Child Care
Washington
"Ensuring children are healthy, nurtured and ready to learn"
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For Child Care Health Consultants |
Child Care Providers Find Your Local Child Care Health Consultant Plan a Zoo Trip! See our two brochures for child care providers on pets and petting zoo animals. Protect Kids from Toxics: Look for ways to protect children from toxics in your child care home or center. Safe Introduction of Foods to Young Children Some foods commonly fed to infants and young children can be hazardous. This may be due to choking, allergic reactions or intestinal upset. These guidelines are to help early childhood providers serve food safely. The recommended ages are for typically developing children. This is not a complete list of all foods to be served but focuses on potentially hazardous foods commonly offered. Petting Zoo Information and Guidelines Pamphlet While animal exhibits can provide children with great joy and excellent opportunities for learning, child care providers need to be aware of the risks associated with these types of activities. Print out this new brochure before you take your children on a field trip. Health Risks from Animals Animals provide people with comfort and enjoyment. They can be excellent companions and provide children with opportunities for learning about nature, responsibility, and empathy. There are, however, potential health concerns related to common child care pets. Providers and parents need to be made aware of these risks in order to make appropriate decisions about allowing pets in child care. Soil Safety As a licensed family child care provider, you are dedicated to providing the best environment possible for the children in your care to learn and grow. As you know well, children play on or near the ground and explore their world with their hands and mouth. They also eat far more food, drink much more water and breathe twice as much air as adults do, per pound of body weight. Children's bodies are less able to remove toxic substances present in their environment. All these factors combined make children especially sensitive to environmental health threats commonly found in home child care settings like dust, heavy metals (like lead and mercury) and pesticides. We are concerned about these kinds of exposures in early childhood because they may lead to serious problems later in life including asthma and learning disabilities. That's the bad news. But the good news is that many of these exposures are preventable! Now available are low-cost, common-sense strategies for preventing and minimizing children's exposure to environmental contaminants, and ensuring a healthier child care environment. By taking a few action steps, you will positively affect the health and well-being of the children in your program. Call your Public Health Consultant today for your free packet! Dirt Alert Campaign Offers Free Soil Testing for providers in King, Pierce, and northeastern Thurston counties: For nearly 100 years the Asarco Tacoma smelter released lead and arsenic from its smokestack and into the air. Carried by the wind, these chemicals are present in soil throughout parts of King, Pierce, and Thurston counties, where they can cause long term health problems, especially for young children. In 2005, the state legislature put aside funding for testing and cleaning the soils around schools and child cares whose play areas might be affected by the pollution. As a result, we are partnering with the Washington Department of Ecology and local public health departments to promote and administer the Soil Safety Program. The Soil Safety Program provides schools and childcares with:
If you are within the Soil Safety Program Service Area (click here for a map), you may be contacted by your local health department for access to your property for soil testing. We strongly encourage you to participate in this free program and help keep the children you care for healthy and safe! For more information, please visit the Soil Safety Program’s website: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/tacoma_smelter/soilsafety.htm Additional resources:
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Contact information:
Teresa
Cooper, Public Health Nurse Consultant
Dept. of Health/Maternal & Child Health
Child & Adolescent Health
PO Box 47880
Olympia, WA 98504-7880
Phone: 360-236- 3530 Fax: 360-586-7868