Child experts stress on hygienic environment, quality teaching

It was pointed out that respiratory infections are common among children enrolled in badly run day-care centres.

Child experts have stressed the need for maintaining a clean and hygienic environment at day-care centres. They also said it was very important to ensure quality teaching at the centres.

Abraham K. Paul, executive director of a city-based Child Care Centre, said respiratory infections were common among children enrolled in badly run day-care centres. “Children persistently suffer from cold and cough if their day- care centres are crowded. Though the centres may insist on bottled feeding for the sake of convenience, it is a strict no as it will cause diarrhoea. There is also the possibility of children getting infected with allergy in such an environment,” he said.

Quality teaching

The age between two and four is a critical formative phase which demands greatest visual and hearing stimulation. So the teachers can’t merely engaged in teaching numbers and alphabets.

Vertical grill to prevent children from moving out of the designated area or falling from heights, high quality and safe toys and lesser exposure to television were some of the other measures prescribed by Mr. Paul.

Need for norms

S. Sachidananda Kamath, former national president of Indian Association of Paediatrics, said there should be a set of norms to control day-care centres

“There should be norms to govern them just as in the case of schools. There has to be guidelines on the area required, student-teacher ratio, the number of ayahs, cleanliness, hygiene, safety and emergency management,” he said.