Week 5 Assignment

Children are learning loco-motor skills that help them run, jump, skip, etc. Furthermore, essential social skills and ways to manipulate utensils and objects with their hands are important for these age groups. These are things the children will use every day of their lives once they learn them. These skills will help with physical activities to help them stay active. Playing with a ball can help them with their kicking and their catching or throwing. It helps with hand eye coordination and social skills. When children don’t get enough physical fitness time, it can not only affect their bodies, but their minds too. Even from personal experience when the child wants to sit inside and not do anything their mind doesn’t get the same exercise either. Their imagination tends to grow to its fullest and becomes lazy. When they don’t get enough activity, they become bogged down and can lead to no energy and obesity. Obesity has tripled in the past 25 years. Keeping active is a great way to help with that number going down. “MyPyramid for kids… recommends that children be physically active for 60 minutes a day on most days.” (Robertson, pg. 265) “Allowing time for physical activities and exercise is a necessary part of creating nutritional policies to protect children’s health and well-being.” (Robertson, pg. 266) A child’s self-esteem can be hurt when they’re overweight, and that can cause lasting effects on the child’s life. It can lead to more health problems like anorexia or mental problems. It can lead to social disabilities because the way they are talked about by their peers. Being overweight as a child can really hurt them for the rest of their lives. I know some times it’s genetics, but a lot of times we can prevent obesity by being active and keeping a well-structured diet. Some activities we can play along with the children are sports. It’s always great to teach a child how to throw a ball or kick a soccer ball. Playing baseball or making up a game like an obstacle course is a great way to keep active and learn those gross-motor skills. One of my favorite games to play when I was growing up was kick-the-can. I don’t remember the rules really, but it was kind of like hide-and-seek and at the end we had to run over and kick the can, and whoever did that won the game for everyone. All aspects of the game were great because there wasn’t a true ‘winner’ or ‘loser’, everyone wanted to guard the can and try to hide and kick it. This helped develop my social skills with the neighborhood kids, my running, jumping, my skills to prepare and plan, many things. Playing outside alone can help children grow in a way that adults have lost touch with. After reading that obesity has tripled in the past 25 years, and knowing that a lot a children, even myself included aren’t eating properly, I have really turned myself around and started thinking of new ways to play with the children I watch and eat healthier. This has really made a difference in the way we interact also. I have more energy which means the girls have more fun and play more. This not only winds them down after a while, but is also getting that crucial 60 minutes of play a day in their day.

Some positive impact that physical activity has on children is that it keeps them active, allows them to keep their energy levels up, and allows them to work on their social skills. All of these things children can take with them throughout their lives. “Toddlers (and preschoolers) should engage in at least 60 minutes and up to several hours per day of daily, unstructured physical activity and should not be sedentary for more than 60 minutes at a time except when sleeping.” (NASPE)

National Association for Sport and Physical Education. (2006, May). Active start: Physical activity guidelines for children birth to five years. Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200605/NASPEGuidelinesBTJ.pdf (April 8, 2012)

Robertson, C. (2010) Safety, Nutrition, and Health in Early Education (4th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

Week 4 Assignment: Healthy Foods and Nutrition

Section 4: Healthy Food and Nutrition

Good nutrition and eating habits are very important for young children because birth to 5 years is the most essential time for growth and development. If a child doesn’t have good eating habits it can come back to hurt them later in life. They could become diabetic; have high cholesterol, heart problems, rickets disease, iron deficiency, etc. Having good eating habits help promotes good health! By consuming all the proper vitamins, minerals, fats help the body grow to its proper size, also the brain. Minerals help the metabolic process and regulate body fluids. (Robertson, 2010)

Two ways adults can help develop healthy eating habits are by: being knowledgeable in the nutritional area, understanding your child or the child in your care, encouraging them to help cook and be a part of the process. Children love to be involved and help grown-ups. Trying new foods at the best time of the day for the child is a way we can help them experiment with new foods. Maybe by cutting the food in special shapes will help them eat more.

Recipe 1: http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/crazy-curly-broccoli-bake

Crazy, Curly Broccoli Bake

Crazy, Curly Broccoli BakePreparation time: 25 minutes

1½ cups whole wheat corkscrew pasta, dry

3 cups broccoli, frozen, chopped

1 10.5-oz.can low-fat cream of broccoli soup, condensed

½ cup skim milk

2 tablespoons plain bread crumbs

¼ teaspoon salt-free seasoning blend

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350oF.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Place frozen broccoli in large microwave safe and oven proof dish and cook for 2 minutes on HIGH.

