Signs and Symptoms of Dehydration
With summer weather and its fun-filled activities around the corner, it is important to be aware of the causes and signs of dehydration in children. A combination of high and low impact movement facilitates water evaporation from our bodies. While a regular diet maintains healthy levels of salts and fluid that evaporates, our bodies can experience a chemical imbalance when exercise causes excessive sweating. This chemical imbalance can sometimes lead to dehydration, which can be dangerous for our children. Signs and symptoms of dehydration include a dry or sticky mouth, few or no tears when crying, eyes that look sunken, dry and cool skin, unusual irritability, drowsiness or dizziness; and in babies, the soft spot on top of the head appears sunken or fewer wet diapers than usual.
If you think your child is showing signs of early dehydration, you should act immediately. Children who are mildly dehydrated because of activity will be thirsty and should drink as much as they want. Plain water is the best option. They should rest in a cool, shaded spot until the lost fluid is replaced. A breastfed infant should continue to be nursed, even during rehydration, unless repeated vomiting occurs. Do not give a dehydrated child, soda, ginger ale, tea, fruit juice, gelatin desserts, or chicken broth. These don’t have the right mix of sugar and salts and can make the dehydration worse. Older children who are dehydrated can have sports drinks, but an oral rehydration solution (ORS) is best for young children and infants.
However, some dehydrated children do not improve when given an ORS, especially if they experience persistent bowel movements that are forceful or are often vomiting. When fluid losses cannot be replaced for these or other reasons, children might need to get intravenous (IV) fluids in the hospital. If you’re treating your child for dehydration at home and feel that there’s no improvement or that the dehydration is getting worse, call your doctor immediately or take your child to the nearest emergency room.
At Heaven’s Elect, we take precautions to assure your young loved ones remain comfortable and hydrated, especially on hot summer days. Our procedures to help with help with dehydration include:
- Children under 1 do not drink water unless we receive a doctor’s note.
- Children 1 to 3 years of age have sippy cups in the room and are given drinks upon request.
- Children 4 years of age and up to school age children bring in their own water bottles or we supply cups. They also have complete access to the two drinking fountains within the facility.
- Supply children with hats to help keep them cooler in our warm summer days.
Gardening with Children
Gardening can be a daunting task to some, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating. It also doesn’t require a perfectly flat, large, sunny backyard. For example, you can plant in a small raised bed or existing landscaping. If you don’t have a lot of outdoor space, a few containers of soil in a sunny spot can be an easy way to grow herbs or sweet cherry tomatoes. We all know eating vegetables is good for you. In addition to the health benefit to your child’s body, planting a garden can also positively affect your child’s mind and soul.
How gardening can affect the brain
There is a myriad of scientific concepts you can discuss with your kids when planting and tending to a garden. The wonder of seeing a garden grow may spark questions like: Why do the plants need sun? How does the plant “drink” water? Why are worms good for the plants? You can add a little math to gardening by measuring how much plants are growing from week to week or counting the flowers on each plant.
How gardening can affect the body
When children participate in gardening, the fruits and vegetables that they are inspired to eat will have a positive effect on their body. But the physical act of gardening can also promote a healthy body. In fact, getting dirty while gardening may strengthen a child’s immunity and overall health, countering the adverse effects of compulsively keeping children’s hands sanitized. With the growth of childhood obesity and overuse of digital devices, the benefits of physical activity and sunshine are evident. Activities like moving soil, carrying a watering can, and digging in the dirt can promote motor skills and overall strength for a more fit body. Plus, these activities, known as “heavy work,” have been shown to help kids stay calm and focused.
How gardening can affect the soul
In this electronic age, children need time for meaningful family connection. Time in the garden allows for team building and promotes communication skills. Making sure that the plants get enough fertilizer, water and sun fosters mindfulness and responsibility.
How to Help Children Understand and Manage Feelings
Learning how to manage feelings is an integral part of children’s social and emotional development and overall well-being. Helping them understand that having different feelings is normal and naming the feelings they experience can help alleviate the anxiety from not knowing how to manage their own emotions. Here are a two fundamental ways parents and caregivers can help children deal with confusing emotions:
Before we can learn how to control feelings, we first have to recognize them. You can help your children identify feelings by acknowledging them when you see them and giving them labels: happy, sad, excited, frustrated, angry, embarrassed, and others. Learning to name feelings helps children express them without having to act them out.
