Physical Fitness: Why is Important?

Physical Fitness

Many of us know that physical fitness is important for the development of fine and gross motor skills, but it seems to be excluded from the curriculum or left out of our day when time gets away from us. In this blog entry I am going to explain the importance of physical fitness, and how parents and caregivers can help children get active.

Importance of Physical Fitness

Why is physical fitness important for children birth through school age? Well just like physical fitness is important for adult health, which helps reduces the risk of heart disease, controls blood pressure, and controls weight, it is just as or more important for children.  As a child, being active helps with healthy growth and development, achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, stronger bones and muscles, decreases risk of developing diabetes and other diseases, and improves mental health. Not only does physical fitness help with the child’s health but it assists in developing gross and fine motor skills, improves confidence and self-esteem, and gaining social skills.

What can happen if a child or an adult are not physical active enough? If a child or adult are not active enough, they can become overweight due to the fact they maybe eat more calories than they are burning, and muscles, joints and bones can become weaker over time and become more susceptible to injury. Also a child as well as an adult can increase their chances to develop illnesses or diseases, like heart problems, type II diabetes, and the common cold. With all of these effects of inadequate physical activity, the child and adult could have low self-esteem and think that they are not likes, not good enough, ugly, fat, made fun of, and not part of the in crowd. These are all the more reason that we should all strive to be physically fit.

The positive impact on a child and adult who are physically active can help with their overall health, and prolong their lives. While watching the TV show The Biggest Lose once, they had the doctor talk to each contestant about what their weight and what the lack of exercise did to their body. It was a wakeup call for me and how I need to be more active, because the weight can affect your heart, bones, age you, and lead you to an early grave. I will tell you that after that episode I change the activity level for my class as well as myself.  

How we Can Encourage Physical Fitness

Like with pretty much everything we would like our children to do, we must first model what it is we are expecting from them, like being active, healthy eating, and work ethic. If parents and caregivers don’t model or encourage physical activity, how do we expect children to be active? We can’t! Like Milton Bradley encourages us to take time away from being a couch potato, and have a family game night; we can go outside and be active with our children. To be active doesn’t mean playing organized sports, like football, soccer, baseball, basketball, and ice, roller, and field hockey, it just means to get your heart rate up and your muscles moving. Some physical fitness activities we could do as a family, or school group are play catch, ride bikes, take a hike, go sled riding ( when it snows), swim, play a game of one on one, or playing the Wii. Even the President of the United States and the NFL are challenging children to be active with the play60 program, and the president fitness challenge.  So why are we struggling with obesity in our children? Years ago if you drove down a residential street you would have found a ton of children running around, riding their bikes, and playing hopscotch, today you see more children and adults attaches to some type of electronic device. Let’s take at least 60 minutes away from playing on electronics and be active, here are some fun fitness activities both gross motor (large muscle movement) and Fine motor (small muscle movement) the children like to do at my child care facility.

Gross Motor                                                                           Fine Motor

Obstacle course                                                                   cutting

Musical chairs                                                                      Color pom pom sorting

What time is it Mr. Fox                                                         Beading

Jump rope                                                                             Stacking cups

Catch/ four square                                                               Finger painting

Football                                                                                  Squeeze painting

Ring a Round the Rosie                                                     Writing

Freeze Dance

As you can see from the list of different gross motor and fine motor skills that my children at my Child Care center love to do when we have free play time, it is easy to get the children active with little to no materials. These are some ways we can encourage children in our care to be active.

            I want to leave you my followers with a couple of thought-provoking quotes that captures the importance of fostering healthy growth and development.