Coarsely chop cooked broccoli.

Mix soup with skim milk, and add to chopped broccoli.

Add cooked pasta and mix. Top with bread crumbs and seasoning blend

Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes until heated through.

Serves: 6

½ Cup of Vegetables per Serving

Fruit and/or Veggie Color(s): Green

Nutrition Information per serving: calories: 164, total fat: 2.2g, saturated fat: 0.6g, % calories from fat: 11%, % calories from saturated fat: 3%, protein: 8g, carbohydrates: 31g, cholesterol: 2mg, dietary fiber: 5g, sodium: 351mg

Each serving provides: An excellent source of vitamin C and fiber, and a good source of vitamin A, folate and magnesium.

Recipe was developed for Produce for Better Health Foundation by Chef Mark Goodwin, CEC, CNC. This recipe meets PBH and Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) nutrition standards that maintain fruits and vegetables as healthy foods.
Recipe 2: http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/galloping-good-eggplant
Galloping Good Eggplant
Preparation time: 25 minutes

 ½ cup eggplant, diced

½ cup fresh mushrooms, diced

¾ cup fresh tomatoes, chopped

3 seconds butter-flavored cooking oil spray

¾ oz. fat-free mozzarella cheese (use a string cheese stick)

Instructions: Spray skillet with cooking oil. Sauté eggplant, mushrooms, and tomatoes in skillet until tender but cooked. Drain off extra juice and top with shredded or ‘peeled’ cheese. Let it melt.

Serves: 1

1½ Cups of Vegetables per Serving

Fruit and/or Veggie Color(s): Purple, White, Red

Nutrition Information per serving: calories: 95, total fat: 2.9g, saturated fat: 0.3g, % calories from fat: 25%, % calories from saturated fat: 2%, protein: 9g, carbohydrates: 10g, cholesterol: 4mg, dietary fiber: 3g, sodium: 151mg

Each serving provides: An excellent source of vitamins A and C, and a good source of potassium, calcium and fiber.
Recipe 3: http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/hsmrs/Iowa/physicalactivitiesandhealthysnacksforyoungchildren.pdf (pg. 25)
1-5” whole wheat tortilla
1 tsp. low-fat mayonnaise
1 tsp. low-fat sour cream
1/4 cup chopped or grated vegetables (tomato, red pepper, cucumber, carrot, onion, zucchini) or cooked dried beans
2 Tbsp. grated cheese
Makes 5 wrap-ups
1. Mix mayonnaise and sour cream. Spread on one side of tortilla.
2. Top with 1/4 cup chopped vegetables and grated cheese.
3. Fold the tortilla in half or roll it up for a sandwich on the go.
Avocado Option:

Mix a small amount of mashed avocado into the mayonnaise/sour cream spread.
Wrap-Ups
1 wrap-up served with 1/4 cup
cranberry apple juice

Children who are vegetarians are sometimes missing out on
“Protein (dairy products, soy milk, eggs, tofu, dried beans, nuts, fish, shellfish, poultry)

Vitamin B12 (dairy products, eggs, fortified soymilk, clams, oysters, tuna)

Vitamin D (dairy products, vitamin-fortified products including orange juice and soymilk)

Calcium (dairy products, dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli, white beans, calcium-fortified products, sardines with bones)

Iron (dried beans, dried apricots, blackstrap molasses, leafy green vegetables, iron-fortified cereals and bread, clams, oysters)

Zinc (wheat germ, nuts, fortified cereal, legumes, oysters, turkey, ricotta cheese, crab)

*Eating a vitamin C rich food with iron foods increases iron absorption.”
Each of these recipes have nutrition facts on the page. Which is great so then you can see if it meets not only your calorie intake for the day, but your child’s also.
You can have the child help by having them wipe the table off, cleaning the fruit off, setting the table, etc. Children can also help mix ingredients and peel oranges. Depending on their age their activities can become more helpful to you. Such as a 5 or 6 year old can help measure ingredients, liquid or solid, when a 3 year old can’t do that yet, but can help pour it into a bowl and place things in the trash. You know what the child can do, so utilize that to help get them involved.

