Recognizing Signs of Swine Flu in Children

Watch for the signs of swine flu or regular flu: fever, coughing, head and body ache, chills, and a sore throat. In young children, symptoms that require urgent medical treatment are: rash on the body accompanied by fever, unconsciousness, unresponsiveness, blue tinge to skin tone, respiratory difficulty or breathing faster than usual. If your child displays any signs of swine flu, keep him or her at home and away from childcare or school, and get a doctor’s opinion.

Tips for Parents to Protect Against Swine Flu

• As a rule, it is a good practice to develop and encourage habits of washing hands often during the day. Teach children to wash their hands and face in the morning, in the evening, before and after meals, and shower after playing or before going to bed.
• Teach children to avoid touching their face or mouth to prevent transmission of any virus or bacteria.
• Arm yourself with information on swine flu to be prepared for any signs or precautions.
• Simple etiquette like using a handkerchief or tissue when sneezing can reduce the swine flu risk.
• Clean household surfaces, especially doors and door handles frequently. Regular household cleaners are effective to protect against swine flu.
• If your child is diagnosed, he or she will remain infectious for 7 days after the signs of swine flu started. Do not let infected children interact with other children or family members during this time. Stay at least one meter away from the infected person to avoid the swine flu risk and prevent contamination by droplets and keep a separate sleeping place if possible.
• Swine flu can be treated but antivirals cannot be taken unless a diagnosis confirms that your child has swine flu or is at serious risk of developing the illness.

Tips and Information on Swine Flu for Childcare Professionals

• Spread information on swine flu. Educate children in creative ways and ensure that they learn and practice methods to protect against swine flu.
• Teach children to wash hands and face regularly, and especially before eating.
• Children should be taught about germs, as well as to avoid touching their faces, to cover their mouths when sneezing and to use handkerchiefs.
• Clean all surfaces every day with a regular disinfectant, especially those that are touched by children to reduce swine flu risk.
• Observe rules of hygiene during eating and snack time. Provide a separate cup, plate, bowl and spoon for each child and label it so that there is no sharing.
• If a child displays signs of swine flu, ensure he or she is kept far away from other children until either a doctor arrives or until the parents can be called to take the child home.
• Children who show signs of swine flu will remain infectious for approximately 5 days after the symptoms begin to show. A child who is ill should not be allowed to come to childcare during this time.
• Use a spray with high alcohol content to disinfect the air around at regular intervals.
• Use social distancing in the areas where children congregate: move desks further apart, have smaller groups of children if possible, do not overcrowd children into one area for activities.
• Provide warm water and soap for children to wash hands, or hand rubs or sanitizers.
• Staff members who are ill should be made to stay at home, whether you are prepared for the extra time you or some other member will have to put in. A few extra hours of work will not hurt, but contracting an infection can have serious consequences.
• Prepare parents by providing information on swine flu and making your rules very clear. Some parents may try to drop children off when they go to work, even if the child is mildly ill. Lay down very strict rules on this or any other behavior that may endanger you, your staff or the other children

References:

1. Swine Flu Q&A – NHS UK
2. Swine Flu and Children: Should Parents Be Worried? – Education
3. Novel H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) and You – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Budget Child Care: Low Cost Child Care Options

Dropping a child off at the nearest good day care center seldom amounts to “cheap” child care and therefore parents need to explore their options for low cost child care. There are a number of ways in which you can provide cheap child care for your kids. You must research the availabilities in your area to reach a balance between affordability and quality of the care provided.

• Formal day care center :  These places will usually be listed and are fairly expensive. However, they are mostly trained well in providing care and help your child’s interactive skills.
• Not-for-profit daycare center :  These places also have a fairly well-trained staff but are slightly cheaper than formal day care centers as they receive considerable amounts of government aid.
• Daycare Homes :  These child care homes are much smaller than daycare centers and care is usually a family run business by experienced individuals. They are usually more affordable and are probably well suited for those looking for budget child care.
• Family care :  This kind of child care is an informal arrangement made with family members or friends. The quality of such care is usually lower as the individuals are inexperienced at formal child care. However, it is very affordable child care and makes one feel safer.
• In-home Care: As a low cost child care option, a part-time babysitter can be hired on an hourly basis to care for your child at home. This is more convenient and an affordable child care option for you.

