ZERO TO FIVE IN 60 SECONDS
Quick tips for parents of young children
By MARK SULLIVAN, Executive Director, Michigan 4C Association

Q: I really worry about the flu and every other kind of contagious disease that might appear at the child care center. What can I do?

A: Teach your child to wash her hands, set a good example for it yourself at home, take time at home to let her learn to do it well and see that your child care provider does the same. Hand washing is not quite a miracle activity, but it may be the single easiest preventive measure you have available to you.

Find a way to spend some time observing your child care provider’s routines. Very young children need help washing their hands, but by age three, many can do the job themselves. And once they’ve learned they can do it and that it’s important, they are very good about teaching others and reminding everyone to follow their lead and wash regularly. It’s great positive peer pressure, actually.

Other good practices to look for:

• Wiping down counters and food preparation areas with bleach solution
• Wiping down toys with a milder bleach solution
• No sharing of food. Food preparation is a very good activity for children, as long as all surfaces are properly cleaned and the food handling tasks are kept to just the minimum of what’s required to learn something.
• Careful handling of diaper changes and caregiver hand washing immediately afterwards
• Putting on clean clothes after soiling or wetting incidents

Ask your child care provider when she notifies parents about a contagious disease. You ought to get a note or a call about flu or any other serious infectious disease that shows up at a child care center or classroom, or even a milder infection if it begins to affect a significant proportion of the other children. If you are concerned, press the issue to give yourself an opportunity to keep your child home to reduce exposure. That being said, remember that chicken pox, measles and a few other childhood illnesses are actually better caught when your child is young, because the symptoms and risks become worse with age.