Saftey In Childcare Centres
By Sheryl Yole
Sanatizing and sicknesses
Toy sanitizing
Follow these step in this article to properly sanitize toys in your center.
Washing hands properly
We all have to use the proper hand washing techniques when working in the childcare fields to avoid picking up germs.
First Aid CPR
Every childcare worker should have their first aid CPR when working with children.
Instructions on how to properly sanitize toys
Proper ways to clean and sanitize the toys in your centre
Cleaning
Before sanitizing a toy it is important to thoroughly clean the toy. Toys should be scrubbed and rinsed to remove any dirt or debris from the surface. This can be accomplished with warm water and mild detergent. By removing all debris from the surface of the toy the next step, sanitizing, will work more effectively and ensure the toy is actually sanitized.
Sanitizing Hard-Shelled Toys
After all the scrubbed and rinsed toys are dry, the next step is to disinfect them to remove harmful bacteria that may still reside on the surface. To accomplish this, the cleaned toys need to be submerged in an appropriate sanitizing solution. The best sanitizing agent for hard-shelled toys (i.e., plastic toys) is a mixture of water and bleach. The proper ratio of water-to-bleach for a safe sanitizing solution is 1.5 teaspoons of bleach to 1 gallon of water. A water/bleach solution is ideal because it is:
- Approved by state licensing/certification
- Inexpensive
- Readily available
- Easy to use
- Works quickly
- Becomes harmless quickly as it breaks down
There are other ways to sterilize soft shell toys and they usually have the directions on the label but most can be placed ion the washer and dryer, but in some cases they can be washed with water/dish soap and placed out of reach until air dried.
Sheryl Yole
Email: pewapan@sasktel.net
Location: Île-à-la-Crosse, SK, Canada
Phone: (306) 833-2544