Preventing the spread of communicable diseases is vital to running a child care center. While it is impossible to prevent all cases of illness, you can create a plan to ensure, to the best of your ability, that your child care environment is healthy and safe. Develop a strong plan, explain it to all involved, and follow through to ensure that you have done the best job possible to keep each child healthy.
Instructions
1. Develop an illness policy for your child care facility. Have parents agree to the plan before they enroll their child. The plan should cover what to do if the child is sick before arrival, if the child becomes sick while in your care, if you or other caregivers are ill, and how information about any current illnesses will be shared. See the Resources section of this article for a manual on developing a child care illness policy. In addition, have a health record for each child. Build a trusting relationship with each family.
2. Conduct daily health checks as advocated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This check is completed with the parent present as soon as the child arrives. See the Resources section for a link with specific instructions.
3. Teach careful hand washing to all staff members and children. Model and practice this process. Have illustrated hand washing routines posted at each sink. Care givers need to wash hands before and after dealing with food and all diapering/toileting care. Children should wash their hands after using the toilet, after sneezing in their hands and before eating.
4. Teach children to carefully blow their noses. Have plenty of tissues available and teach children appropriately dispose of them. When sneezing, children should sneeze into a tissue or their elbow. Practice all of these scenarios with the children.
5. For children that nap at day care, make sure they have individual bedding and do not share. Wash the bedding at least once a week or sooner if it is soiled.
6. Provide a clean environment. Disinfect toys daily or immediately after a child has put one in his mouth. Clean and disinfect all surfaces regularly. Make sure food preparation and eating areas are sanitary.
Tags: child care, your child care, each child, hand washing, hands before, illness policy
