As parents, you drop your child off at daycare in a trusting safe environment. The last thing you expect is to receive a phone call from the childcare provider or the hospital informing you that there has been an emergency and your child has been injured. Some incidents are minor accidents while others or more serious …even fatal.
This is a reality. As a parent, you think it will never happen to your child. In some cases, it may never happen. Child injuries and child deaths at daycare are more common than you think. The good news is that most cases are 100% preventable. The primary issue is childcare providers fail to follow licensing regulations while government agencies that oversee childcare centers provide faulty or lax oversight. At which point, there is lack of accountability on both sides. Childcare negligence may go unnoticed especially if the population of children cannot speak for themselves and governing agencies are not providing effective oversight and follow up where it is required. We do not want to wait until it is too late.
Some of the leading causes of child injuries/deaths include:
- Access to swimming pool/contraption filled with water
- Lack of supervision
- Dangerous objects that pose choking hazard
- Accessible toxic products exposed in children’s reach
- Unqualified person left in charge of children
- Unsatisfactory health and safety checks of childcare facility
- Inadequate oversight by governing agencies for childcare centers