Going to talk about safety and your childcare provider. Obviously, you should visit your childcare’s center before you place your child anywhere. The things that you want to look for is the playground equipment in good repair, is the center clean, you know, how many children are being cared for and just kind of generally is it clean, are the children having their diapers changed periodically or you know other indicators just in general. I think it’s important to look at things like where do they prepare the food if there is food being prepared.
You know the food should be prepared by people who wash their hands carefully, the area where it is prepared should be clean, and surfaces should be smooth, things that can be cleaned with cleaning products. Cleaning products should also be stored out of children’s reach and any dangerous chemicals should be stored out of children’s reach. The other thing is that children should not have access to dangerous chemicals, electrical cords, things that they can play with because children are very curious if there is something out, they will get it. So, you want to make sure that there are not electrical cords out. Most state license facilities have met all these general standards.
In considering safety in an in home situation is probably more difficult than in a licensed childcare facility because that has been built with safety in mind and licensed for that. If you are using an in home facility I would want to look for a room that was child proofed, that would have the electrical outlets covered, that would have clean surfaces, a floor that can be cleaned daily, toys that can be cleaned daily, a place where the children have a barrier of some kind like a gate or a door that would keep them from accessing other parts of the house unsupervised, like the bathroom or the kitchen.