Budget Child Care To Reduce Child Care Costs

Budget child care is becoming an increasing concern amongst parents as a good low cost child care option helps them to cut down on heavy child care expenses. By keeping these small factors in mind, you could find it more affordable to provide child care your kids:

• Family care : Keeping your children within the family members for child care such as with grandparents or relatives can be much cheaper and a good affordable child care option. It also gives you peace of mind and flexibility of timings.
• Student care : Hiring a student from a nearby college is a good source of cheap child care. These students work for much lesser than a local daycare center and fit a low cost child care budget.
• Arrange swaps : Cheap child care is required by all families. Coming up with arrangements to swap kids according to your schedules with neighbors would be more affordable for everyone.
• Save on taxes : The government allows numerous tax deductions for child care. You can take advantage of the Dependent Care Tax Credit or the Dependent Care Account to make your child care more affordable.
• Switch schedules : By switching around your schedules with your spouse you can co-ordinate to have someone stay at home with the children more often and stick to your child care budget as well.

Avoid Low Cost Child Care Dangers

While cheap and affordable child care is attractive to families on a tight budget, parents must not sacrifice the safety and wellbeing of their children for the sake of finding a cheap child care option. When choosing a low cost child care option, it is essential to ask some important child care questions and avoid some basic dangers:

• Avoid start-up budget day cares as they may be inexperienced.
• Research your cheap day care center well.
• Avoid young and irresponsible students as a cheap child care option.
• Lay down strict rules if you leave them with family or friends
• Inspect the place thoroughly before leaving your child in someone else’s care

Child care demands are increasing while the costs keep rising. It is therefore essential to keep all these tips in mind to make cheap child care more affordable for your family.Low cost child care options are not impossible to find but before you jump at the temptation of a cheap child care option, make sure you do your research well enough so you can leave your child in their care.

Taking Childcare for Granted

While child carers naturally develop a bond with the children they care for, it is still a job for them. When parents take it for granted that the child carer will look after the child even after center hours, or on holidays, they are not respecting the childcare professional. If a childcare center is willing to perform these kind of duties, parents should be willing to pay for the extra time of the employees of the center.

Payments of Childcare Bills

Treating childcare centers like babysitters is a mistake many parents make. The center is a business, and must collect payments in time to meet other overheads and costs, as well as pay salaries. When employees are not happy, it affects the children at the center, so make sure you make your payments in time.

Childcare and Housekeeping Duties

Children can be messy and need to be looked after. During learning games and constructive play, children often end up with soiled clothes and shoes. However, child carers cannot be expected to rinse mud and paint stains off clothes and send back clean lunch-boxes. In addition, parents should teach children to behave the same at the childcare center as they would in their own house; i.e no littering, flushing the toilet after use, etc.

Childcare and Parents

There are some lines between child care providers and parents that should not be crossed. Child carers may be very familiar with a child and family; this does not allow parents to make payments late, to involve child carers in family disputes, or ask for babysitting favors.

Open Communication and Childcare

It is most important for parents and child care providers to develop a stream of communication in which both sides understand and respect the needs of the other. Making unreasonable demands is not excusable. Parents need to keep in mind that there are other children at the center and the providers will do their best to provide care as good as home care.

Also, childcare centers take time to create and distribute brochures, pamphlets and rule books, as well as design contracts that care for the best interests of the family, the child and the center. Parents will be expected to read these contracts carefully before agreeing to anything.

Childcare Expectations

Parents need to talk to child care professionals before signing up for their services so that they reach a full understanding of the discipline methods and principles followed by the center. A childcare provider will have to control unruly behavior in children, and parents should discuss the methods of discipline.  Specifications about health problems, allergies and special instructions need to be discussed at this point to understand if the center is able to provide this.

Parents cannot expect unreasonable services such as not allowing children to mingle with certain other children, or particular religious training. There may be other child care centers that cater to these requirements as part of their profile, and parents should consider these centers instead.