“Physical Fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity” ~ John F. Kennedy

“Most of us think we don’t have enough time to exercise. What a distorted paradigm! We don’t have time not to. We’re talking about three to six hours a week – or a minimum of thirty minutes a day, every other day. That hardly seems an inordinate amount of time considering the tremendous benefits in terms of the impact on the other 162 – 165 hours of the week.” ~ Stephen Covey

 

References

Robertson, C. (2013) Safety, Nutrition, and Health in Early Childhood, Belmont California, Wadsworth Cengage Learning

American Red Cross, (n.d) Prepare for Emergencies with American Red Cross First Aid, CPR and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Courses retrieved on December 20, 2013 from http://www.redcross.org

American Heart Association CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care retrieved on December 20, 2013 from http://www.heart.org

Eating Well, May/June 2008, Eating Well for Healthy Heart Cookbook, retrieved on December 27, 2013 from http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/

Move Me Quotes, Top 21 Health and Fitness Quotes, retrieved on January 3, 2014 from http://www.movemequotes.com/top-21-health-and-fitness-quotes/

Goodway, J. D., & Robinson, L. E. (2006, March). SKIPing toward an active start: Promoting physical activity in preschoolers. Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200605/GoodwayBTJ.pdf

National Association for Sport and Physical Education. (2006, May). Active start: Physical activity guidelines for children birth to five years. Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200605/NASPEGuidelinesBTJ.pdf

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2008, November). Childhood overweight and obesity. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/index.htm

Healthy Foods and Nutrition

                        

Healthy foods and Nutrition       

   When you and your significant other are thinking about starting a family or a teacher entering the education field nutrition, and healthy eating is the least on their minds. Many of us just want health babies at home, or children entering our classrooms eager to learn. As a parent we never think about, what do we feed them when do we feed them, do we have time to feed them. As an educator we never think that we should worry about, did they have breakfast, do they have lunch, or I wonder if they will have a healthy dinner tonight. In this section of my blog I am going explain the importance of good nutrition and healthy eating in the early years, why adults should model good habits, and mention three healthy recipes we can make with and for our children. 

Good Nutrition and Eating Habits for Infants, Preschool and School Age

            Why is it important for good nutrition and eating habits for all ages of development? The earlier you start a child on the right path of eating healthy the easier it will be to sustain the habits. When a child is born they depend on their mother to provide them with the nutrients they need to grow, and develop whether it is from breast milk or formula. In the book, Safety, Nutrition, and Health in early education by Cathie Robertson, she states that it is important for infants to be breast feed for them to learn to control their own eating pattern, and stop feeding when they are full. Many parents and care givers bottle feed, to regulate the amount of food the baby is eating, and don't pay any attention to the babies cues of saying I'm full. If the baby and parent/caregiver can learn how to portion control at this early age, they would not have any problem with their weight as they grow. As the child, through these age developmental stages, it becomes more apparent that we need to teach the children good eating habits. Why is good nutrition and healthy eating habits important for preschoolers? Just as in infants and toddlers, it is important for the child to learn when he or she is hungry or full.  I was at my Boyfriend's sister house over the holidays, she has two young preschoolers who both were hungry, so we sat down to have dinner, they didn't eat much and turned to their parents and asked to be excused, she asked why and without skipping a beat they both said we are full. Two minutes later, they came back and said “can we have a cookie?” I could not believe what I just saw, but she gave in and gave them a cookie. What do parents do? Do you give in and give them what they ask for or do you make them go back to the table and finish eating their dinner or whatever meal that they are eating? This is a hard question to answer because you don't want to tell a child they can't eat but you want them to eat healthy foods. Also at this age you can have the child help you make the meals and serve them too. These are the most influential years and you hope that what you have taught them will empower them to make the healthy choices. The next age stage that good healthy eating habits are important for our school age children. These years it is most important because they are not with us 8 plus hours, and while they are not with them we hope they make the best food choice. Why is good eating and nutrition important for school agers? Healthy eating is important for school age children because they are more active then the younger children. Many at this age are on the go most of their day and need more nutrients for their body to stay healthy. These are some of the reasons why healthy eating habits are important for each age developmental stage.

Why is Modeling Good Eating Habits important?

