Healthy Food and Nutrition

Applications

Shayla Graves

EDUC 1005-2

“Foods provide basic nutrients needed for the body to grow, repair, regulate and maintain itself.” (pg.232)  Giving children their age-appropriate foods can help promote healthy growth and development.  All children should be eating from all 5 food groups.  “MyPlate has been designed to help people meet the nutritional standards set in those guidelines and to make better food choices and cut down on excesses”. (pg.216)

All children should be exposed to age appropriate foods, infants should have iron fortified formulae or breastmilk, and they will soon change their diet and introduce stage one vegetables around six months of age.  Toddlers and preschoolers should eat the recommended amount giving from the MyPlate food system.  With the Myplate system it encourages children to drink water and eat more fiber and less sugar.  School lunches have change tremendously in the last few years we promote more 100% juice and whole wheat products than before to provide children with healthy weight and balanced calories.

Adults should encourage children to eat healthy and a child can only eat what an adult provides.  Advertisement has made this extremely difficult since children our exposed to television and want to try these unhealthy fast food diets.  A lot of parents work late and result to fast foods and some families don’t have the money to eat healthy.  “Cost is always a factor when trying to balance care with the business of caregiving.” (pg290) Parents can help develop healthy eating habits by eating healthy themselves and in return the children will eat healthy too.  Also by trying to mix and new food with a familiar food and they may be more likely to try it.

Some recipes I have tried and it encourage my children to eat healthy and also have fun making were:

1. Banana Wraps- spread peanut butter on tortilla, add granola, place banana and then honey to hold together and roll up and enjoy!!

½ banana

1tsp honey

1tbs granola

1tbs.peanut butter

½ whole wheat tortilla

This is a great snack that my children really enjoy!

2. Ants on a log- spread peanut butter on celery stick and add raisins Simple and the children love it!!

1 Celery stick cut into two pieces

1tbs peanut butter

Raisins

There are lots of fun snacks and meals you can try that our fun to make and healthy!

References

    Safety, Nutrition, and Health in Early Education (5th ed.)

        Chapter 6, "Basic Nutrition in Early Childhood Education Environments" (pp. 212−250)

        Chapter 8, "Providing Good Nutrition for Diverse Children" (pp. 290−330)

CPR and Choking Emergencies

Shayla Graves

Application3

Section3: CPR and Choking Emergencies

EDUC 1005-2

Emergencies occur in many different settings with different age groups it’s important that all teachers have proper knowledge and training of basic emergency response procedures when working with children of all ages. 

In this section I will give you two scenarios in which a child was choking and another when a child needed CPR. 

A four year old child in a preschool setting was at the lunch table enjoying lunch when a piece of food became lodge in her throat she began coughing and trying to catch her breath.  My first instinct would be too, help this child immediately but calmly not to frighten the other children.  It’s apparently that her airway is only partially blocked because she can still cough.  I would first encourage her to try to cough up the food while I assist her with hitting on the back, if that wasn’t to work and she began suffocating and unable to breath properly I would quickly move on to my next step.  My next step would be to begin the Heimlich maneuver which consist of back blows and abdominal thrusts to assist in clearing the throat after preforming two sets the food became dislodge and the child was able to breath.  I immediately offer the child some water and contacted her parent/legal guardian to make aware of the incident.  I also fill out a detail incident report to have on file.  Children choke on objects for many different reason, lunch time is essential for teacher to keep their eyes on their students to avoid emergencies such as this one. \

My second scenario a two year old child in a toddler setting is found lying on the floor on their back unconscious, the first thing I do is shake child and see if they’re going to respond while my assist teacher remains with the other students and calls 9-1-1. When no response but can feel a pulse I will then began to perform CPR.  CPR consist of giving thirty chest compressions two inches deep pushing hard and fast, next you will tilt head and lift chin I will then pinch nose and completely cover child’s mouth with my mouth giving the child two full breaths of air.  I will continue CPR until I see some sign of life or when the ambulance arrives and someone can take over the CPR in most cases continue CPR can give a child a fighting chances of survival. 

Both of these scenarios I am fortunate to say I have never been in a situation I had to use either one of these methods.  As a childcare provider it’s extremely important that you are CPR certified and you know how to react in a life threating situation. Having a safety plan and more than one teacher having training is essential.  Some steps we need to take is providng fully equipped first aid kits in every classroom and checking them monthly for supplies they may need.  Also having all emergency contact information and number to call close by in a known location where all workers can have immediate access in case of emergency situation.  Knowing the proper techniques and sticking to your health and safety plan can save a child life.

References

American Red Cross: Prepare for Emergencies with American Red Cross First Aid, CPR and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Courses

    http://www.redcross.org/services/hss/courses/aed.html

American Heart Association: CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/CPRAndECC/CPR_UCM_001118_SubHomePage.jsp

Heartsaver Pediatric First Aid, which was designed specifically to meet the needs of childcare workers)

Safety Practices and Policies

Application1

Section1: Safety Practices and Policies

EDUC 1005

My age group is preschool children at this age children at this age our curious and active and eager to learn through play.  There are a few potentially hazardous situations or safety threats common to preschoolers.  For example entrances and exits, walls, toys, and poisons are just a few things we have to be mindful and watch children to avoid unsafe situations. 

Entrances and exits are a big risk for children, they love to open doors and some children will even run out of school behind a parent or family member.  Some ways we prevent this type of safety threat is by making sure all of our doors have panic bars so the entire building will alarm if a door is open improperly, since we can’t lock doors that’s against fire safety rules.

We also have to be mindful of the walls especially electrical outlets since children will stick their fingers and objects anywhere and that could be an extremely unsafe situation.  Not only outlets but bulletin boards I know in my center everything is eye level and need to be secured to the wall to prevent choking of any foreign objects since children put everything in their mouths.

We check our classroom daily and the include toys and every center to avoid any mishaps.  Broken toys or loose parts on any center equipment are either repaired or thrown away daily if necessary to avoid children from getting hurt or choking or hurting themselves in any manner. Windows is also something we check to ensure they are fully closed and locked daily.

At the end of each day we clean and sanitize toys, table’s windows, and any objects that come directly in contact with the children to avoid the transfer of germs.  While doing this we also have to properly dispose of cleaning supplies and material especially since a lot of time s when I leave the center children are still there with a different teacher and it’s up to the staff as a whole to keep children safe.

These are just some of the measures we have taken to prevent hazardous situation from occurring.  It’s our responsibility to keep children safe at all times by always supervising them and teaching safety rules to ensure a safe and positive learning atmosphere.