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from books about daycare -
2011-2012,
p4
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Doing Time: What It Really Means To Grow Up
In Daycare
by May Saubier,
©2012 |
Babies need toys. Babies put toys in
their mouths. Daycare workers cannot sterilize each toy after each baby has
placed it in their mouth, nor can they designate several toys to each baby
to be used throughout the day. The result is an obvious one. The babies were
in continual contact with each others’ saliva and nose excretions through
the toys shared within the room. It is true the toys were sterilized in the
evening to begin the next day germ free. This does not prohibit the
spreading of illness even with a thorough sanitation routine in place.
Category = Caregiver, Disease |
Doing Time: What It Really Means To Grow Up
In Daycare
by May Saubier,
©2012 |
Other Culprits to Spreading Sickness
As was previously mentioned, children in daycare are often fighting to take
away other children’s toys, bottles, pacifiers, etc. Therefore, while
daycare workers are scrambling to ensure their relative safety and to
provide the very basics for the children, babies have the ability to bottle
snatch. If one ten-month-old is given her bottle, chances are there is
another baby who is crawling about wishing it were time for his bottle. This
is why children often lose their bottles to stronger babies who crawl by and
decide to snatch them away. Of course, daycare workers recognize a bottle as
belonging to one particular baby and it doesn’t take long before it is
returned to its rightful owner. By this time, however, the stronger baby has
already ingested the other infant’s germs. Even worse were the times the
swiped bottle contained the pumped breast milk of another baby’s mother.
Category = Caregiver, Disease |
Doing Time: What It Really Means To Grow Up
In Daycare
by May Saubier,
©2012 |
Because young children and babies are
very accident prone, most daycare rooms are completely carpeted or partially
carpeted. This encourages another common breeding ground for germs. Babies
continually spit up and sick babies often throw up. State regulations might
mandate that spit up on the rug be wiped clean with a bleach solution. This
is a nice thought that makes parents feel better about placing their child
on the rug where he will spend the day. In reality, daycare workers are (too
busy) to be running for the bleach solution every time a little spit up hits
the rug. Not only are germs accumulating on the rug, they gather on the
blankets and pillows on the floor, on the fabric portion of the baby swing,
on the highchairs, on the stationary crawlers, etc. Even the most sanitary
conscious workers in the world cannot keep up.
Category = Caregiver, Disease |
Doing Time: What It Really Means To Grow Up
In Daycare
by May Saubier,
©2012 |
While working in the infant room, my
hands were drier than any desert because I continually washed them hoping to
avoid another illness. I continued to get sick despite my efforts. At my
local doctor’s office, everyone began to know me by name. In contrast to my
normal excellent health, I was there just about every other week. During
this time, I had a reoccurring Strep infection in my throat, several ear
infections including one that came very close to bursting my ear drum, a
stomach virus that had me living in the bathroom for two days and continual
colds and sinus infections.
Category = Caregiver, Disease |
Doing Time: What It Really Means To Grow Up
In Daycare
by May Saubier,
©2012 |
Daycare children are constantly ill
because their peers are attending “school” sick and spreading germs as was
described above. Even if you are currently a responsible daycare parent who
always keeps your children home when they are sick, understand many parents
at your facility are sending their sick children to the center to spend the
day in close contact with your healthy child.
Category = Caregiver, Disease |
Doing Time: What It Really Means To Grow Up
In Daycare
by May Saubier,
©2012 |
Illness in Older Daycare Children
While the majority of this chapter has focused on sick babies, older daycare
children also suffer from chronic illness. The three and four-year-olds do
not become immune to “daycare nose” and germs still spread rapidly despite
the fact that they no longer put every toy in their mouths. Young children
are not at all hygienic by nature. Sneezes and coughs are not always
contained with a tissue and germs are easily passed along via shared
materials.
Category = Caregiver, Disease |
Doing Time: What It Really Means To Grow Up
In Daycare
by May Saubier,
©2012 |
The reason I have written this aside
note regarding breastfeeding is I saw a huge contradiction. Here was a woman
who was highly educated, had completed research on the benefits of breast
milk and had made a decision, no matter how difficult, to breastfeed
throughout her son’s infancy. She would express her milk rather than eat
lunch and would probably have to do so at home too when her children were
asleep. Here lies the contradiction. She would then leave her children
forty( +) hours a week to spend their days with strangers in daycare. The
only conclusion I can make is that so much has been said about the benefits
of breastfeeding and yet very little is said about the benefits of actually
being present when one’s children are young.
Category = Caregiver, Politics |
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Quotes
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2011-2012, p4 |
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Last updated:
07/08/2012
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