          

  Why should we as educators, parents, and other adult’s model good eating habits? We live in a society that obesity is on the rise, why is this? Many of us blame it on the portion size, busy lives, and quick access to food. Which is all true, but what can we do to change the direction our society is heading? We can't change the direction on our own, and it will not happen overnight, it's a lifestyle change. What I mean is as adults we can model, and teach healthy eating habits. When I say lifestyle change, I am not saying that we need to stop eating at fast food restaurants, or change our busy lives. I am just saying eat fast food in moderation, prepare food ahead of time, don't snack while driving, pack your lunch and your child's lunch, and control your portion size. All of these things are do able and we can still have everything we would want like cookies, soda, and the occasional drink without feeling guilty.

            How can we model healthy eating habits? There are many ways we as adults could model good healthy eating habits for our children in our care. A few ways we can do this is by family style dining, the children help with the preparation and making of the meals, talking to them about the USDA guidelines of the MY PLATE, also known as the food pyramid, taking them to the grocery, helping plan the menu for the week, and planting a home garden.

             At my childcare center we provide all of the meals the children eat from breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack which all of our meals follow the USDA My Plate guidelines. Many of the childcare providers only provide a morning snack and afternoon snack, and the parents provide the lunches, but the snacks that they provide maybe cookies and juices, nothing healthy. What we also do is each meal time we use what we call family style dining. This is where we have a set time to all sit down and eat at the same time, including the teachers. We also allow the children to serve themselves, with a certain size scoop depending on the age of the child. This helps them learn portion control, and to eat until they feel full and not have to clear their plate.

             Another way we can model healthy eating habits, is to teach the children about the USDA guidelines of the My Plate or food pyramid, and the importance of eating certain foods. I know with all of our busy lives, we eat a lot of processed foods, and we don't eat the allotted servings of dairy, meats/ protein, grain, veggies, and fruit. How much and what do you consume on a daily basis? I bet no one really can say that they know for sure how much they eat of something and what they eat that day. I challenge you to write down with the serving amounts, everything you put in your mouth, do not forget to add the condiments, and cooking oils. You would be surprised what you would find out about what you choose to eat. An example of what my childcare center serves the children on any given day would be....

Monday week 1

Breakfast

8 oz Milk

3/4 cup of Cereal, (Toasty O's, cornflakes, Chex, kiks, or rice krispies)

 1 to 2 oz of fruit

                                    Lunch

                                                            1 oz chicken

                                                            2 oz brown rice

                                                            Cream of chicken soup (used as gravy)

                                                            2 oz of vegetables

                                                            2 oz of fruit

                                                            8 oz milk

                                    PM snack

                                                            Cheese crackers

                                                            8 oz of 100% Apple Juice or Water

We serve many different items for each meal; our protein could be beans, beef, turkey, fish or chicken, and rotate the menus for 5 weeks. Many of us think we have picky eaters but I have been surprised when preparing these meals I always think, “What kid would eat this, and what was my company's nutritionist thinking?”, and the children end up eating and loving it.

            Another way we can model good eating habits for our children, at home or at school is letting them feel a part of the process of making the healthy meal. Maybe an older child could plan, help prep for the meal, read a recipe, and measure out all of the ingredients. A younger child could dump per-measured ingredients, or stir the things. If the children are involved in making the healthy meal, the more they are going to want to try it. They also learn how to read a recipe, correctly measure ingredients, and work together to make the meal for the family or class. Below I have included three healthy child friendly meal ideas and recipes.                                      

Three Healthy Recipes for Children and Adults

            I have not tried two of the following healthy meal recipes with my international cooking club at my child care facility yet, but they look and sound so good. The recipes I chose to include in my blog are the breakfast taco, chicken salad in a pita pocket, and zucchini bread.

Breakfast or Brunch

Breakfast Taco

            Total time to make: 15 minutes

            Serving size 1

            per serving: 153 calories; 2 g fat; 15 g carbs; 17 g protein; 0 g fiber

           

            Ingredients

2 corn tortillas

1 tablespoon salsa

2 tablespoons shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese

1/2 cup liquid egg substitute, such as Egg Beaters

Preparation

1.Top tortillas with salsa and cheese. Heat in the microwave until the cheese is melted, about 30 seconds.

