How-To Guide: Child Care and Safety
Consider this scenario about child care safety:
Center staff recently attended an eight-hour health and safety class. Class work included appropriate and safe diaper-changing procedures. After class a teacher was observed wearing gloves as she changed a diaper. The teacher changed the child’s messy diaper, threw the diaper away appropriately (in a lidded, hands-free receptacle lined with a plastic bag), put clean diapers and clothes on the child, and then put the child down to play with the other infants. The teacher had actively communicated and engaged with the child throughout the diaper changing – even singing songs about what she was doing.
Next she picked up two or three age-appropriate toys and placed them in front of a small group of 10-month-old infants. Finally she removed her gloves, using a technique that involved not touching the contaminated surfaces, exactly as she had learned in training. She put everything in the plastic bag with the soiled diaper, and discarded it in the lidded waste can. She washed her hands as demonstrated in the training, and returned to her delightful young charges, interacting with the infants in a way that reflected the high quality we would wish to see in all infant care programs.
Q. Did the teacher change the diaper in a safe manner?
A. No. You can imagine the germs from the fecal matter (poop) on the teacher’s gloves from the diaper change distributed on everything she touched while she was wearing the gloves. This includes the toys she gave to the babies. She needed to remove those gloves immediately after changing the diaper, throw away the messy diaper and any other contaminated materials. Then wash her hands with soap and water (and the baby’s hands that might have strayed into the diaper area) before touching any clean surfaces. This would not have taken more time, nor cost the program more than a couple of paper towels and soap.
(Story from TRAINING IN HEALTH AND SAFETY PRACTICES IS JUST THE BEGINNING by Marsha Sherman, MA, MFT)
Q. I seem to get sick a lot in the winter. Is there anything I can do to help stay healthy?
A. People who work inside and especially with children are constantly exposed to the bacteria and germs that cause illnesses. But one very basic step will help you avoid the sick bug all year long. Research shows that the most important preventive step you can do is to wash your hands. That’s it. Wash your hands. But do it frequently and thoroughly.
You pick up germs everywhere - from other people, objects, surfaces, animals, and waste products. Even when they look clean, hands, door knobs, toys, etc. may harbor germs. If you pick up germs and don’t wash your hands immediately, you pass those germs on to other objects and others. Not only that but you infect yourself when you touch your mouth or eyes or nose. How many times a day do you rub your eyes? Your nose? One of the most common ways to catch a cold is to rub your eyes or nose after your hands are contaminated with the cold virus.
Not only colds and viruses get passed around this way,more serious diseases, including hepatitis A, meningitis, and infectious diarrhea are also spread and can just as easily be prevented if people make a habit of washing their hands. Since you can’t see or smell germs, you need to wash your hands very oftern throughout the day to be safe.
It is essential to wash your hands:
- When your hands are dirty
- Before you eat
- After you use the bathroom
- Before, during, and after you prepare food
- After handling animals or animal waste
- More frequently when someone in your classroom is sick.
Q. What is the right way to wash your hands?
A. There are four easy steps to washing your hands and killing the germs that lurk there.
- Wet your hands and apply liquid or clean bar soap. If using bar soap, place it on a rack and allow it to drain.
- Rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces.
- Continue for 10 - 15 seconds or about the length of humming the Happy Birthday song. The soap combined with the scrubbing action helps dislodge and remove the germs.
- Rinse well and dry your hands. Do not use a dirty towel or you’ll have to return to step 1.
[Posted on February 7, 2005]
