Editorial

Abstract

Child Care in Practice adopts the aim of being a journal to act as an international forum for professionals working in all disciplines in the provision of children’s services. As with other editions, the papers included here are an epitome of this aim. Among the papers are a diverse set of topics and research approaches by researchers and practitioners from countries including Columbia, Canada, Ghana, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Norway. The papers included here show a rich diversity of practices and approaches to research including indepth and semi-structured qualitative approaches, evaluation of standardized pre and post intervention testing, national and international survey and questionnaire-based research as well as theoretical commentaries and systematic narrative reviews of existing literature. Even with such diversity in topics, research approaches, and research settings there are clear threads between the manuscripts presented in this edition, including topics such as care for young children and associated decision making in the context of the family and wider systems; the concept of play and its centrality to, and impact upon, childhood; and finally, discussions on the wider systems that serve to protect and provide care for children. The intimate nature and complexity related to the care of children is the first such theme. The maternal and non-maternal caregiving practices of drug administration are considered in a small scale in-depth qualitative study by Asiedu Owusu et al. (2019). The paper explores the practices of drug administration in the home environment and how such practices vary between both maternal and non-maternal caregivers. The study itself, set in a region of Ghana which experiences high levels of infant mortality, examines “health related-caregiving” such as administering medicines, paying heed to dosage accuracy, and the preparation of medicine for administration. The paper reports that while 17 of the mothers interviewed reported “consistent understanding of a medicines” side effects, only two of those deemed non-maternal caregivers had such an understanding. While there was a preference among the sample for use of formal medical facilities for the treatment of children in their care, the study also shows that “surplus” medicines tended to be used prior to such visits with wider implications for child safety and health discussed. The theme of health care needs of children continues in a paper by Arias Ramírez et al. (2019) which discusses the design and implementation of an educational programme aimed at increasing knowledge, awareness, and skills (KAS) in respect of breastfeeding in Colombia. As part of the study, an initial survey of KAS was conducted prior to the intervention and found that there were good existing levels of knowledge and awareness regarding the importance of breastfeeding, with lower levels of skills relating to what beneficial activities should be engaged in during breastfeeding. The paper discusses how the design and implementation of an educational strategy showed significant improvement across all domains, including skills, following the educational program. The paper highlights that any such strategies must consider cultural beliefs and environmental circumstances. Continuing this theme of health care needs, a paper by Mc Elhinney et al. (2019) explores the extremely complex area of decision making to protect unborn babies. The paper presents