EDUC 1005 Child Health, Safety, and Nutrition Week 1 Content Review

As a professional in the field of early childhood, you must consider all possible strategies for preventing injuries to children. The "ABCs of Childhood Injuries" is a conceptual tool described in your text (pp. 64–68) that can help you assess causal factors of injuries and assist you in taking steps to prevent them. Use this tool to analyze an example of a real-life injury that has occurred to a child in an early childhood setting. (If you do not know of a real-life example, imagine a hypothetical one.) Describe the accident in terms of its "accessories," "behaviors," and "conditions." What modifications in the conditions or behaviors could you apply to the situation in order to prevent this kind of injury from happening again?

The ABC's of childhood injuries are: 1) being able to name the accessory is. 2) being able to name what a behavior can be. 3) being able to name what conditions are. In several years ago at daycare, a three year old boy picked up a mountain drew bottle filled with something he through was soda. As the janitor was walking back in the room, the little boy was removing the bottle from his mouth. She rushed to the little boy and begin to question him. She knew she had filled the bottle with some chemical to take home, which is totally unacceptable. The director was notified and the correct procedure was taken with contacting poison control because the amount was very small that he digested.

The accessories that was present was the bottle was misused for it purpose. The bottle should have been placed some place out of the contact of children because she knew it was not soda in the bottle. The behavior that was present was that the child picked up the bottle that he assume was soda and drank it. The behavior is matched to is development level at this age. The conditions that was present was the fact that the child was left unattended to go into another room without being notice. The modification in the conditions or behaviors I would apply to situation in order to prevent this kind of injury from happening again all chemical must be locked away when not in use. No chemical will be poured in another container to be taken from site. I will teach the children that they are not to drink or eat nothing that was not giving to them by their parents or an adult at the daycare.

Locate and read through your state's licensing regulations on this page of the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education's Web site: http://nrckids.org/STATES/states.htm . Summarize your state's regulations on three important safety issues, such as medical records of children, records required for caregivers, or sanitation guidelines. (If you have a choice of regulations for different kinds of facilities, focus on the facility in which you would like to work.) In your view, are these regulations strict enough? Are they too strict? Explain your answer, citing specific examples to support your position.

In childcare centers and family home daycare centers they all must have license which has to be renewed one a year through Bright From the Start. State regulations require that each child must have an updated immunization record on file. Upon enrolling into the center or home daycare, the parent have 5 days to being the immunization record. If the parent filed to do so, the child can not return to daycare until the form is received. If provider choose to keep allowing the child to come to daycare without their immunization record, they can be fined up to $500 hundred dollars a day per child. All teachers, directors, providers, and employees must undergo a national fingerprint background check. In order to obtain employment, they must receive a satisfactory determination from DECAL. This background check is require for every five years. A current and up-to-date enrollment form must be completed by the parent and remain on file at the facility. The facility must keep the record on file for one year and after a year, a new form must be completed. All information on the form must be current and true. The facility will received a state visit from the monitor twice a year. This information must be on file and up-to-date.

Some people my think the rules are too strict, but in my view this regulation is strict enough because the safety of the children comes first and that should be the teacher or caregivers number one goal. The three state regulations that I choose all relate back to the safety of the children. Having an up-to-date immunization record will help cut down on children catching things from each other. The background check will help protect children from someone who has a background of sexual abuse, child abuse, or even neglect. Enrollment forms will help the teacher and caregivers learn information about the child that the parent may forgot to share. It will also let them know if the children have medical problems that need to be watched and to let the teacher and caregivers know who can and can not remove the child from the facility.

"Falls from playground equipment," writes Robertson, "are the leading cause of injury in early childhood education environments" (2013, p. 134). Review the SAFE concepts as described on pages 150–155 of your text, and summarize the components of a SAFE playground or outdoor play space. Think of playgrounds in any early childhood environment with which you are familiar. Identify at least two features of the playground area or equipment that are hazardous. How would you use the SAFE concepts to improve these conditions?

The components of a SAFE playground or outdoor play space are improper supervision, age-appropriate design, falls to hard surfaces, and little or nor equipment maintenance (Robertson, 2013). Too many times children are sent to the playground without adult supervision. Teachers caregivers sometimes feel that the equipment will supervise the children. Without supervision, a playground is unsafe. Playground injures are self inflicted which mean kid constantly run and trip over objects just by being kids. Age- appropriate design means sizes does not fit all. Play equipment must be designed differently for each age group. Fall is most common in children on the playground. There should be fall provision places on the playground such as sand, pea gravel, or rubber to provide cushions on the playground. Keep the maintenance up in the equipment should be the number goal on the playground. For example, repairing spaces that can entrap or entangle children is important to prevent injurers at the playground (Robertson, 2013).

Two features of the playground area or equipment that are hazardous from a playground in a early childhood environment that I am familiar with was lack of supervision and improper protective surface. I would use the SAFE concepts to improve these conditions by making it mandatory that teacher and caregivers must pay attention to the children while on the playground. They should be in an area where all of the children is in their eye contact. When it comes to protective surface, I would replace all of the surface or ground with equipment that is soft enough to cushion the children falls. Having improper protective material on the playground is known to be the leading cause of injuries in children.

Robertson,C. (2013). Safety, nutrition, and health in early eduction (5th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.