• Influenza Vaccine for 2015-2016
• Screen Time, Child Development and Nutrition
• Organic Food – Is It Healthier?
• Background Music and Noise Interferes with Language Learning?
• Oral Health Screening Added to Routine Well-Child Visit Schedule
• National Center on Health—Materials All Early Educators Can Use
• Increasing Physical Activity in Afterschool Programs
• Three Newly Revised and a List of All ECELS Self-Learning Modules
• Eating Together - Mealtime Matters

See Managing Infectious Diseases in Child Care and Schools, 4th Edition available at https://shop.aap.org or search www.healthychildren.org for more information. In PA, please send your health and safety request with your name and phone number to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

View free, online demonstrations of step-by-step, easy ways to prepare foods for children's meals and snacks. Culinary Institute chefs show the proper techniques in 16 print and 51 brief video lessons. The foods are from the United States Department of Agriculture's collection of recipes for schools. The National Food Service Management Institute at the University of Mississippi hosts the website with this excellent professional development resource.

In addition to the videos and print lessons, the website offers six online courses that allow users to earn continuing education credits. The print and video lessons, online courses and USDA recipes are at http://nfsmi.org/Templates/TemplateDefault.aspx?qs=cElEPTIxNg.

Food-borne illness is very common. The risk of this type of illness increases in warm weather. Sending food from home and eating out-of-doors may allow perishable food to reach temperatures that foster bacterial growth. A 2011 study reported in the journal, Pediatrics measured temperatures of lunches that families packed and sent with their preschool children. The researchers found only 1.6% of lunches with perishable items were at safe temperature. The study was done in nine Texas child care centers and measured temperatures in the packed lunches of more than 700 preschoolers. Even when sent with ice packs, most of the lunches were at unsafe temperatures over an hour before the food was ready to be served. The message is clear: Early educators and families must adopt practices that ensure food is at a safe temperature before feeding it to children. 

See Managing Infectious Diseases in Child Care and Schools, 4th Edition available at https://shop.aap.org for more information. In PA, please send your health and safety request with your name and phone number to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Correct hand hygiene is important in all seasons. Use information on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website to remind everyone about how and when to do it.

Use the CDC posters and the information from the CDC website to make your own posters with photos of the children, drawings or magazine clippings. Here is some wording adapted from the CDC web-site to use on posters in child care programs:

• The flu virus can live on surfaces such as door knobs and tabletops for up to 24 hours. Routine cleaning of surfaces and proper hand hygiene may reduce the spread of flu.
• Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to reduce the number of germs (microbes) on them in most situations.
• If soap and water are not available, adults and children older than 24 months of age who are close-ly supervised by adults can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in some situa-tions, but sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs. Hand sanitizers may not be as effective when hands are visibly dirty or greasy.

WHEN to perform hand hygiene:¹

• Before, during, and after preparing food
• Before eating food
• Before and after caring for someone who is sick
• Before and after treating a cut or wound
• After using the toilet
• After changing diapers, soiled pull-ups or underwear, or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet (Before changing diapers too, if hands touched body fluids before the change)
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
• After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
• After handling pet food or pet treats
• After touching garbage

HOW to perform hand hygiene:² Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to reduce the number of germs in most situations. If soap and water are not available, use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Hand sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs.

• Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), and apply liquid soap. (Let the water run if you can’t turn it off without touching the faucet with soiled hands.)
• Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
• Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds or as close to 20 seconds as possible. Need a timer? Hum or sing "Happy Birthday" or “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” from beginning to end twice. Make up words to sing about hand washing with these familiar song tunes.
• Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
• Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them. Use a paper towel to turn off the wa-ter if the taps do not shut off automatically.

1 http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/show-me-the-science-hand-sanitizer.html
2 http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html

Handwashing is a your best defense against germs.  Use this poster developed by the North Carolina Division of Public Health as a reminder about the importance and steps for handwashing.  Click here to access the poster.  Reviewed and reaffirmed 6/2018.

