Working with Amish Children

[rosebud1017]

I wonder if someone who has worked with the Amish families could give me some pointers. My patient is a newborn. Questions I have are about my interaction with the family. Eye contact or any social norms I should be aware of. In regards to the infant is there anything I should be aware of when taking care of him. Thank you to anyone who can supply me with this much needed information. I want to confidently walk into his room without making a social blunder or mistake. I want the focus on the baby where it should be. THANKS

[llg, PhD, RN]

I used to work with Amish babies/families frequently as a NICU nurse. They never required any "special handling." We were just polite and friendly -- and they were the same.

I do remember one funny story vividly. We used to dress the premies in their incubators to help with thermoregulation. We used clothes that were donated back then -- many of them baby doll clothes because there were no premie clothes back then (in the late 1970's). Not knowing that my patient was Amish, I had dressed her in a little red cocktail dress with silver sparkly things. I looked up and there at the viewing window was her very Amish family! By the time they had scrubbed in and reached the bedside, I had changed her into a plain white homemade night-gown type thing. They never mentioned the cocktail dress and neither did I -- though maybe through the window, it just seemed like a regular red dress, which would have been fine to them.