The Family and Consumer Science department has recently acquired a new child to call their own. The brand new RealCare Baby II Plus is the latest, fully computerized version of infant simulator.

The RealCare Baby features a rechargeable battery, computer programming capabilities, a complete wireless system, an electronic ID wristband, lifelike neck movements, and real infant sounds. This model also comes with a “wand” which allows for easier programming as well as showing a list of all of the baby’s functions when it is in the care of a student. The baby Goshen High School now owns is a Caucasian female. She is approximately 7 pounds and 21 inches long.

The baby records the care it receives including percentage of proper care, exact time and date for all events: feeding, burping, rocking, diaper change, missed care, wrong positioning, rough handling, head support failure, and shaken baby. Other recordings include: number of times each ID is used, total simulation time and total cry time.

In previous years the Family and Consumer Sciences department had loaner babies from the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange County. Beginning in Spring 2007, however, the older model babies will no longer be able to be repaired.

The new RealCare Baby II Plus will make its debut in the spring semester’s Family Living class, an elective course offered to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Students take the baby overnight as their major project for the class. Before taking the baby from school, both students and their parents must sign a contract to ensure that they will be held accountable for any damage inflicted on the baby while in their care.

The RealCare Baby II Plus is available in anatomically correct male and female, five ethnic groups, and six different skin tones. “We’re so lucky,” says Mrs. Budd of their new infant “we’re hoping to purchase a male baby of another ethnicity next year.”