parents of pre-school children need to beable to anticipate danger. The paraphernalia of drug use, as well as more mundanepoisonous household substances and medicines, must be stored safely out of thereach of enquiring and inquisitive young hands. Similarly, to prevent accidents itis important to ensure young children are supervised while playing in the homeand not allowed to leave the house or play on the street unattended (Alison 2000).Substance misuse, mental illness, learning disability or domestic violence may makeparents reluctant to take their child for medical treatment for minor injuries if theseresulted from a lack of supervision.Living with domestic violence may necessitate mothers spending considerabletime placating and forestalling potential violence to themselves and their children.Most children of this age are aware of the violence and some may become injured inthe crossfire or be deliberately targeted (Cleaver et al. 2007).Serious alcohol or drug use may lead parents to leave children with multiple andunsuitable carers in order to raise the necessary money or to buy alcohol or drugs(Barnard 2007)....B was 3 years old. One night, S was arrested by the police for soliciting. Atthe station she told the police that she had left B on her own at home ... S wasfinancing her habit through prostitution. She said that her craving for crackcocaine was so overwhelming that she did not care what she did to raise themoney ... B was seriously underweight and had marked developmental problems,especially in language.(Case example, quoted in Swadi 1994, p.241)This example also suggests that when parents are taken up with their own needs,ensuring that young children are adequately fed and kept clean may not always bea priority. Drug taking and high levels of alcohol consumption, or the medicationneeded to stabilise mental illness, can depress appetite and parents may fail to respondto their child’s need for food. Alternatively, children may not be adequately fedbecause too much of the family’s income is used to buy alcohol or drugs. Moreover,meals may be missed because parents oversleep due to the effects of drugs or alcohol,mental illness or the aftermath of violence. Finally, parents with learning disabilitieswho do not have adequate support or training may not understand what constitutesadequate nutrition for a child of this age.