Issues Related to Nutrition and Fitness

Issues Related to Nutrition and Fitness

Ø      The National Association for Sport and Physical Education recommends that young children engage in 30 minuets of organized physical activity and 60 minuets of unstructured physical activity, which will be the balance between their food intake and their exercise.

Ø      Fitness has become more of a mandatory activity at schools and daycares, as a way to curb and decrease the number of children who are obese and overweight.

Ø      Children begin to develop some new strength when engaged in different physical activities.

Ø      Fitness keeps the kids active so that when they become adults their bones won’t be brittle, weak, and or easily broken.

Ø      Exercising is the first step to becoming healthy, and once healthy is being sough; eating nutritiously is next.

Three Developmental skills that children are learning between the ages of 2-4 are hopping, jumping, and throwing. There’s many of different ways that you can engage children in activities; however, I find that making “learning” into games works the best. I would first teach the skills to the children and have them imitate what I do. Once I feel that they have mastered the skill, I would then begin my game. Hopping- hop on 1 foot to the other side of the class and back. Jumping- place an object on the floor and have them jump over the object making sure not to accidentally fall on the object. Throwing- set out a few balls and have each child throw the ball with the intentions of making the ball go in the basket. Children will master these skills before they actually know what they are doing. These developmental skills are skills that children do each and every day while playing. The importance of learning and mastering these developmental skills are so that they can be physically fit. Exercise comes in different styles, poses, and activities. Learning these skills will allow them to do other things; for instance, throwing: they can play baseball, catch, football, basketball. Jumping: they can run track, play tag etc. and Hopping: is a part of skipping, hopping can also be classified as an introduction to jumping.

When children do not participate in fitness or exercise, they tend to eat and eat and the food never leaves there body, which causes overweight children and obesity. Being overweight and obese when younger is more of a medical health risk, then when an adult. Some known medical issues are: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes. It is common for a child who is overweight to continue gaining during their adult years until they are obese. When a child goes to school and they seem to be the largest or one of the largest kids in their class, it becomes uncomfortable for them. Kids are cruel and mean, and because a kid may be slightly bigger, they will be the target of bullying and being teased; which can result in losing their self esteem and self respect.

Adults can help children be physically fit by setting the example. If the parent is telling the child to eat healthy, they parent should also be eating healthy, same with having the children exercise- make it a fun time and exercise and be silly together. One activity that can be played is: Follow the Leader- which can be used as both locomotor and or gross motor. Another activity that is fun to do and is exercising is playing with scarves. For one thing, scarves are quiet and not as messy to clean up as some of the other toys. The adult and child or 2 children paired up can blow the scarves back and fourth trying to keep it flying as long as possible.

“If children are given goals for physical activity that are reachable, it is much easier to expect them to achieve a healthy level of activity as part of their fitness regime” (Huettig et al., 2006)

Resources:

Textbook- (Robertson, 2010)

http://www.fitness.gov/action.pdf

http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_center/index.html#cat20744

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/index.html

Healthy Food and Nutrition

Healthy Food and Nutrition

            Eating healthy is a task that not only adults should follow; we should also encourage our children to practice eating healthy as well. “Good role modeling, providing healthy food selections and discussions about the My Pyramid Food for Kids can send children positive messages about good nutrition.” (Robertson, 2010) Eating a nutritious meal can help develop and  strengthen the child’s bones; while on the other hand it can also cause adult’s bones not to become fragile.

            Infants need to be cared for and given all the required nutrients during their first twelve months which comes from being breastfed. For those babies who can not tolerate breast milk, formula would be a substitute and he/she can still receive all of their nutrients. At or about four to five months, infants should be given rice cereal and then slowly add on the fruits and vegetables.

            Feeding toddler and preschooler’s sometimes can become very challenging, because they can be very picky eaters. They will also go through likes and dislikes of certain foods for days or weeks at a time and may or may not come back and revisit it. The introduction of finger foods and trying new things usually gets interested especially when the child is transitioning off of baby food.