Reilly L.  Bites of passage: what you need to know when your teen goes vegetarian – includes list of resources.  Vegetarian Times.  [serial online].  November, 2004.  Available from: BNET Business Library.  Accessed March 7, 2008.

Robertson, Catherine. (2010) Safety, Nutrition, and Health in Early Education. (4th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Learning

Week 3 Assignment

Create two scenarios: one in which a child is choking and another in which a child needs CPR. In each of your scenarios, include who is involved and where it is occurring (for example, a 5-year-old in a preschool setting has stopped breathing and is apparently choking on a piece of food). Then outline the proper emergency procedures for dealing with each situation (see pages 178–179 in your text).

 Next, summarize why advance planning is often the best way to respond to or prevent an emergency situation and the kinds of training (e.g., CPR or first aid training) you believe are needed in order to prevent or positively resolve such emergencies.

 Finally, describe any other steps adults must take to ensure they are prepared to handle these kinds of crises, including such information as first aid supplies, family emergency contact information, and so on.

Scenario 1: A 4 year old is choking on some string cheese in her home, I am the nanny, and I have to do the Heimlich maneuver.
The proper way to handle the situation is to stay calm, keep the child who is choking calm during the process. Then proceed to do the HM. In this area, it is always smart to go through the actions and learn the proper way of doing this maneuver or someone could seriously get hurt. We need to be prepared by taking a course and being certified. Even though this is something you can only do with your hands, it is smart to still have the first aid kit in an area everyone knows about in case the child does stop breathing. After this incident occurs I would contact the parents and let them know what had happened.
The outlined steps would be: to make a fist with one hand and place it below the rib cage and above the waist. Then I would perform 6-10 presses on the chest to develop enough pressure to force the string cheese back up. It is important to try again and not give up after the first try.

Scenario 2: The 4 year old slipped in the bathtub and hit her head. She has stopped breathing and CPR needs to be performed. This happened at home with the nanny.
I would take the child out of the tub, call 911/fire department, and start CPR immediately. I would grab the first aid kit, which is under the sink in her bathroom. 
I could have prevented the situation by not allowing her to stand up in the tub and also putting less water in the tub. I would need to be prepared for this situation by taking a CPR/AED first aid class or course to be certified.
In this case, I would take the child out of the bathtub and place her on the floor. Then I would tilt her head up, plug her nose and give short breaths to make sure her chest was rising. The breaths should be about 1 second long and do this 6 to 8 times. Then I would compress on the child’s chest about 30 times to try and get her heart started again.
In this case, I would make sure the parents were aware of how to do CPR and to make sure they had the first aid kit and information all together so I wouldn’t have to run downstairs or upstairs for anything, leave the child alone. I would make sure it was all together so then I could calmly perform CPR, call 911 and then inform the parents also. I would make sure that I talk to the children about these things and what ways we could prevent them from happening. One way would be not putting as much water in the tub; another could be not standing up in the tub or being too silly at times. Also, always have supervision while a child is in the tub. One main thing is to keep the lines of communication with the family open. To make sure that they know what’s going on, what happened, and how it was handled.

Week 2 Assignment

For this section of your course project, complete the following:

 •Describe each of the disaster scenarios you have chosen (such as a hurricane that has quickly developed in your area) and a real or hypothetical early childhood setting (such as a Head Start program housed on a university campus near the coast). What are the main dangers posed by these situations? Who is at risk?
Well, we’re pretty much in an area that doesn’t get many natural disasters, but we have had a tornado in the past in a nearby city and their house has a gas stove, so a fire could happen. So, I’ll use those two disasters. Since I’m not sure how a real setting would be, I will use my nanny position right now as my early childhood setting. The main dangers in this scenario is that it’s only me with two children, 4 years old and 14 months. If there we a flood, I would do everything in my power to make sure we got out safely, and put them above myself. In the situation of a fire, I would locate the fire extinguisher if the fire were small enough.  

 •Explain why you and your colleagues should be prepared. What are the consequences of not being prepared?
If I weren’t prepared, I could lose one of the children. Since I have a toddler and a 4 year old, either one could get scared enough to try and run away in one of the situations. If we all aren’t calm and know the plan then someone could seriously get hurt.

