Usually when we, as Catholics, think of someone getting baptized, we generally either think of new adult converts getting baptized or of infants getting baptized.

However, a trend that has been growing in recent years is the baptism of children who are no longer infants or babies. There are at least two reasons for this trend:

  • There are a number of married couples who convert to the Catholic faith after first being motivated to explore spirituality as a result of having a child. As their child begins to mature into more complex cognitive development — around the age of 3 or 4 — they begin to feel a tug in their hearts that tells motivates them to explore spirituality for their children. As a result, when they join the community of faith, their children are typically baptized at the same time as they are.
  • Some Catholic parents who have been lax in their attendance at Mass, even after the birth of a child, suddenly begin to feel a tug to provide spiritual direction to their child as he or she begins to mature, similar to the couples described above. They often return to consistent attendance at Mass, and this motivates them to have their children baptized.

Because of this trend, there has been an increasing desire to provide materials for the preparation of children to be baptized. Included as part of what is sometimes called the Rite Christian Initiation for Children (or RCIC), preparation for baptism is more properly understood as a version of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) modified to match the cognitive abilities of a child; some people also may refer to this perparation as the RCIA for Children.