This form guides collaborative problem-solving involving those who are affected, those with authority, and those with expertise. The form encourages documentation of who is involved, the tasks planned, who is responsible, and checkpoints for follow-up. The attachments include a blank copy of the form and a sample of the completed form to address the problem of a 2 year old child who is biting other children.

Brochure that describes the role of a sanitarian or food safety consultant for early education and child care programs. Reviewed and reaffirmed 11/2012

This online professional development opportunity is for directors and administrative staff in centers that serve 25 or more children and who are new users (subscribers) using the WellCareTracker^TM Internet application software.  The professional development experience involves working with the user-friendly internet application on any computer connected to the Internet to review children's health records, identify and track gaps in the children's required preventive health services. WellCareTracker^TM software uses the dates of preventive health care services entered for each child at any time thereafter to report whether the child is currently up to date, overdue or will be due in the next three months for specific services. WellCareTracker^TM lets staff make sure children have received all the services that they need to be healthy and ready to learn. In addition to being protected against vaccine preventable infectious disease, they need to be free of treatable conditions such as hearing and vision problems, anemia or lead poisoning. PA child care practitioners may submit completed work for review for credit by scanning the pages and attaching them to an e-mail, sending them by fax or by surface mail to ECELS. Be sure to follow the instructions in the “Important Reminders” box next to the list of self-learning modules on this webpage. (ECERS-ITERS: Personal Care Routines, Program Structure.4/2021

Steps for child care facilities to prevent illness. This approach is for all facilities, but will be especially helpful to those who want to meet the Pennsylvania standards for STARS. 

See Managing Infectious Diseases in Child Care and Schools, 4th Edition available at https://shop.aap.org/ or search www.healthychildren.org for more information. In PA, please send your health and safety request with your name and phone number to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Deciding when to exclude a child who is ill from early learning and education programs can be confusing for staff. Managing Infectious Diseases in Child Care and Schools: A Quick Reference Guide, clarifies the decision-making process. A child who is ill but does not require immediate medical attention should be excluded if the staff member determines the illness:
a. Prevents the child from participating comfortably in activities as determined by staff
b. Results in a need for care that is greater than the staff can provide without compromising the health and safety of other children
c. Poses a risk of spread of harmful diseases to others based on the list of specific excludable conditions
If any of the above criteria are met, the child should be excluded, regardless of the type of illness.

Immunization is a key component of early childhood development and health. Remember – early childhood and school readiness begin with good health! It is important for early childhood education staff to make immunization a priority. Foster an environment of health with:
• Immunization tracking
• Staff education and adult vaccination as needed
• Parent education
Early childhood education (ECE) programs are prone to disease outbreaks. Recent outbreaks of measles, flu and pertussis (whooping cough) have occurred in ECE settings. Unvaccinated children are at increased risk for disease and can spread disease to others. Babies are at high risk since they are too young to be fully vaccinated.

This updated module explains current nationally recommended immunizations, requirements for early care and education (ECE) programs in Pennsylvania, tools to manage immunization records for children in care and steps to take during an outbreak. View online videos and learn about vaccines on the website of the Vaccine Education Center of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. ECE staff may earn 2 hours of professional development credit for completing this module. Follow the instructions in the "Important Reminders" box beside the list of self-learning modules for ECELS to review your work to award professional development credit. 1/20

This website was launched by the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the public and for professionals. It presents trustworthy, evidence-based (scientifically evaluated) information about vaccine-preventable diseases and their vaccines. The vaccineinformation.org website is organized by age group — Infants / Children, Preteens, Teens, and Adults. The website offers timely, accurate, and proven information about vaccines and the diseases they prevent. It features hundreds of valuable resources, accessed by easy key word searches. The website has about 100 vaccine-related videos. Also, it has public service announcements, educational materials and personal stories about suffering and death when people go without being immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases. 2/28/2013