            School age children can be the most challenging individuals to provide for because they are often influenced by their friends lunch, or fast food places, or junk food. Making sure they eat their vegetables, fruits, and drink plenty of water is very important.

            Adults should encourage children to eat healthy, to ensure they are getting all the proper vitamins, nutrients, and a variety of different foods. By adults helping the children eat healthy, they can also help themselves by modeling what it is to eat healthy. Once the child observes the parent eating vegetables and enjoying them, it’ll give the child an interest of knowing what they taste like. By encouraging the children to eat healthy foods, it’ll curve them from becoming obese; which is an epidemic from children and adults over-eating, not eating the proper foods, nor exercising and staying physically fit. Two ways in which parents can help curve the improper eating is by giving the child a controlled portion size and not allowing them to over eat because there is food left over, and avoid chips and other high-calorie, low nutrient foods and replace it with fresh fruit and or vegetables.

            Some healthy snacks that can be prepared with your young child are:

1) Apple Pudding- 1 cup of left over cooked rice, 1 cup of low-fat vanilla yogurt, 1 cup of applesauce, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix rice and applesauce together in a large bowl. Add cinnamon and yogurt. Stir well. Spoon into dishes and serve. Makes six ½ servings.

2. Yogurt Grahams- 1 graham cracker (large rectangle), 2 tablespoons low fat fruit flavored yogurt. Break graham cracker in half. Spread yogurt on one half and top with the other. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze. Makes one serving.

3. Bugs on a Log- celery sticks (about 3inches long)/apples (cut in half w/core removed)/carrot sticks (about 3inches long) 2. Spreads: cream cheese and pineapple/cheese and pimento/peanut butter/egg salad. 3. Ants: raisins/unsweetened cereal/ sunflower seeds/ golden raisins/ chopped peanuts.

(http://www.nncc.org/Nutrition/cc42_snacks.presc.html)

CPR and Choking Emergencies

CPR and Choking Emergencies

A five year old that attends daycare decided to bring lunch to school instead of being served the school lunch. In his lunch box, he brought a container of cut up hotdogs, pretzels, and some strawberries along with a bottle of water. As he began eating his lunch, he was talking with his friends who were sitting at his table as he picked up a piece of hotdog. Not concentrating on chewing the hotdog completely, he begins to laugh at a joke that one of the little boys told, in the midst of laughing the hotdog piece gets lodged in his throat which has now cut off his airway and unable to breath.

                 The proper protocol to follow in this type of emergency is to act immediately and see if the child is breathing or not. Once it has been established that the child isn’t breathing, the teacher needs to have someone call 911 and request help. While help is on the way, the teacher should begin to perform cpr until the emergency squad arrives. I selected to perform cpr rather than the Heimlich; because, during my cpr and first aid training this past September, we were instructed that ages five and under are to be given cpr, and over five to be given the Heimlich depending on the child’s size. In the midst of trying to perform cpr and await the arrival of the paramedics, somebody should call and alert the young boy’s parents of the situation. If the parents are unavailable, then it is imperative to begin calling the next contact on their emergency card. Once the paramedics arrive, step back and allow them to do their work; however, stay close to comfort the child when everything is all over. At the conclusion of the incident, the child’s teacher should fill out an incident report stating what happened, who was called, how it was resolved, and how it could’ve been resolved. The director, teacher, and parent should each sign the report and a copy be given to the parent and one placed in the little boy’s file.

                Advance planning is very important, especially when working with children. When emergencies occur, there isn’t time to experiment something that you saw someone do before. Having cpr and first aid training is required by most daycare employees upon being hired. “Doing something halfway is better than not doing anything at all.”  Having a plan and being prepared ahead of time can help you respond correctly and quickly should an emergency was to occur. (Robertson, Cathie 2010)

                A little girl who is one years old attends daycare while her parents work. One day while at daycare, the little girl was having so much fun playing with her friends while she was speed walking when something distracted her; causing her to attention to be directed towards the sounds, while trying to figure out what the sound was and where it came from, she stopped paying attention to where she was going and walked smack dab into the wall.  After realizing she had walked into the wall she began to cry and looked for sympathy.