2.Meanwhile coat a small nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Heat over medium heat; add egg substitute and cook, stirring, until the eggs are cooked through, about 90 seconds. Divide the scrambled egg between the tacos.

            The My Plate guidelines met are the grain, protein, dairy, and vegetable. You can add a fruit, to complete the plate.
Lunch

Chicken Salad Pita Pocket

            Total time in making: 15 minutes  

            Serving size 4

            Nutritional facts per serving: depends on what ingredients you use.

           

            Ingredients

                        8 oz. Chicken diced (Purdue chicken cut work)

                        1 cup chopped celery

                        1 to 1/2 cup Mayonnaise (depends on how wet you want you chicken mixture)

                        Salt and pepper (add to taste)

                        2 pita pocket bread

                        4 tomato slices

                        4 Roman Lettuce leaves

            Preparation

1.    dice the chicken, and celery

2.    combine chicken, celery, and mayonnaise in a bowl, and mix together

3.    Add seasoning of choose, salt and pepper, old bay, etc...

4.    Put chicken mixture in pita pocket with lettuce and tomato and enjoy.

            The My Plate guidelines met with this recipe are the protein, grain, and vegetable. You can add fruit like grapes, and dairy like a Greek yogurt dressing instead of mayo to meet all of the guidelines for one meal. I have found many different chicken salad recipes online, and they all sound good. My friend and I made chicken salad for a bridal shower and added old bay seasoning for flavor and it was so good. 

Snack or breakfast

            Zucchini Bread

                        Total time 1 hour 10 minutes

                        Makes 2 loaves

            Ingredients

2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup oil
2 cups zucchini, grated
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon

Optional additions

1 cup Nuts

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup shredded carrots

            Directions:

                        1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
                        2 Combine all ingredients.
                        3 Pour into two greased loaf pans.
                        4 Bake for one hour.

My school age children this past summer grew zucchini in our school garden and made this recipe at least once a week the entire summer. We would change it up and add different optional ingredients, except nuts due to allergies.  

CPR and First Aid Emergencies

CPR and Choking Emergencies

          No one ever wants an emergency in which one has to conduct Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) to happen while taking care of children. Sometimes things happen out of our control and we need to know how to handle the situation, stay calm, and preform any emergency procedures we need to until help arrives. In this section of my blog, I am going to describe two emergency scenarios, the proper procedures of preforming CPR, how to prepare, respond, and possibly prevent an emergency that requires CPR or First Aid.

Choking Emergency

           As many of us know a child or adult who seems to be fine one minute can be chocking on a piece of food, or even small toys and other small items. Choking is the leading cause of accidental deaths in young children, because they put everything in their mouths when they are teething, or don't chew things up properly. Many adults may now what to do when they see someone choking, but they panic which causes them to forget the procedures of what to do to clear the air way.  I am going to describe a scenario, and explain what one should do in a choking emergency.

          A four year old little boy is playing with small Lego blocks. He wants to use a certain size and color block, but it is stuck to another. He struggles to break it free, but it does not budge. The boy then decides to try to break the block free with his teeth. The block comes loose and the boy swallows the block, but it becomes lodges in the boy’s airway. What do you do?

          At first look one might not know what is wrong with the little boy, but quickly take notice to the boy’s surroundings. One might notices that the boy seems to be choking on something, and begins check to see if the airway is blocked and can be cleared with a finger sweep. If that doesn't work, begin to try the Heimlich maneuver until the object comes loose. If the child becomes unconscious and stops breathing at anytime have someone call 911 and start to preform CPR and continue to clear the airway.

       Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Emergency

       

According to the American Red Cross cardiac emergencies are rare in children, but Respiratory emergencies are more likely to happen and lead to cardiac emergencies.  What do you do if you have an unconscious child with no pulse and not breathing? You IMMEDIATELY call 911 and begin to preform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. In the following scenario what should one do to help this unconscious child?