Being Asked to Leave Childcare: Reasons

While it may not always be the best way to handle a problem, asking a child to leave childcare is sometimes the only option a center has. Childcare centers are answerable to other parents and have bills to pay, and a disruptive or violent child or a parent who takes advantage of the system can prove to be a liability for them. A childcare center is within its legal rights to dismiss or ask a child to leave for those reasons. Some such reasons for asking a child to leave childcare are:

Problems with the child

• If the child is violent, abusive, unruly, and destructive or bullies other children for no reason, it can be a source of trouble for others in the group
• In an academically active center, below-average performance and failure to participate can hinder the progress of the class

Problems with the parents

• Parents who demand special treatment or exclusive privileges for a child that are difficult to accommodate within a group could be asked to leave childcare there and find a more suitable center
• Parents who are casual about pick-up and drop-off times or paying fees on a regular basis are viewed as unable to respect the professionalism of the center and may be asked to leave childcare
• Parents who are rude or disrespectful to the caregivers at the center may be asked to leave childcare

Leaving Childcare – Parents’ Tips on Handling a Child

When asked to leave childcare, parents can feel helpless and insecure about their daily routine. It is important to deal with the situation in a manner that your child is not affected or traumatized. Being asked to leave childcare is usually a last resort after warnings have been given before. Dealing with the problem when the first warning signs appear is the best way to avoid a situation in which nobody benefits. However, once asked to leave childcare, parents need to follow some basic steps to ensure the transition is smooth.
1. Understand the reason for being asked to leave childcare. A problem lies in the child’s behavior, not in the child. Children can often act up if they feel insecure, if there are changes at home or at the center that they are uncomfortable with, when scared or ill, or when there is an underlying mental health or developmental problem. Problem behavior as a reaction to one of these causes can be solved if the cause is addressed.
2. Talk to your child about leaving the center. Assure the child that he/she is not being rejected or abandoned, and discover what reaction the child is undergoing.
3. If the child was not the problem, its time to seriously rethink your own behavior. Treating a daycare center as a babysitter is not an option, especially because it frees your time for other work or chores. A childcare center is run by professionals and they should be treated that way. Disrespecting their requirements or the caregivers puts you and your child in a situation that leaves you both worried and upset.
4. Finding a new daycare center is important so that a pattern and routine can be established as soon as possible. In many cases, a child is asked to leave a daycare center if the philosophy of the parents and the center do not match. Look for a center where there is a meshing of principles or methods this time. When assessing a daycare center for potential admission, consider the kind of problems that were faced previously, and check if these are likely to arise here.

References
1. Childcare Expulsion Prevention Program; Early Childhood Michigan
2. Acting Up, Acting Out: When Young Children Are Put Out of Programs: Childcare Aware
3. Challenging Behavior: Child Welfare League of America

Helping children and looking after them is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world, nothing can bring greater satisfaction than seeing a child improve or learn something new with your help. There are several ways in which you can offer your services and help to care for or to teach children without having to take certificates or get training. Listed below are just some of the ways you can make a difference:

Your local school

Schools will always welcome parents help with open arms, anyone working with children in any capacity in any authority run establishment now have to have screening, this check is made with the criminal records bureau and ensures that everyone who comes into contact with children does not have a criminal background.

The school will pay for the check and it takes about a month to complete in full before the school is given the report and you are given clearance. Areas that schools particularly need help in are:

• Reading – Schools are often in desperate need for help with reading, here you will be asked to take children on a one to one basis and listen to them read for about 15 minutes per child. Usually you will work with one class on a regular basis going in two or three times a week for an hour or two.
• Classroom assistance – Schools will often appreciate help within the classroom, this can be your child’s class or a different one if you feel uncomfortable working alongside your child. Assistance is given in a general form providing help with topics the children are working on in class; this can be help with spelling or answering questions children may have regarding the topic they are working on.
• Attending day outings – Schools will often ask parents to accompany them on outings for the day, parents would be expected to be in charge of a group of children on the outing and make sure they stayed safe during the outing.

