This workshop teaches early learning practitioners how to recognize and manage occupational health risks, drawing on the content in Caring for Our Children: the National Health and Safety Performance Standards. Addresses management of stress, infectious disease risks and musculo-skeletal (ergonomic) challenges intrinsic to providing child care. Includes assessment of personal and work-site health promotion strategies.

The CDC is a comprehensive source of information on public health issues, including immunization, sanitation, and infectious disease. The CDC provides a large library of information to the public on many topics. Some of the categories include: Diseases and Conditions; Emergency Preparedness & Response; Environmental Health; Life Stages & Populations; Healthy Living, Injury, Violence & Safety; Traveler's Health; Workplace Safety & Health. The CDC website includes a powerful search engine as well as alphabetical listings. Users will find fact sheets, videos, photos, posters, and other useful materials to download.

Masking/FACE COVERINGS Resources for EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION (ECE) Providers

(From Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL),  American Academy of Pediatrics HealthyChildren.org, and more)

Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL)
COVID-19 Best Practices for Early Childhood Education (ECE) https://www.pakeys.org/covid-19/
This page will help keep early childhood education (ECE) professionals informed on best practices for keeping children, staff and families safe and healthy as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

Face Coverings:
The Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) recognizes helping young children to be comfortable wearing face masks and to keep face masks on may be challenging. It is important to help children feel more secure wearing a face mask when around other children and adults.

The CDC COVID resource pages are recommended as the primary source of up-to-date and accurate information. As recommendations regarding the mitigation of COVID-19 continue to evolve, child care providers are urged to stay up-to-date on the most recent CDC Guidance for Operating Child Care.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/child-care-guidance.html

Best Practices and Resources for Child Care Providers https://www.pakeys.org/covid-19/
Most children are used to wearing and seeing people in masks. Predictable and consistent routines around mask wearing can help young children feel comfortable and know what to expect. Treat mask wearing as an emerging skill. Support children in learning to wear a mask consistently to be healthy and safe by showing children how to wear their mask so it fits securely over their mouth and nose. Give positive feedback to children for their efforts and keep it playful!

• Find more ideas in Helping Children Understand Emotions When Wearing Masks
• Social stories may also be helpful. Children love to read stories that include their pictures and photos of people they know. You can even make your own social story with photos of adults and children in your program. You can also use this Wearing Masks story from the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations. Available in Spanish.
• CDC’s Your Guide to Masks: The CDC has much more detail to their guidance regarding wearing of masks. They discuss the following about masks: How to select, How to wear, How to clean and dry, How to store.
• Resources for Masks for Children: To help support families, and the Early Intervention and early childhood education community, a list of resources to help support and teach young children about wearing a face mask.
• Face Coverings Required flyer: ​Programs who would like to can print and display this flyer at your ECE program (OCDEL)  ¡ Face Coverings Required Flyer (English)  ¡ Face Coverings Required Flyer (Spanish)
• Action Learning Network: Tips for Helping Kids Wear Masks
• Face Masks in Head Start and Child Care Programs– tip sheet for answers to frequently asked questions about wearing masks in Head Start and child care settings
• Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities: A Toolkit for Helping Your Child Wear a Mask During COVID-19

Resources for Use with Children

• Sesame Street in Communities: All About Masks
• Sesame Street in Communities (videos): A New Kind of Picnic and Hooper’s Store Reopens
• Action Learning Network: How to Wear a Mask Like a Health Hero
• Greetings While Social Distancing: This colorful greeting board uses expressive photos of children to demonstrate ways to greet each other while maintaining social distancing. In English and Spanish.

American Academy of Pediatrics HealthyChildren.org
• Mask Mythbusters: 5 Common Misconceptions about Kids & Cloth Face Coverings
Source: American Academy of Pediatrics HealthyChildren.org
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/Mask-Mythbusters.aspx

• Face Masks for children during COVID-19
Source: American Academy of Pediatrics HealthyChildren.org
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/Cloth-Face-Coverings-for-Children-During-COVID-19.aspx

Other
• Coronavirus (COVID-19): How Wearing a Mask Helps Protect Against Infection (video)
Source: Nemours KidsHealth.org https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/coronavirus-mask-video.html

• Wearing a Mask Social Story
Source: Autism Services, Education, Resources and Training Collaborative (ASSERT)
http://paautism.org/resource/wearing-mask-social-story/

• Masks Toolkit
Source: University of Rochester Medical Center
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/strong-center-developmental-disabilities/resources/masks-toolkit.aspx

Additional Parent Resources
• Tips for quarantined parents in the times of COVID-19
Source: American Psychological Association http://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/quarantine-parents-tips

 Updated 9/2021

Federal law requires that the publication called "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" must be reviewed, updated as necessary and published every 5 years. The 2020-2025 guidelines development process is underway now.  The guidelines emphasize calorie balance to achieve and sustain a healthy weight, as well as a focus on nutrient-dense foods and beverages. Policy-makers use these guidelines to develop educational materials and carry out nutrition-related programs. Use the weblink, Dietary Guidelines, to access the website of the United States Department of Agriculture for the current guidelines. Reviewed and reaffirmed 5/2018

Drinking water should be available indoors and outdoors all day. Milk is a fluid food. Milk should be served at meals or snacks where it is planned as part of the recommended intake for the child. Having ready access to drinking water is especially important on hot days except for infants. Infants who receive human milk or formula should receive extra human milk or formula, not water. Children should learn to drink water from a cup or, without mouthing the fixture, drink from a fountain as they can master these skills. Offer water as often as once an hour. No child should be allowed to have water by sucking continuously on a bottle or Sippy cup as it may interfere with proper nutrition. It is best to have children brush their teeth after at least one feeding. When children who have teeth eat and do not brush their teeth afterward, they should have a drink of water to rinse the food from their teeth.

