Help Your Babysitter Prepare for Anything

Everyday activities keep many parents so busy that they can't take their children with them everywhere. 

That makes it crucial to find the right babysitter and make sure that the sitter can be entrusted with your child. 

When you're looking for a babysitter, give yourself enough time to be selective. You should:

• Look for a sitter within your circle of friends, church, or community.

• Look for a sitter who is 13 years or older and mature enough to handle basic household emergencies.

• Look for someone who already works with children.

• Have the sitter spend time with you before babysitting to meet the children and learn their routines. 

• Always check references.

Safe Sitter, a national organization devoted to training adolescents to become safe babysitters, strongly recommends that the sitter have had some babysitting training. This should include what to do if a child begins to choke, basic first aid, and CPR. 

Parents must also make sure that their home provides first aid supplies and a safe environment. 

To make sure your sitter is ready for any situation that arises and knows how to get help, give the sitter this checklist for use in an emergency: 

• Family name:

• Phone number:

• Address:

• Children's names and ages:

• Children's allergies, medical history, and daily medicines: 

• Phone number where parent or guardian will be:

• Address where parent or guardian can be reached:

• Cell phone numbers:

• Neighbor's name and phone number:

• Local relative's phone number:

• Local emergency phone number:

• Healthcare provider's name:

• Healthcare provider's phone number:

• Insurance name and number:

• Poison control center:

• Police:

• Ambulance:

• Fire department:

• What time you will be home:

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests that if your child is close to age 12, the sitter should be quite a bit older. This will help your child to see the sitter as being old enough to have authority. The AAP also suggests, that in addition to checking references, you also speak with the sitter's parents before hiring so you can get a sense of how the teenager handles responsibility.

Finally, make certain the sitter is clear on your "house rules" regarding what can be watched on TV, visitors, telephone use, smoking or drinking, and taking your child outside. Taking the time to find the right sitter will allow you to enjoy your out-of-home activity with minimal worries about your child.

What to know about preventing SIDS and other sleep-related infant deaths 

Here are recommendations from the AAP on how to reduce the risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and sleep-related deaths from birth to age 1 to share with your babysitter:

• Place the infant on his or her back for all sleep or naps until the child is 1-year-old. This can decrease the risk for SIDS, aspiration, and choking. Never place the baby on his or her side or stomach for sleep or naps. If the baby is awake, allow the child time on his or her tummy as long as there is supervision. This helps the child build strong tummy and neck muscles. This will also help minimize flattening of the head that can happen when babies spend so much time on their backs.

• Offer the baby a pacifier for sleeping or naps. If the child is breastfeeding, do not give the baby a pacifier until breastfeeding has been fully established.

• Use a firm mattress (covered by a tightly fitted sheet) to prevent gaps between the mattress and the sides of a crib, a play yard, or a bassinet. This can decrease the risk for entrapment, suffocation, and SIDS.

• Share the room instead of your bed with the baby. Putting the baby in bed with you raises the risk for strangulation, suffocation, entrapment, and SIDS. Bed sharing is not recommended for twins or other multiples. The AAP recommends that infants sleep in the same room as their parents, close to their parents' bed, but in a separate bed or crib appropriate for infants. This sleeping arrangement is recommended ideally for the baby's first year, but should at least be maintained for the first 6 months.

• Avoid using infant seats, car seats, strollers, infant carriers, and infant swings for routine sleep and daily naps. These may lead to obstruction of an infant's airway or suffocation.

• Avoid placing infants on a couch or armchair for sleep. Sleeping on a couch or armchair puts the infant at a much higher risk of death, including SIDS.

• Avoid using illicit drugs and alcohol, and don't smoke while babysitting. Don't allow the baby to be around anyone who is smoking.

• Avoid over bundling, overdressing, or covering an infant's face or head. This will prevent him or her from getting overheated, reducing the risks for SIDS.

• Avoid using loose bedding or soft objects—bumper pads, pillows, comforters, blankets—in an infant's crib or bassinet to help prevent suffocation, strangulation, entrapment, or SIDS.

• Avoid using cardiorespiratory monitors and commercial devices—wedges, positioners, and special mattresses—to help decrease the risk for SIDS and sleep-related infant deaths. These devices have not been shown to prevent SIDS. In rare cases, they have resulted in the death of an infant.

• Always place cribs, bassinets, and play yards in hazard-free areas—those with no dangling cords, wires, or window coverings—to reduce the risk for strangulation.