Usually a group of children would consist of no more than four children per adult. As well as keeping the children safe you would be also expected to point out highlights of the outing and the teacher will have given you reference material to look through beforehand on things to show the children.

Say for example the class are doing a topic on history and you are visiting an historic site then there will be certain things on the outing that the children will have to be aware of and part of your job would be to help point these out to children. Help will also be required at dinner time for usually on day outings there isn’t a lot of time for the children to eat and use the bathroom.

Child care centers

Many child care centers particularly those run by local authorities and volunteers will often require assistance, care centers will often post volunteer positions on notice boards or websites. The type of assistance they will need includes:

• Working with pre school children – This usually entails reading and playing with children of pre school age, also helping them at meal times and possibly taking them to the bathroom.
• Assisting older children in various activities such as supervising them as they play in outdoor areas and making sure each child isn’t left out from an activity.
• Assisting children during dinner times, helping to feed young children and babies making sure they wash and helping with bathroom duties.
• Working in after school care clubs – Many after school care clubs rely on volunteers to help them entertain children this could be supervising older children in after school care, assisting with homework. Supervising the snack and refreshment bar or helping in sports related activities, after school clubs that offer a pick up service for children often need drivers also.

School summer holidays are particularly long and if parents work who can take care of the children during this time? Some child care centers are open during the school holidays and are there to take care of your children of course but as an alternative why not try a camp?

This will make a pleasing change for your child and the choices of camps are varied with something suitable for everyone and are there for the entire summer holiday period. Children can spend as little as a single day or the entire summer holiday at camp, taking part in various activities which are usually scheduled throughout the day.

Camps are usually run in a structured format from morning until tea time then the children often have free time to choose which activities they want to do. The children are supervised all of the time be it structured or free time and camps will usually cater for children aged between 4 and 13 years old.

Local day camps

Day camps provide daily course or play schemes during the week in the summer holidays, they will usually offer different programs on an age basis including nursery schemes for children under the age of 5 to action packed activity courses for teenagers.

Prices vary from venue to venue but on average a day will cost around £25, this will include activities throughout the day, usually up to 8 activities will be structured over the day with some free time for your child to relax in under supervision. Activities for teens include:

• Snorkeling lessons
• Horse riding
• Go-kart racing
• Gymnastics
• Circus training
• Quad bike

Residential adventure holidays

Residential camps are becoming increasingly popular with children and teenagers during the summer holiday break from school, residential camps usually run for at least a 7 day period and most camps of this type are multi-activity theme camps, which mean they provide activities based on themes such as sport, drama, outdoor, water and games.

Camps of this type will also provide entertainment during the evening for your child such as a themed disco, cinema and karaoke nights. Activities provided for children and teenagers include:

• Rock climbing
• Archery lessons
• Basketball
• Arts and craft lessons
• Drama lessons
• Singing lessons
• Scuba diving
• Water polo
• Water basketball

Special interest clubs

For those children who are into a particular hobby or sport there are several clubs that offer specific courses for children, clubs of this type will normally take children between the ages of 7 and 16 and are usually provided for at least a week. Some of the activity weeks that clubs such as these provide are:

• Golfing courses
• Football and rugby
• Motor sports
• Pony trekking
• Science camps
• Music camps
• Swimming camps
• Art camps
• Water sport camps

Most clubs will offer package deals, for example the longer you book the cheaper the price becomes, price includes all activities throughout the day, full board and meals and snacks throughout the day, the price also includes evening entertainment.

All staff has to be fully trained in first aid and have qualifications in child care and all camps are inspected and have to meet certain regulations regarding safety. In most cases staff will have had to pass a criminal records background check and staffs who works with children under the age of 8 year old will have to be registered as child minders by law.

Bullying is something unfortunately that happens in any system where groups of children are together for any period of time and day care centers are no exception, but fortunately all establishments will have a policy on bullying and how they deal with it.

Information on the particular day care center’s policy regarding bullying is always available and any staff member will be more than happy to provide you with details on how to get this information.

