Currently, children and pets seem to be very centric on their parents, frequently causing issues when the parents go and do dangerous things.
This is all very dwarfy, but for dwarven children, (not babies!) perhaps an AI touchup in regards to pets might be a good idea?
If a fortress has domestic animals that are capable of being pets, why not start bonding the pets and the children, not necessarily with adoption/firm relationships, but rather a caretaker arrangement.
If you have a pasture area, children would have the "job" of tending the pasture. Nothing would stop them from doing whatever else they might want to do, but rather than being parent-centric, the children would be pasture-centric.
Taking care of domestic animals and notifying adults of problems with said animals has a long human tradition - it's an efficient use of a set of eyes and ears that aren't ready to do more difficult tasks. I can't imagine that dwarves wouldn't have done the same thing.
In terms of gameplay, it would make children less likely to be accidental casualties in mining accidents, lava flow, drowning, goblin snatching, etc, provided that the pastures are well-located. It might also help pathing framerates in fortresses where some female dwarves have 10+ children following them around like a train.