More resources about water and other drinks for children: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/nutrition/Pages/Choose-Water-for-Healthy-Hydration.aspx 

Reviewed and reaffirmed 6/2021

Many families find it hard to schedule mealtimes when family members eat together. It may seem that getting everyone to choose and eat healthful food is enough. Lessons children learn by eating with family members are important too.

“Eat Together PA” is a campaign of The Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Network (PA NEN). The nearly 1500 member organization receives USDA funds through the PA Department of Human Services. PA NEN offers nutrition resources, fact sheets, budgeting information, recipes, cooking tips and more. PA NEN members include dietitians, public health professionals, educators, chefs, food service directors, child care providers, WIC counselors, and many others.

The PA NEN website includes information about why eating together matters. Look there for practical tips about how to start having better family breakfasts and dinners together. The PA NEN website offers these tips:
  Children learn from watching you: Smile when you eat your fruits and vegetables. You may not know it, but your child is looking at the foods you eat and how much you like to eat them. Choose healthy, and they will eat like you!
  Make time to talk: Dinner is time for every-one to talk—a chance to chat positively, yet honestly—even if you don’t have all the answers!
  Have technology-free time: Silence all the cell phones. Turn off the computer, tab-lets and TV. Many people spend a big part of their day watching screen devices. Schedule some of this time to share a meal and a pleasant conversation.
  Make mealtime a family experience: Cook family favorites, share a meal, shop with a family member for food, and share the work of cleaning up after a meal. Everyone can help!
  Give children a chance to choose: Let them decide which vegetable to include with some meals. They will want to eat the foods they picked.
  Make the healthy choice, the easy choice: Have fruits and vegetables washed, cut and handy for snacks.
  Enjoy each other while enjoying meals: Eating meals together helps to strength-en relationships with one another.

How to Start
  Ease into it: Try setting a goal of eating to-gether once or twice a week.
  Start simple: You can always prepare an easy breakfast recipe like oatmeal. Even pre-pare the meal ahead of time. Just store it in the refigerator until it’s time to reheat and eat it.
  Create calm: Phones, TV, computer, video games and even the radio can interrupt your meal. Turn all or them off to help everyone relax.
  Get everyone involved: Make a list of tasks and let family members choose which they will do. Ideas include: shopping, choosing a healthful food for breakfast or dinner, setting or clearing the table and/or making the meal.
  Relax and connect: Agree to talk about problems at a time other than mealtime.

Adapted from www.EatTogetherPA.org website, part of USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Published 10/5/15 at www.ecels-healthychildcarepa.org.
Editor: Susan S. Aronson, MD, FAAP. Contact ECELS at: 484-446-3003 or 800-24-ECELS; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; PA AAP, Rose Tree Corporate Center, Bldg II, Suite 3007,1400 N. Providence Road, Media, PA 19063.

Resources to support Children with Special Health Care Needs, Care Plans, Process to Support Enrollment of a Child with Special Needs, Asthma Action Plan, Food Allergy, Epilepsy support. See below:

• ECELS CYSHCN Care Plans Power Point
• ECELS CYSHCN Care Plans Handout

Find below one page documents shared for ELRC Health and Safety monthly updates: 

2022 updates: 

• January 2022
• February 2022
• March 2022
• April 2022
• May 2022
• June 2022
• July 2022
• August 2022
• September 2022
• October 2022

2021 updates: 

• September 2021
• October 2021
• November 2021
• December 2021

• 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

This workshop uses the interactive curriculum from the Food Allergy Network. It includes a video and mock epinephrine (EpiPen) demonstration. Participants practice reading food labels to find hidden ingredients that are the same as common food allergens and learn the basics of food allergy and allergen types in foods. The group discusses how to modify the child care setting for a child with a food allergy, and a plan for handling a food allergy response. 

The FNIC federal website of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a directory to credible, accurate, and practical food and nutrition resources for consumers, nutrition and health professionals, educators and government personnel. You will find links to current obesity prevention websites on the home page of FNIC - Dietary Guidelines for Americans, core messages about healthy eating, Let's Move, My Plate Super Tracker and more. 12/2012

In America, 1 in 6 children may not know where they will get their next meal. The U.S. Department of Agriculture tracks this information. You may not know unless you ask parents about it.  Children without a stable supply of food may develop serious health problems. They may have poor growth and development. They may develop behavior difficulties. They may have frequent illnesses and hospitalizations. Some have iron deficiency anemia. 

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. 

Question: What determines whether a food is a fruit or a vegetable?  

Answer: Fruits are the part of a plant that has seeds. Vegetables are the edible portion of a plant such as roots (carrots), leaves (lettuce), stems (celery) or flowers (broccoli). They are usually from a plant with a soft (not woody) stem.