Signs that your child might be getting bullied

• Your child develops a reluctance to go to day care.
• Your child makes excuses such as feeling ill on a regular basis.
• Your child has problems going to sleep.
• You see cuts, bruises or scratches that can’t be explained happening on a regular basis.

Bullying can have a drastic affect on your child they can quickly turn from a happy go lucky child who enjoys life to depression and often withdraw into themselves which then affects development. If you think that your child is being bullied while attending day care then it is essential that you talk with members of staff at the center.

Centers usually assign one member of staff to work with a group of about five children so this is the place to start, sit down and talk with your child’s care provider and tell them of your fears and any evidence you have to substantiate those fears. All child care centers will have a policy in place regarding discipline procedures and bullying isn’t taken lightly.

What the center should do

• Take you seriously when you approach them regarding bullying.
• Pay special attention to your child when in their care to ensure bullying doesn’t continue.
• Talk with the parents of the child who is doing the bullying.
• Discuss ways of dealing with the bullying in the future.

What you can do if the day care center doesn’t take you seriously

• If you are not happy with what’s been done at the day care center regarding your child’s problem then ask to speak to the head of the day care center and voice your displeasure.
• If the day care center is run by a council then write to the council voicing your displeasure.
• Work with the day care center closely maybe even stay for one or two times with your child and observe firsthand.

What you can do to help your child

• Encourage your child to keep away from the child or children who are bullying.
• Make sure they understand they are not facing the problem alone and that help is available to them.
• Make sure they know to stay near a carer and always ask for help if they need it.
• Role play a bullying incident and make suggestions of better ways to handle it should bullying occur.

Most respected and well established child care centers run by professional staff will do everything that is in their power to quickly deal with a bullying situation, most will teach the children to respect other children and encourage them to help each other.

The majority of cases regarding bullying will be confronted with and dealt with efficiently but if you are not satisfied with results taken by the center and the bullying continues within the care center then outside help may be needed.

There are several options available if you are not satisfied with the results including calling the organisation directly which is in charge of the day care center and getting help from organisations that can give you more information on your rights such as kidscape and childline.

Drop in child care centers are becoming increasingly popular, centers such as these are ideal for emergencies such as a babysitter canceling at the last minute or a nanny calling in sick. Drop in centers will allow you to virtually just take your child and drop them off, this of course can be a great advantage for parents but also they do have disadvantages.

The plus side

The big plus side is of course that centers such as these don’t need any advance warning you can generally turn up at the center and leave your child in their care. Most centers of this type have fully qualified staff working for them and the center will usually have to be registered for child minding the same as any day care center.

The only time when advance notice is often required is when you have a very young baby for the center might not have enough staff for them to assign a child carer to a young baby. Child to staff ratios must be maintained in any child care facility and drop in centers are no exception so if the center is a particularly popular one then sometimes places are taken up quickly.

The downside

Your child could be upset at being in a new environment with adults and children they haven’t seen before, generally when your child is going to attend child care on a regular basis they will have been introduced beforehand and most likely they will have spent some time with you there.

Suddenly taking a young child to a new strange environment can cause problems if you just drop them off and walk away from them. Also you won’t have had time to talk with staff members or parents and find out what the center is like, at the most you will be able to have a quick look around the place but you can’t be sure that it meets the standards it should.

Staff members won’t know your child and what they like and don’t like, if your child is quiet or can be boisterous or what type of activities your child enjoys and also what they are like at mixing with other children.

Points to remember when using drop in care

• Always remember to take any medication your child needs with you, don’t go rushing off without it and make sure it is clearly labeled with your child’s name, address, age and a contact telephone number.
• If your child is young and will likely have a nap while in care then make sure you take pacifier’s or a particular stuffed toy they sleep with.
• Remember to tell staff of any allergies your child might have, any foods for example they shouldn’t eat.
• Give staff detailed information on any illnesses your child suffers from such as asthma or epilepsy.
• Make sure staff know where you can be contacted during your child’s stay.
• Let your child take a favorite toy with them this could help to make them feel more at ease.
• Talk with your child and make the stay an adventure, make it sound exciting.