The careers that involve working with babies span across multiple industries, including childcare, pediatricians, education, healthcare, and social services. Child development specialists, neonatal dieticians, and child and family social workers all the above-mentioned career involves working with babies daily. Other professionals known to work with babies include developmental psychologists, childcare workers, neonatal nurses, and childcare center directors.
This article is aimed at introducing to you several careers that involve working with babies and young children. It’s also packed with information on common degrees, career and salary outlooks for individuals seeking a career working with babies.
What degree do you need to work with babies?
A careers in the childcare industry mostly require at least an associate degree, same as most nursing careers. Other roles, such as pediatrician would require at least a graduate degree.
What types of nurses take care of babies?
Multiple types of nurses takes care of babies, this includes the neonatal nurses and pediatric nurses. Although been in charge of a baby is dependent on their specialty. Nurse practitioners may also specialize in infant care.
What jobs can I get with a degree in child development?
A degree in child development often prepares individuals for careers as childcare workers, preschool directors, and child development specialists. The degree also opens one to the opportunities in the social services industry.
Why Get a Degree Working with Babies?
Bagging a degree that leads to the careers of working with babies offers several benefits, both personal and professional. Listed below are the benefits of getting a degree that leads to careers of working with babies.
- Fulfilling Work: For most professionals, working with babies represents a very fulfilling and rewarding career path, and nurses, caregivers, and social workers all work with babies in different ways, this gives them a unique feeling of fulfillment only a few professionals can boast of.
- Multiple Choices of Career Paths: Career paths which involves working with babies as mentioned earlier in this article span many industries, including healthcare, education, social services, and psychology. As such grants the opportunity of multiple choices when it comes to picking a path to tow.
- High-Demand Careers: Most careers involving working with babies according to bureau of labor statistics have reported strong projected job growth. For example, the BLS projects jobs for social workers is estimated to grow much faster than the average between 2019-2029. for both the Undergraduate and Graduate Options. It’s important to note that some careers that involve working with babies require a minimum of an associate degree or bachelor’s degree, while others require a doctorate.
- Specializations: Multiple specializations can lead to careers working with babies. Some Examples are Nurses, doctors, educators, social workers, and psychologists. The above-listed professionals can all choose a baby-focused specialization within their field.
Specializations for Working with Babies
There a many careers in healthcare and education that offer various opportunities to care for newborns, infants, and toddlers. For example, both neonatal nurses and childcare workers spend their days caring for babies.
Although some careers working with babies require an associate degree or bachelor’s degree, pediatricians and child psychologists require a doctorate degree at least.
This aspect of the article aims to deal with exposing you to the common specializations, sometimes also known as concentrations or tracks, for careers that involve working with babies. We’re only exposing you the common specializations although other specializations, including social work and dietetics, also lead to child-focused careers, we’d not be addressing those.
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Neonatal Nurse
Neonatal nurses are an advanced practice registered nurse with at least 2 years experience as a beside registered nurse in a level III NICU, who provides the needed primary, acute, chronic, and critical care to neonates, infants, and toddlers to the age of 2. Neonatal nurses are charged with caring for newborns that need any sort of medical support, this includes premature babies in the NICU.
Neonatal nurses are mandated to train as registered nurses and complete a certain period of clinical rotations in neonatal care settings. They sometimes also pursue a bachelor’s degree to enable them move seamlessly into specialized roles.
Childcare Center Worker
A childcare worker is a professional that attends to the basic needs of children, such as dressing, feeding and overseeing play. They might also help younger children prepare for kindergarten or assist older children with homework if and when necessary.
They are responsible for the caring for infants and young children in childcare facilities and private homes. They put the infants and toddlers down for naps, and also are tasked with introducing play-based activities to foster their development. Childcare workers also monitor children for developmental issues and keep records about each child’s schedule and interests.
Childcare workers can move into supervisory roles with more experience, roles like childcare center director. A child care center director is in charge of overseeing the staffs and managing the child care facilities.
Pediatrician
Pediatricians are medical practitioners that specializes in children and their diseases, they generally just care for babies and children with various medical conditions or injuries. As a medical specialty, after completing medical school, pediatricians spend several years in a pediatrics residency program working to gain experience and needed skills to strive in the profession.
Pediatricians also require certifications from the American Board of Pediatrics.
A Pediatricians median salary is over $177,000 per year.
Common Degrees for Working with Babies
The most common degrees of the multiple that lead to a careers working with babies include healthcare, social science, and education. For example, nursing students, early childhood education majors, and social work majors often pursue careers working with babies. Below listed are four common degrees that lead to jobs caring for babies.
- Pre-Med Degree
- Nursing Degree
- Early Childhood Education Degree
- Psychology Degree
Here is the expected average salary for some jobs that involve working with babies:
| Jobs | Average Salary |
| Social Workers | $50, 470 13% |
| Preschool and Childcare Center Directors | $48,210 1% |
| Physicians and Surgeons | $208,000 4% |
| Psychologists | $80,370 3% |
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