          While at the lake with your family you notice a child struggling to stay above the water, you scan the area to see if anyone else sees this or if the child's parent is close by. Then you look back and notice the child stopped struggling and floating with his face in the water. What do you do?

          As a CPR/ First Aid certified person you do not have to do anything unless people know that you are, according to my instructor, but you can be a Good Samaritan and help. The first thing you want to do is to turn the child over to have his airways above the water and move him to a flat solid surface. Then get if parents are present get permission to preform CPR, and have someone call 911. After this step check the child breathing, by doing the following...

·         If the child is not breathing, check his airway by tilting his head back slightly more than a normal head position, and open the mouth.

·         Clear airway if blocked

·         Pinch the nose and give two rescue breaths, check for rise and fall of chest.

·         Check for breathing, if no sign of breathing is noticed check for pulse.

·         No pulse begin chest compression (child 30 compression about 2 inches with the palm of one hand, infant 30 compression 1 1/2 inches with 2 fingers, adult 30 compression about 2 inches deep with two hands)

·         Continue all steps until child begins to breath, and has a pulse, or until help arrives and takes over but do not stop until the paramedics tell you to.

·         If the child begins to spit up turn on side and clear airway.

How to Prepare, Respond, and Possibly Prevent an Emergency

      

    As an educator of young children I have to be preparing for all types of emergencies, and how I can be prepared is to be certified in First Aid and CPR and keep current on the changes. Every two years, my staff and I get retrained and certified in First Aid and CPR since it is a Maryland State licensing  COMAR regulation to have at least one teacher in every classroom certified, and also that CPR expires every two years and first aid every three. Even if I was not an educator and needed by the state to have certification in CPR and First Aid, I would feel more comfortable as a parent if I knew how to help my family. My boyfriend’s family owns a house near a lake in Kentucky, one day when his nephew was two, we took the dog to the edge of the property to swim and retrieve things we would throw in the water for her. Well we did not realize that the dog while running in to the water knocked over his nephew who was standing thigh deep in the water, being two he panicked and did not know what to do. And floated deeper out and began to bob up and down in the water. I quickly let go of the dog leash and jumped in to get him. Luckily I did not have to preform rescue breathing or CPR, because I caught it quick enough but it could have been worse if I was not there or didn't know what to do.  How we can all be prepared to help in these types of emergencies, is to all have training in CPR and First Aid, and maybe the CPR app on our smart phones to have a reminder of the procedures.

          Once you are prepared for any emergency that may come your way, you need to know how to respond. Always remember to quickly survey the situation and area, and then have someone else call 911 if at all possible, and get permission from victim or parent before conducting any emergency procedure if you can. Then continue to help until help arrives and takes over.

          I will say it is hard to prevent these types of emergencies because they can happen so quickly, but you can take so precautions by removing choking hazards, like small toys, and items from the reach of children. At my child care facility we use a choking tube to see if any toy that may enter the building can cause harm, and those toys are not allowed where small children are. So purchasing a choking tube might be a good idea is you have small children in the house and want to make sure that the toys that they are playing with are except-able, and not a choking hazard. Another way to possibly prevent these emergencies is just constant supervision, I know from experience, reading about, and seeing it on TV, things happen quickly, we just need to be prepared to respond and possible help prevent these types for emergencies form happening to the children in our care, or the adults around us.

Emergency Preparedness: Natural and Human-Generated Disasters

Emergency Preparedness

       

   In Maryland, we have the possibility of many natural and Human-generated disasters, like building fires, winter storms, extreme cold or heat, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, terrorist attacks, local crimes, black outs/ loss of power, droughts. These natural and human generated disasters are out of our control to prevent, but we can prepare ourselves and our families for these pending disasters. In this section of my blog I am going to provide two examples of disasters and provide information on how we can prepare for them both in a child care facility and at home. 