 •Summarize the appropriate steps you would take to develop a plan in advance for this disaster and how you would deal with it if it occurs.
I would sit down with the 4 year old and tell her the plan, ask her questions on what we would do if this were to happen.
In case of a fire, I would make sure there was an escape ladder upstairs in the bedroom along with the first aid kit and the appropriate safety materials such as numbers to call, information on the children and so on.  If I was somehow separated from a child, I would tell them to go out the door closest to them, like we had planned, and meet me outside on the other side of the street in the field. I would also have us practice different scenarios to make sure she knew what to do when the time came. As for a tornado, I would practice that plan as well. I would tell her if she was scared and couldn’t find me to run to the downstairs bathroom and I will find her or be there waiting for her.

Be sure to:

•Explain how you would assess the risks.
I would look at how bad the fire was and what we can do to make it stop. If I can use an extinguisher, to put it out and clean it up or if we need to grab the girls and get out while calling the fire department. If this were a flood, normally it doesn’t come into the house unless it were really bad, so I would just make sure I had the girls with me upstairs. If it were really bad, I would call the fire department to come get us out of the house.

•Identify potential complications created by this disaster besides the main disaster/danger itself.
Some potential complications could be if I didn’t have a plan for this specific disaster. If the plan wasn’t well executed it could hinder the outcome; in both of these disaster situations.

•Describe any other steps you and/or your early childhood program should take to be prepared to handle this kind of crisis. What kinds of materials or documentation (e.g., first aid supplies, family emergency contact information, and so on) would be necessary and/or helpful?
I would have a bag full of materials that we could access in case of a situation like this. There would be contact information for the family, my family, the police and fire department, and the family’s friends’ names and numbers so if I couldn’t reach the mother or father I could call one of their friends if needed. The materials would be in a waterproof bag that will also serve as a floating device. I would definitely talk to the mother about a plan if these crisis’ were to come up, and we would all talk to the children about the plan so they know what to do in case of these happening.

•Explain how you might involve the families of the children in your care.
In case either one of these disasters were to happen I would do everything I could do get the children in a safe place then call the fire department and then call the parents. If it were one of the days that the mother is home but I’m still watching the children, then I would follow her lead on what is best at that time.

Week 1 Assignment

 I chose the age group of 3 to 4 year olds. Using an in-home care situation.

1. Using scissors unsupervised.

2. Playing outside unsupervised.

3. Hazardous materials/poison control.

4. Interpersonal safety.

5. Stairs.

All of these need supervision or locks. Children need to be supervised while using scissors because they could cut themselves, others, hair, stab something or someone, and animal even. The scissors should be child scissors, blunt but still able to use and cut so they can gain confidence and sensory motor skills. (hand/eye coordination too)

For playing outside it is important for children to have an eye on the at all times. Even in the front or back yard. They could get stuck in a spot, fall, get kidnapped, or possibly try to jump the fence and get hurt. If we have an eye on them at all times these situations are less likely to happen.

Either to have hazardous materials like glue, or cleaning sanitation products locked up or have those push locks on the cabinets so they can't open the doors that they can reach. There needs to be a list of departments to call in a visible place for everyone to see, Police, poison control, 911, names, numbers and address of each child in a reachable place also, with their information on it, etc.

Interpersonal safety is a good one I feel because it lets the children know what they can and cannot to to themselves, others or animals. You can't hit the next door neighbor with a baseball bat, or ball because you're angry. This is wrong, it hurts, and you could seriously injure the person or animal.

In this case, the stairs are maneuverable, but we still have falls that accure. I had the 4 year old I watch fall down the stairs because she wouldn't pick up her blanket, and another time because she was running up the stairs, fell and hit her head.

•Indicate what families can do to ensure the safety of the child at home.

I would make sure the parents know that the child is knowledgeable in this area and to watch them. Never to leave the child alone with the scissors. When playing outside, the parents need to keep a watchful eye on the child. It’s not like it used to be when I was growing up where we could play for hours down the street with no supervision and be fine. Now we need extra eyes on children at all times. Another thing that would come into play with being outside is eating something off the ground. Being aware of the child and what they are doing is very important. The same goes for being inside the house. There are more chemicals inside the house like cleaning supplies. Make sure they’re out of reach from the children or you have a cabinet that has some sort of lock or lever you push down that the child can’t get in to. Having the parents talk to the child about knowing their own boundaries is important. Not just with scissors or stairs, but with other people. Not going up to strangers just because they can, but also not to be scared of other people. Help teach the child a sense of self and awareness of the things around them. The stairs are always something to be careful around. Making sure the parents let the children know that is a good start to keeping them safe inside the house.