Once her caregiver picked her up to console her, she began to check her forehead for any bumps or bruises. Noticing that indeed a knot had began to form; she immediately got an ice pack and attempted to place it on her forehead, which made her scream and cry louder. Once she was calm and ready to get up and go back to playing, the caregiver started to fill out an accident report. After filling out the report, the teacher then needs to call her parents and inform them of her accident.

Because it is an injury to the head, you should always be prepared to treat it as a serious case, because you can never tell if damage has been done inside the head or not. Anytime a head injury occurs, you should never allow that person to go to sleep within the first 30-45 minutes of an accident to prevent falling unconscious.

Information that needs to be kept on hand at all times is; a first aid kit, emergency contacts for each child, and a file that explains each child’s allergies and reactions on it. Adults need to also make sure that they have the attendance sheet and at all times keep a head count of everybody in your class.

Emergency Preparedness: Natural and Human-Generated Diseases

Emergency Preparedness: Natural and Human-Generated Diseases

                On August 30^th, 2010, a severe tornado swept through a large city called Chester, Pennsylvania. It was a pretty dangerous tornado that caused massive damage not only to homes, but buildings, cars, and anything that was not nailed down flew around as well.

                It all started early that Monday afternoon, while the kids were down for a nap. There at Kings Christian Daycare, during naptime the teachers and aids alternate for their lunch breaks. No mater what order breaks are taken; there is always one teacher in the classroom with the children while they’re napping. The forecast for the day called for heavy thunderstorms but still remain humid. About 1:45pm, the heavy rain starts pouring out of nowhere. It was raining so hard on the roof that a few children woke up freighted.  The rain never seemed to calm down before it became extremely windy. Warnings started pouring in via the internet where the director was working about a possible tornado within the hour. At that time, the director called all staff and told them they need to return back to work immediately and then alerted the teachers in the classrooms. Once all teachers were back, she called an emergency meeting to discuss procedures that needed to happen within the next forty-five minutes.

                Some complications would be, it may be hours or even days before the children are reunited with their parents depending on how bad the after damage is, some family members may die in the midst of the tornado, and children may not even have homes to go back to.

To be able to handle this situation, I would require all of my staff to have the following items on hands during this whole situation: emergency cards, attendance sheet, allergy list, first aid kit, and 2diapers/pull ups for each child and 1 pack of wipes. Being prepared is very important especially in the time of an emergency. This saves time on looking for items that are tucked away or misplaced somewhere, allows you to focus more time on the children, and prevents you from endangering yourself when objects are being dissolved. I would also recommend that my staff is trained in CPR and First Aid.

The plan I would have posted and have the teachers aware of is, to move all children from their individual classrooms and into the hallways and have them sit under tables. I would have at least 1 teacher sit with each group of children to comfort and safety reasons.

I would communicate with the families of the children in my care by having a few emergency cell phones on hand and chargers ready; keep the school’s website as long as the weather allowed the power to remain active. After the storm has ceased, I would give each teacher a cell phone and have them begin calling their parents alerting them of the whereabouts of their children and that everything is okay and at what particular location and time they can pick their child up.

A fire that starts within the center is very common for most centers that cook their own food. At a childcare center, the cook was making hotdogs for lunch when somebody came in and requested her attention. Unbeknownst to her, she left the hand towel on the hot stove. Next thing you know the whole kitchen is engulfed in flames.

To prevent a fire from happening, I would tell all staff that prior to leaving any pot or pan unattended, to turn off the stove or oven until they returned to the kitchen. Also, make it a habit of placing the hand towel back hanging on the towel rack rather than leaving it lying around. If the fire were to occur, which it had; I would create an escape plan and make sure all my teachers knew what to do in case of an emergency, have working smoke detectors in every classroom and throughout the halls of the building, and make sure all teachers had their first aid bags that includes the medical equipment and emergency contact information for each child.