Local Crimes and Terrorist Attacks

          On December 14, 2012, a whole world was destroyed by an act of one mentally disturbed young man, this was not the first incident like this that has plagued our world and it will not the last time. The Sandy Hook Elementary School victims, and survivors did not expect to go to work or school and fight for their lives, but with the quick thinking reaction of the teachers and students less lives were lost that day. We all know we should not live our lives in fear of the unknown, but we can be preparing if something does happen. About a decade ago when I was working as a school age teacher at one of the sister center, of the current center that I'm an Assistant Director, Maryland, Washington DC and Northern Virginia had two men (aka the DC Sniper) who would drive up and down the I-95 corridor just randomly it seemed at the time shooting people at school, at the mall, at the gas station, and practically everywhere. I remember being scared to leave my house to drive to work since I lived and worked off the I-95 corridor, but I knew I had to be there to protect the children in my care. My center was put on lock down and you had to stay away from all windows and doors, this was hard to do because the center was pretty much windows and doors.  We had the parent call the center, right before they would come so we could have a person at the door to let them in and then re-lock the door.  These are two types of human generated disasters that could cause harm that we should be prepared for.

          How do we prepare for a potential human generated disaster like the two mentioned above and the others that we are all familiar with? Many of these we have no warning signs like we do in weather or natural related disasters, so we must prepare as if we don't know it’s going to happen, much like we do for home fires.  What should we do as parents and care givers? First, work with your local law enforcement to maybe get a call about possible crimes that are happening in your area. Directly behind and off to the left of my child care facility are banks, my center has it set up that is the police notify us with the possible robbery taken place near a bank in our area, so we can go on lock down. This mean we lock all our doors and go to the interior of our building where there is no windows, until we hear back from the law enforcement that the coast is clear.  If we did not have this set up, we would never know and could potentially harm a staff member or child.  As we know this type of disaster is unpredictable and can pop up with little to no warning so it is best to prepare every one the best way you can. Like with a house or building fire, and having a safe place to meet once everyone is outside, you should do the same and set up a safe place for everyone to go inside the building or house, or depending on the situation at a neighbors or other safe hidden place.

Weather Related Disasters

          With the upcoming winter month, it is always a great idea to prepare everyone, the house, and/or child care facility for the extreme cold to prevent pipes from freezing, carbon monoxide poisoning (from fire places and cars started in a garage or tail pipes covered by a ton of snow or ovens turned on to heat the house), and power outages due to snow and ice. How do you prepare for the winter storms, before, during, and after?

          A few years ago Maryland was hit with a nasty winter, the weathermen were predicting 2 to 4 inches of snow and ice to layer the ground, well like always they got it wrong and we were hit with 6 to 8+ inches of snow around the evening rush hour. It was a mess, cars and people were stranded on the side of the road, and many were in car accidents trying to make it home to their families. Many places closed early to get people home safe but the storm hit fast, and dropped a ton of snow. My child care center stayed open, but my director and I sent our staff home and we stayed with the children who were left. Later that evening, the Governor called a state of emergency mandating everyone stay off the roads, so we started to prepare dinner for the children who were left, and comforting them that their parent are coming to get them but traffic was bad, and  that they will be  staying with us until their parents could make it to get them. This was a fluke storm and we had to do our best to prepare the children and center for the extreme weather.

           How did we prepare the center for the cold temperatures, we turned on the water to a trickle to keep the pipes from freezing. We made sure that in case of a power outage we had enough blankets to keep everyone warm and flashlights for light. How can you prepare your home and families just like we prepared our center that night and any night they our calling for winter weather and extreme cold temps, is to make sure you have enough food, and supplies in the house to possible hold you and your family for at least a week. Also run the water through the pipes, turn off all outside water, and drain the pipes. Make sure that you have candles, flashlights, your cell phones are charged, and blankets on hand in case of a power outage. That's how you can prepare your house or other building for an upcoming winter storm, or extreme cold temperatures.       

