1. Chapter Two: Indoor Safety

2. Indoor Safety Policies
Indoor Child Care Environments
Indoor Equipment Safety
Toy Safety

3. Interpersonal Safety
Poison Control
Fire and Burn Prevention

4. Indoor Child Care Environments
Examine for hazards
Falls
Choking
Burns
Drowning
Poisoning

5. Environmental hazards in child care
Ventilation
Pets or animals
Cleaning supplies
Safety devices needed

6. Developmental level Infants Toddlers Relatively helpless  choking
Group with most potential for unsafe practices  poisons

7. Preschoolers School Age
Greater physical and cognitive abilities  falls
School Age
Relatively safe indoors, but firearms may be risk

8. Space Recommended indoor space is 35 square feet per child
Does not include kitchen, bathroom, closets, laundry facilities, or staff space
Usually translates to 50 square feet when furnishings are considered
Adequate floor space essential for prevention of injury

9. Shared Space
Multiple-use facilities need thoughtful anticipation for risk
Screening checklist
Remove
Replace

10. Indoor Safety Equipment
Equipment should be
Sturdy
Free of sharp points or corners, splinters, protruding nails or bolts
Free of loose, rusty parts, hazardous small parts, or paint that contains lead
Durable

11. Easy to clean
Child-sized, where appropriate
Equipment should allow flow of movement
Comply with standards
Cribs, high chairs, strollers, safety gates

12. Preventing falls Indoor water safety Checklist (Table 2-3) Toilets
Standing water
Hot water heaters (less than 120 degrees F)

13. Toy Safety Choking and suffocation hazards
Toys, food, and small objects
Examine for age appropriateness
Developmental level, safety precautions
Appropriate toys (Table 2-6)

14. Toy Safety Checklist (Table 2-7)
Art supplies
Federal Arts Materials Act of 1990
Hazard free art materials label AP or CP
Common household products
Toy Safety Checklist (Table 2-7)

15. Interpersonal Safety
Injuries from biting, kicking, scratching, and fighting common
Caregivers should
Be prepared to intervene
Understand behavior
Know strategies for eliminating and preventing behavior
Know how to use conflict resolution

16. Exposure to violence Television, street, neighborhoods, homes
High degree of exposure can cause post-traumatic stress disorder
Can cause a child to relive violence in play
Caregiver needs to observe, communicate, and redirect

17. Poison Control Most common emergency involving children
Children under four are most likely to ingest poison
Examining the environment
First order of prevention is caregiver vigilance in monitoring
Room by room inspection

18. Understanding risk Ingestion  swallowing
Contact  absorbed through skin
Inhalation  breathing fumes
Animal, insect, or reptile bites
Injection  puncture wound

19. Strategies for Promoting Poison Control
Table 2-11
Plants that pose risk
Common indoor plant risk (Table 2-12)

20. Fire and Burn Prevention
Injuries from fires and burns are 2nd leading cause of death in children in U.S.
35% of all burn injuries happen to children
Scalding is chief cause of burns to preschool children
Playing with matches and lighters #1 cause of fire deaths in young children

21. Environmental Hazards
Scalding
Electrical
Contact
Chemical

22. Strategies for Fire and Burn Prevention
Teach child fire and burn prevention
Avoid matches and lighters
Regular fire drills
Stop, Drop, and Roll

23. Safety devices should be present
Fire extinguishers
Smoke alarms
Model safe behavior

24. Implications for Caregivers
Observation
Accessories, behaviors, conditions
Knowledge of hazards
Equipment, toys, art supplies, poisons
Awareness of unsafe interpersonal behaviors

25. Supervision Education Constant monitoring environment
Safe practices, methods of prevention, promotion
Check for compliance with licensing, fire safety guidelines
Communication to all caregivers to ensure safe practices
Education
Parents, caregivers, and children

26. Reality Check: SIDS
Safe Practices can prevent more than half of the cases
Put babies to sleep on their backs
Do not expose babies to secondhand smoke
Remove all soft sleeping materials such as pillows, foam pads, etc.
Do not let baby get overheated

27. Reality Check: Kids and Guns
Serious safety issue
1.2 million children have access to guns in their homes
1 in 5 high school students carry guns or other weapons to school
Children exposed to violence may carry guns to feel safe

28. Children’s curiosity Encouraged by exposure via television/movies
Toys available to play with
Even if they have been cautioned not to touch them, most children will anyway

29. How does child caregiver help protect children from guns?
Family child caregivers ensure that any firearm present is kept out of sight, locked away, and kept separate from ammunition
They can provide alternate forms of handling conflict in prosocial ways by conflict resolution
Not allow guns in child care environment
Including “substitute” gun play with other items

30. Strategies to promote positive interaction
Educate parents about dangers of guns
Monitor programming of television, if used in child care
Strategies to promote positive interaction
Table 2-10