How mothers and educators perceive the care provided by daycare centers

• Autor(a) principal: BÓGUS, Cláudia Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Fantini NOGUEIRA-MARTINS, Maria Cezira, Belloto de MORAES, Denise Ely, de Aguiar Carrazedo TADDEI, José Augusto
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Nutrição
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.puc-campinas.edu.br/nutricao/article/view/9707
• topic: child day care centers; child rearing; food habits; child guidance; public policy; creches; educação infantil; hábitos alimentares; orientação infantil; política social

ObjectiveThe objectives of this study were to (a) know how mothers of infants (0 to 2 years) perceived the care provided to their children by daycare centers and (b) know how educators perceived their roles in the care provided to infants and their families. MethodsThe quantitative approach to research was used together with the focus group technique. Five focus groups were conducted with mothers and two with educators from public daycare centers of the municipality of São Paulo. ResultsThree themes were identified in the material collected from the mothers: family relationship with the daycare center, care provided to the infant by the daycare center and the public policy on daycare. Among educators, the themes were: difficulties in the work routine, relationship with the infant’s family, relationship with the coordinators of the daycare facility, professional training and starting a career. ConclusionSince the mothers considered themselves privileged to be able to leave their infants in a free-of-charge daycare facility, they were not very demanding of the quality of care provided to their infants. What they value the most are the aspects associated with feeding, hygiene and administration of medications. Regarding the educators, there are many limitations in their working conditions, especially regarding the shortage of educators. The relationship between the educator and the family is ambiguous: sometimes the educators consider the mothers to be careless and irresponsible and sometimes longing for attention and help. Two issues deserve to be investigated in future researches: the relationship between the daycare centers and the health services andthe working conditions of the educators.