How to Prepare

          We practice these emergency drills once a month like we do fire drills. Maryland State law only requires child care providers and schools to do disaster drills twice a year, but fire drills every month. My company over rides the COMAR regulations and says we should prepare the children each moth like we do for fire. We use different sounds to determine which drill we are doing, the fire drill is of course the fire alarm of the building, and for any disaster drill we use an air horn and shout out the disaster so they know where to go.

          Besides preparing the children, Maryland COMAR Regulations states that the center at all times must have an emergency preparedness certified staff member in the building. At my center we have six out of fourteen staff members are certified, and at all times there is at least two of us in the center. In the class we all took together we had to develop a plan of who would be in charge in the event of a disaster, where to go inside and outside of the building, who would be in charge of getting the emergency cards and making sure we have a phone, media, or social media account to alert the families, and who would maintain and grab the emergency supplies, emergency radio, batteries, flashlights, water, first aid kit, snacks, and blankets. We also had to plan where if evacuated we would go, we have it set up with the local school, to house a few staff members and our younger children that we cannot transport with our buses, and the local grocery, or surrounding businesses to hold the rest of us. It is always good to have a backup plan and inform the parents of any changes. In our class we also learned that we should set up a phone tree where the center may call a few parents and those parents call more and so on until all parents are reached. But with this you are not sure that all the parents will be reached and you have to rely on someone else to make sure that it is done. With the invention of social media, and practically everyone having a Facebook, twitter or some other account, that it is easy to setup an account for your childcare facility and friend every family member enrolled and just post any information you may have to let them know the children are safe. With the disaster that happened in the Philippines, about a month ago, social media played an important role in communicating with the outside world. So I think that it would be a great idea to set something like the phone tree, or social media page to inform not only families of a disaster that happens at a child care facility or school but at home as well.   

Safety Practices and Policies for Preschoolers

Safety Practices and Policies 

As an early childhood educator for over fifteen years, I have seen how curious, active, and eager children are to explore their environments. As the caregiver of these young explores I must be aware of potential dangers that could be harmful, and threaten their safety. I must first be aware of my own surroundings and then look at the environment as if I was a young child, to see any possible safety issues, like broken toys, small choking hazards, and the possibility of falling.  In this blog, I am going to explore many different safety issues that can cause harm to our young preschool aged children.

                     Allergies and Allergic Reactions

My first safety issues that can cause harm to not only preschool age children but everyone are allergies. I’m not talking just about those pesky seasonal allergies that plague many of us each and every year, but also the animal, medicine and food allergies. Over the years I have noticed a spike in parents informing us about the different allergies that their children have, like peanut and other nut products, milk, gluten, soy, melon, seafood, the pesticides that farmers use to protect their crops, and even medicine. My best friend’s daughter is allergic to practically everything (jokingly saying). She is allergic to all nut products, melons, shellfish, and skin on apples, cat, evergreen trees, pollen, and many other seasonal type things. When my friend realized her older son was allergic to peanut butter he was about Two years old, at daycare he got a hold of another child’s lunch and began to become red around his mouth, she immediately called the doctor to get an appointment for him to be looked at because she knew personally how dangerous food allergies can be. This was over ten years ago and her doctor told her that they don’t test children that young for allergies, but knowing her medical history they tested him, and told her to bring her daughter back when she is about the same age, or eating table food and they would test her. Food and medicine allergies are something that should not be taken lightly, due to the harmful outcomes that could possibly happen. My friend did the right thing, and immediately called the doctor when she noticed that her children were showing signs of an allergic reaction. At my Child Care facility we have to keep a record of what we serve, and any medicine that we give our students for about five weeks. So as a parent and caregiver of my own family member I do the same, because I never know if the doctor might ask what has change in their diet or environment.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Since the unforeseeable motor vehicle accident which caused the death of Paul Walker (actor best known for Fast and the Furious) and his race car driver friend, I have been more aware of how many accidents that I hear about on the news that children are involved in. Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of childhood injuries, due to not properly installed car seats, or the wrong car seat for the child’s age and weight. I know as a driver that there are many different reasons that cause motor vehicle accidents that are out of our control, but what we can control is the safety of our passengers and ourselves. With laws always changing, I am constantly researching the car seat law for my state to make sure that all of my children in my care are in the proper car seat and when they no longer need to be it one. The state of Maryland the law is any child under the age of 8 and shorter than 4’9 must use the age appropriate child restraint.

