Safety Practices and Policies

            Young children are active, and this puts them at risk for being in hazardous situations or safety threats. Children by nature are curious about their environments, people they are in contact with, and pretty much everything. While this is a very good thing, because curiosity and experimenting is how children learn it also puts them in the perfect situation for possible injuries. There are things that are direct safety threats that could and should be avoided where young children are concerned. Five potentially hazardous situations or safety threats common in the infant/toddler age group are falls, poisoning, choking/suffocation, lack of good supervision, and lack of child safety devices. While these five factors are dangerous for the infant/toddler age group there are safety policies that apply to each of these to help, there are also measures that can be taken to either prevent or deal with each one, and there are things that parents can do to help accomplish the prevention of these hazardous situations.

            One area that can be potentially hazardous for infants is falling from high places or out of things. For example a child that is left unattended on a changing table or a Bumbo chair on a counter or table can fall and get hurt. It is very important that infants are never left alone, because you never know when they will learn their next developmental milestone. The day they are unsupervised on the changing table is the day they could learn to roll over. Therefore, it is very important to stay diligent in these areas. The other falling possibility is out of an infant car seat. It is important for many reasons never to leave your infant in their car seat unless they are in the car. One reason is that they can tip it over or fall out of it. If they get the seat tipped over then they are trapped and this is not good. On the developmental side of it a child that is kept in the infant car seat all the time does not get to see much. They are given a very limited view of the world and are not allowed to develop some of the gross motor skills that they develop when out of the car seat. For toddlers stairs can be a potentially hazardous area for falls. When stairs are around it is important to put a gate up at the top of them to keep children from tumbling down them while being curious about them.

            Having cleaning supplies and other chemical items in a house or child care center are inevitable, yet present a possible poisoning hazard. It is important to keep things clean especially in a child care setting where there are numerous children. These products can become a hazard if they are not properly stored. The NAEYC recommends using the Go Green products (Robertson, 2013). Using green products is one way to help prevent poisoning. Some things that can be done at home and in the child care setting is to keep all cleaning supplies in locked cabinets and out of the reach of children.

            It is important to have toys and other learning materials for children to play with in order for them to develop and learn new things. It is also important to make sure that the items that are there for the children are appropriate for them. For infants you want to have toys that give them the proper stimulation while being safe. For toddlers, because they put everything in their mouths it is important to make sure that all toys are big enough that they will not fit in their mouths. “Toys are the most common hazard accessories for choking and one of the most common for suffocating,” according to Robertson (2013, p. 105). This makes it essential that everyone work together to remove all small objects that will fit into a child’s mouth up to a level they cannot reach.

            Children are curious and love to explore the world around them. “Perhaps, one of the biggest hazards is the lack of good supervision” (Robertson, 2013, p.154). It is important to have proper supervision for all children, but infants and toddlers rely on the adults around them to help keep and teach them how to be safe. When children do not have proper supervision it is more likely for there to be an accident or injury. There are specific policies for each state and child care center that regulate the adult supervision that is required. There should always be enough staff that at least one person can have a child in their sight at all times. Infants and toddlers require constant supervision, because they are learning and discovering everything for the first time. They are trying to figure out this big world so they heavily rely in the adults in their lives to protect them, while they discover new things and continue on their developmental paths.

            While keeping children safe in some areas can be a challenge there are others that are fairly simple to accomplish. Providing safety devices for certain aspects of a child care facility and home such as electrical outlet covers and safety latches for cabinets and doors are easily accessible and fairly inexpensive. There are a lot of programs that offer help getting child safety devices if one cannot afford it.  Safety devices should be present in the indoor environment whenever it is applicable for them to be present (Robertson, 2013). Doing things such as covering the electrical outlets lessens the chance of injury. It is amazing how many toddlers are curious about those little holes on the walls.

            There are so many things in an early childhood environment that could be a potential hazard. Infants and toddlers are so vulnerable to the world at this stage, and being curious and innocent all at the same time can cause the potential for many hazards. It is important for the adults that are in a child’s life to provide them the safest place possible to discover and develop. As adults we need to follow the safety policies, help to prevent or deal with each, while providing safety at home, as well as in the child care environment for all five of these; falls, poisoning, choking/suffocation, lack of good supervision, and lack of child safety devices.

References

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