Children learn how to manage their feelings best when they hear adults and peers using words to express them and when they are encouraged to use the same words. Learning to talk about how they are feeling helps children understand that they can have emotions without being controlled by them. Here’s a hint – talking about complicated feelings is usually best tried after the emotions have calmed down a bit, and when children, parents, and caregivers are more relaxed.
Learning to cope with feelings helps children manage their behavior at school and home. It helps them relate to others and feel better about themselves. At home try using “feeling words” when you talk with children about everyday situations: “You scored a goal! How exciting was that!” or “It’s pretty disappointing that your friend can’t play with you today.” Then invite children to describe their feelings: “How did you feel when…?”
At Heaven’s Elect, we provide a nurturing, safe and positive atmosphere for all of our children to learn how to manage new social situations and emotions.
Facts About the Flu
If you’re like many households, you’re working hard to prevent the flu from infecting your family. At Heaven’s Elect, we do our best to keep our environment clean, so your little ones remain healthy. The following are insights from a nurse to help better understand what to do if our loved ones catch the flu.
Viruses, like the flu, typically run seven to fourteen days and cannot be treated with specific antibiotics. It must run its course. During the duration, you may experience a slight fever, chills, severe headache, sore throat, chest congestion, nasal congestion, coughing, sneezing, severe weakness, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, and body aches. Even if you’ve received the flu vaccine, you are still susceptible to getting the flu. This year’s vaccine is only 10% effective. If you are feeling “fluish,” it’s vital to remain indoors and rest. Do not go out into public and spread the germs.
If you contact your primary care doctor or urgent care at first, understand there is little they can do to help at this time. If you experience fever, headache, and body aches, over-the-counter medication, such as Tylenol, Advil, Motrin or Aleve can help. Remember to read bottles carefully to avoid overdosing, or over-treating as some flu medicines already have Tylenol (Acetaminophen) in them. Home remedies such as vapor rubs, vapor humidifiers, essential oils, and hot showers can help too.
If over-the-counter medication is ineffective, your physician may prescribe medication for severe coughing, vomiting or diarrhea. Antibiotics may be needed if you develop a secondary lung infection. If you have shortness of breath, are not able to keep down fluids for 24 hours, have persistent liquid stools accompanied by dizziness, fast heart rate, or low blood pressure go to the ER immediately.
Fluid intake is critical. Hot liquids and soups are useful, but milk products may thicken mucus and worsen coughs. If the color of your urine is darker than usual, you need to increase your liquid intake.
The following are Heaven’s Elect’s procedures if a child should become ill while under our care during the day:
Parents are notified when a caregiver notices a change in the child’s health, eating habits, temperament, accident, injury, or if a child is too ill to remain in a group. If a parent can’t be reached, the emergency contact person is notified.
We will place children that are too ill to stay in a group in a separate area, and they will be cared for until the parent arrives.
Children are sent home with green discharge out of the eyes, nose, or ears.
Children are sent home with anything over a low-grade fever of 100.5 degrees.
When a communicable disease is evident at the center, parents are notified as to what the condition is and what the symptoms are. A 24-hour symptom-free form is given to the parent and implemented. There are times a doctor’s note is required before the child can come back to the facility.
Items used to care for the ill child are washed, rinsed, and sanitized before any other child uses them.
Classrooms are sanitized twice daily and any item that has been in a child’s mouth is put in a washbasin to be sanitized at a later time.
We are required to send children outside every day, weather permitting. If your child is too sick to go outside, then they are too ill to be at the facility.
Safety Protocol & Our Measures to Keep Your Children Out of Harm’s Way
At Heaven’s Elect, we take your children’s and our staff’s safety very seriously. From the start to the end of each day, we adhere to strict operating procedures to assure everyone in our building is familiar with the rules, and most importantly, your children are safe. Here are a few important reminders about our safety rules and standards:
From 6:00 am to 9:00 am and 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm, staff members are at the front desk as greeters to make sure they know everyone entering the building. Heaven’s Elect is a locked facility from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. During locked hours a buzzer is in place for a staff member to answer the door. If the person entering Heaven’s Elect is unknown, the person is stopped at the door and management decides if the person can enter the building. Anyone that is stopped at the door must show valid ID to the staff member.
ID is also required if someone new is picking up a child. The staff member checks the ID beside the child information card and the parent board. The parent board is available for a parent to write us a note, such as informing us that someone different will be picking up your child. If it is a first time pick up, the new pick-up guest will be escorted to the child’s room and introduced to the staff in that room. This lets the staff know that management has checked the ID and it’s fine for the child to leave Heaven’s Elect with the new pick-up guest. If management has not walked the new pick-up guest to the room, a staff member then will request the new pick-up guest present ID and check with management to verify if the child may leave with the person.