The main dangers posed by the fire at the daycare center are: children getting smoke in their lungs as they inhale, can receive second or third degree burns, or some children allergic to smoke causing them to have and asthma attack. This situation would affect everybody in the building; the staff, the children, and possibly tenants who have neighboring stores from connecting walls.

For evacuating the kids from the center, I would have each class buddy up and move as expeditiously as possible out and away from the building, staying as low to the ground as possible. I would make sure all doors were closed to stop the spread of the fire. While the teachers are evacuating the kids from the center I would be on the phone calling 911 and requesting fire trucks, police, and a medical vehicle to do check ups. Once all the children are outside, the teachers would be expected to count all the students, mark attendance, and also check and make sure everybody has a partner. Fire drills are practiced once a month at different times of the day so that nobody becomes familiar with something that can be life threatening.

I would communicate with each and every parent either through email, physically calling their phone, or putting a breaking news/update on the center’s website. If damages were not that bad and the smoke damage was confined to one room of the building I would allow the staff and children to re-enter the building once everybody had been checked out by the emergency personnel on duty.

Safety Practices and Policies

Safety Practices and Policies

SIDS is the number one hazard in an early childhood center. SIDS stands for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome which is from babies being placed on their bellies to sleep, is a theory as to why babies are dieing but has not been proven yet. Because they are so young and can not support their heads to receive enough air that is needed, they suffocate from the crib sheet and or their faces being face down on the mattress. Because of this deadly factor, a safety policy encourages parents and caregivers to place babies on their backs to sleep and to place no bed sheets or blankets inside with them.

Childcare centers that have a pool on its property can be a very dangerous hazard. Any child at any time may get loose or walk away unnoticed and wander into something that looks like fun “the pool” and within seconds of falling in the child can drown. If a pool is to be on a child care centers property it needs to be fenced in with a padded lock on it to guarantee that no children under any circumstances will be able to enter into that area. Parents can teach their children the importance of water safety. Show them using a bath tub how heavy objects “such as themselves” will sink to the bottom and drown and lighter objects will float however; may become injured as well. Teachers should count their children at all times to ensure nobody has walked away.

Children riding bikes on a concrete area and fall off is a hazard. The child can scrape their hands, arms, and or legs up with possible bleeding. The teachers should help the students and show the children the basic steps to riding a bike. The bike path should be marked with one direction for coming and the other direction for going, with no passing allowed. The parents can provide helmets and or elbow and knee pads for bike time.

Cleaning disinfectant is a very toxin hazard. If left in the reach of a child, the child can pour on him/herself, play in it, or even worse drink it which can result in a very serious emergency. Teachers should never leave cleaning supplies low enough for children to reach; in fact it should be high enough out of reach and eye sight of all children. If a child should drink a cleaning solution, they should immediately call 911/poison control/ and the child’s parents. To prevent this from occurring the teacher can tell the children that this is very bad and it’s only to be touched by a grown up. Parents also should keep things as such out of the reach of young children so they can not gain access to it.

Toys that are very small or that may have very small parts with it should be considered not age appropriate for infant and toddlers and a hazard. If accessed the child can choke and even worse die. To prevent a child from putting a small toy and or object in his/her mouth, toys larger than 2inches in diameter are to be displayed. Parents should not allow their children to play with older siblings toys that may have small parts included.

To ensure that the child is safe while at home with the parents, the child can be limited to one or two rooms in which they may play in. All outlets should be covered with outlet covers to refrain the child from sticking fingers or other objects inside. All medications should be out of reach of the child to prevent taken some pills and causing an overdose. Another precaution would be to know where your child is at all times and what he/she is doing. He/she may be in the “play room” quiet while you think they are watching TV and consequently they found something on the floor which they placed into their mouth, which has now left them unconscience.