Playground Safety

As an educator and aunt to young children the safety issue that is most dear to my heart is Playground Safety.  As I read in Safety, Nutrition, and Health in Early Education by Cathie Robertson, playgrounds are one of the leading causes for childhood injuries, due to the fact of lack of supervision, misuse of equipment, and age appropriateness of the equipment. The playground safety policy that my staff and I follow at my child care center is that we only use the playground designed for the age group we are caring for and we are always looking around and knowing where our children are at all times. We are always walking around, never sitting, playing with the children to long. I even do this when I am not working and taking my nieces and nephews to the playground, I am always watching my own family members as well as the others. Sometimes I think that the parents a crept out by me watching and making sure that the children are safe until I tell them I am a teacher then they understand. For an example I was at my friends daughter’s birthday party at a moon bounce place when I felt I was correcting the children on how to properly use the moon bounce structures then the staff there was, a child was climbing the side of the six plus foot tall slide and could have fallen and really hurt himself until I said, “I don’t think you should being doing that” and the child stopped. Let’s all work on dropping playground injuries in children by properly supervising these children in our care.  

                            Fire Safety

Another cause in childhood injury that is out of our control, but could be prevented is fire, weather related, and other disasters. When I was in school I remember how important it was that we learned about what to do in case of a fire, and not to be afraid of the strange man or women wearing a mask. I also remember all of the fire drills we had to do and the place you had to go (depending on where your classroom). The classrooms in the front of the school had to go to the other side of the parking lot furthest from the school. Today by the COMAR regulations set by my state my child care center must conduct fire drills once a month, and disaster drills twice a year. To teach them the difference in the places we go we use an air horn for the disaster drill. The more times one does these types of drill, it will become second nature and will go where they needed to go to be safe.

Water Safety

Water Safety is another cause of childhood injury that we can prevent by providing a safe environment and a strong set of rules. At my child care facility, during the summer months we have water play, but we don't have any pools or standing water. We use a sprinkler and have extra staff to supervise the children. For our school age children if we go to a pool we have to be the only ones in the pool and it most have life guards present. We also prepare the children ahead of time by going over water safety rules.

At home, the pool, the ocean, the ponds or lakes, you should always supervise the children and make sure that they know the rules that you set for them. A large body of water is a fun but very dangerous place for children and adults who may not know what to do if they find themselves tired, or in trouble. Another way to prevent injury around bodies of water is to take swim lessons prior to any water activity, and use the proper lifesaving or floating devices. When it comes to water safety, whether you are at a pool, the Ocean, on a boat, or at the lake you should always follow the rules posted and never leave children unattended.

How to Prevent Childhood Injuries

Providing a safe environment is key in preventing any childhood injury. How can we provide a safe environment for our children? Well that is a good question, we can first research and read up on different harmful situations and safety threats that can injury our children at different ages, and how we can prevent them. Second look at the environment as a child would. Thirdly use safety precautions, like cabinet locks, outlet covers, and read the ingredients on food products. Next provide the child with educational age appropriate toys. And lastly, always use proper supervision both indoors and outdoors. I know that many of us follow these simple “RULES” when it comes to the safety of our children, whether at school or at home. 

The safety issues that I mentioned in this blog are just a few of the hazardous situations and safety threats that cause injuries to our children in and out of our supervision. The ones that I mentioned are the ones that are the most prominent in our lives today. I hope that my blog entry was informative and helpful to you.