Located at the front desk is a secured log-in and log-out for each child, which also acts as a report for fire and tornado drills. It’s very important parents clock their children in and out for all staff to be able to keep track of who is in the classroom. In addition each classroom has their own attendance clipboard, that the staff update all day long. Staff are trained in the following emergencies: tornado, fire, high winds, loss of power, gas leak, water main break, winter storm, intruder, other dangerous situation near the facility, bomb threats, drive-by shootings, suspicious activity, lockdown, children’s medication, CPR and first aid, SIDS, blood borne pathogens, communicable diseases, serious accident or illness, suspicious package, and missing child. We follow all HIPPA laws, and two or more staff are with the children at all times. All of our staff and any volunteers have extensive and comprehensive background checks.
Infants under one year of age sleep on their backs with nothing in the cribs. Our transportation children are never left alone in a vehicle and vans do not leave the schools until all children are accounted for. Students are dropped off at the location designated by the school. It is important for parents to notify us if they are picking up their child instead of taking the daycare van to save us looking for that child.
Our physical building is secured with cement blocks, safety glass, lighted parking lot, and security and fire alarms with 24-hour monitoring. Food and water is located in various parts in the building. Management, lead teachers, kitchen staff, and volunteers are made aware of any child’s food allergies and all food is labeled and dated.
If you ever have any questions about our safety protocol or why we need to operate in this way, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or talk to us about it. Your peace of mind that your children are safe and are enjoying their time here at Heaven’s Elect is of utmost importance to us.
Outdoor Winter Play
With temperatures near and below zero, it’s safe to say that winter is officially here. While it’s nice to enjoy indoor activities, you don’t have to hibernate the entire day. Here are some outdoor ideas to try during the winter, whether you are entertaining a group or just yourself and your children.
If you have a group and multiple sleds, you can have sled pulling contests. This activity is a great way to get in some physical activity for a short period. You can mix it up by adding snowballs to the sled and pulling different distances. A nature scavenger hunt is always fun, especially when you include special winter scavenger hunt features, like icicles and snow animal footprints. Or head to the playground. Its environment can be transformed into a magical winter wonderland, and more than likely will not be crowded.
If you have just yourself and your children, you can enjoy simple but special activities, like making snow angels or snowmen. For a variation to the classic snowman, you can leave off the head so your child can stand behind the body and have their head be the snowman’s head. If the snowfall is fresh, you can head to the woods and to see what animals have recently traveled by the area by examining the footprints in the snow.
Although getting the kids outside help prevent cabin fever and allows for fresh air, the temperature and wind chill can require caution. As a rule of thumb, you should use the wind chill as the best judge if it’s too cold to play outside. For wind chills of 13 degrees and below, you should move activities indoors as frostbite can set in very quickly. No matter when you get outside, be sure to bundle your children with hats, mittens, scarves, boots, and snow pants to help prevent sickness.
Tips for Keeping the Holidays Happy and Safe
All of us at Heaven’s Elect want your Christmas season to be a joyous one. We are sharing these tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics to help you have a happy and safe holiday season. This group offers some thoughts when it comes to picking out a Christmas tree, decorating and managing holiday greeting visits.
Whether you purchase a live or an artificial tree, it’s important to pay careful attention to the details. If you buy a live tree, examine its needles. A fresh tree has green needles, and they will be hard to pull from the branches. The needles will not break when bent between your fingers. If you purchase an artificial tree, look for “fire resistant” on its label.
Lights are a popular decoration during the holiday season. Check the product label to make sure outdoor lights are certified for outdoor use. The maximum number of light strands one should use per one extension cord is three strands. Plug all outdoor lights and other decorations into circuits with ground fault circuit interrupters to avoid potential shocks. Remember to turn off all lights and decorations at night, or when you leave the house, so the lights do not short out and start a fire.
If you travel to homes, remember that all houses you visit may not be childproofed like yours. Keep a close eye on doorways leading to staircases, unattended purses, and open cabinets. Also traveling and visiting a number of unfamiliar environments in a short period can increase a child’s stress level. Try to maintain your child’s regular nap and rest routines as best as possible to avoid stress.
Most important of all, remember to enjoy the holidays for what they are – a happy time to spend time with family and friends. From all of us at Heaven’s Elect, we wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for being a part of our childcare family. We hope you enjoy this special time with your family, friends and loved ones.