Lesson Duration: 1 Hour

Overall Goal

Facilitate skills so that clients will be able to provide safe and caring environments for their children.

Objectives

Clients will be able to:

1. Define care and safety.
2. List 3 ways to keep infant healthy.
3. State 2 things you can do to avoid accidents.

Resources

• Wall plugs.
• Stove guards.
• Plastic locks.
• Household items that can cause poisoning e.g. Baygon, Bleach, Medical Products.
• Television.
• Video Cassette Recorder.
• Video tape “Child Safety” (if available).
• Handouts:
  1. Is Your Home Safe from Injury For Your Children.
  2. Immunization.
• Pencils for clients.
• Writing pads or paper for clients.

Vocabulary

Care

• To look after thoughtfully.

Safety

• Protection.

Accident

• Something that happens by chance, often with unfortunate results.

Introduction

“The infant is depending on you.”

Icebreaker

Participants are divided into groups of two's where 1 person stands behind the other. The person in front is asked to lean backwards, trusting the person in the back not to let them fall. Do this for 2-3 minutes. After the exercise introduce the session by stating that the infants fully trust them to take care of them and keep them safe.

Body

“Helpful Little Carlton”

Early one Saturday morning, Little Carlton’s mother went outside to chat with a neighbour; leaving the dishes she was washing, but more importantly, forgetting to put the safety lock back on the sink cupboard doors. Little Carlton wandered into the kitchen and immediately noticed the door slightly ajar. He toddled over and managed to get a hold of the Joy dishwashing liquid. Seeing the bright colour in the bottle and mistaking it for juice, Carlton put the bottle to his mouth and started sucking it. Before long, he was sitting in a pool of the liquid, when he noticed the bright yellow liquid that was in the Pine-Sol bottle. His mother walked in at that moment and rushed to him screaming, trying to figure out how much of the chemicals Little Carlton may have swallowed.

Care is providing the basic needs to keep baby healthy.
This includes:

• Providing food that contains the nutrients needed.
• Keeping the infant clean (regular baths, lotioning skin, frequent diaper changes, hair and nail care).
• Providing clean clothing appropriate for temperatures (not too warm or too bare).
• Beginning the immunization schedule at age 2 months to protect the infant against communicable diseases.
• Providing a loving environment where the child is cuddled and talked to.

Safety is making sure that you provide a place for children where the chance of being abused, neglected or injured (for example, burning, falling, drowning) is minimized.

To improve the safety of your child’s environment you should:

Understand the level of the child’s development and the behaviour for that stage, for example, 3 to 4 year-olds are beginning to do things for themselves, like dressing themselves and going to the bathroom alone. Therefore any cleaning supplies or medicines kept in the bathroom should be locked away.

Safe-proof the environment (for example, lock-up medicines and cleaning supplies, limit play areas that you can control).

Improve the quality of care-giving (for example, never leave an infant alone on a bed).

Some things you can do to avoid accidents:

• Never leave a child at home alone.
• Never leave an infant on a couch, chair, bed or counter top unattended.
• Keep crib rails up.
• Toys should be too big to fit into child’s mouth.
• Do not keep plastic bags easily available.
• Keep medicines/cleaning materials in locked cupboard.
• Do not allow child to play around area when ironing clothes.

Summary

Care is providing basic needs to keep the child healthy. This includes providing food, which contain the nutrients needed, keeping the child clean, well-groomed and providing a loving environment.

Safety is making sure that you provide a place for children where they will not be abused or neglected and the chance of being injured is minimized.