Dr. Leonard T. Ugwuanyi

Developing Caregivers Skills in Promoting Personal Hygiene in Early Childhood Care Development and Education (ECCDE)

Education

Ebube Igbo

Digitally Signed by: Content manager’s Name

DN : CN = Webmaster’s name

O= University of Nigeria, Nsukka

OU = Innovation Centre

Developing Caregivers Skills in Promoting Personal

Hygiene in Early Childhood Care Development and

Education (ECCDE)

By

Dr. Leonard T. Ugwuanyi

Department of Educational Foundations

University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Introduction

Health is a fundamental human right. The Article 25 of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights grants every one-the right to a standard of living

adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and his family, including food,

clothing, housing and medical care. In the past, people held different opinions

about the causes of diseases. While some believed that diseases were caused by

evil spirits, others believed that diseases were caused by foul air; still others

believed that diseases were caused as a result of the anger of gods or spirits of

the dead. According to Ndu, Ndu, Olarewaju & Somoye (2007) those who still

believe in such ideas have not studied science. Recently, some scientists who

carried out research studies on the causes of diseases revealed that diseases are

caused by microorganisms. For instance, Louise Pasteur reported that microbes

cause the food we eat to spoil. Robert Koch (1843-1910) found out that a specific

type of microscopic living organism causes a specific disease to living things. But

the findings of these studies failed to indicate where these microorganisms that

cause diseases originate.

It is a common knowledge that these microorganisms that cause diseases

come from the air we breathe, the water we drink daily, the land we are living

and other exposed surfaces such as the surfaces of our bodies. Ndu et al (2007),

inform that keeping ourselves and our environments clean is therefore a way of

keeping away microorganisms that make us sick. In this paper therefore, we shall

discuss the age range of ECCDE, personal hygiene, skills in promoting personal

hygiene in ECCDE, the advantages of personal and the consequences of poor

personal hygiene.

What is ECCDE?

ECCDE means Early Childhood Care Development and Education. According

Onyango (1991) ECCDE includes the following terms, “Early Childhood”, “Child

Care” and the “Child Development”. Early childhood according Onyango (1991)

covers the period from conception up to the end of six years. Child care is the act

of safeguarding the survival and development of children while child development

involves the dynamic process of social, emotional, physical, intellectual and

spiritual growth and maturation. Then the child education is the education giving

to children at the early stage of life. Different countries of the world have

different age for ECCDE. In USA and many European countries, ECCDE is a group

of children between the ages of 4 and 5 years. In Nigeria, ECCDE refers to a group

of children between the ages 2 and 5 years. Some nursery schools accept children

from 1 year plus to 5 years, the end of nursery education. Frederick Frobel, a

German educationist referred to this group of children as kindergarten which

means children’ garden. This word is now synonymously used with nursery

school.

It is expected that by the end of this workshop, the participants should be able

to:

1: what personal hygiene means and its importance to children.

2: discover the skills for promoting personal hygiene in the caregivers.

3: become aware of the advantages of good personal hygiene and the

consequences of poor personal hygiene to us and the children.

Personal Hygiene

By personal we mean what belongs to a particular person while hygiene means

making what belongs to a person free from germs. Personal belongings may

include ones’ body parts, food, clothes, shoes, room, and kitchen etc. Hygiene is a

science of health and its preservation. Personal hygiene is therefore, means

measures an individual take to preserve ones’ own health. The above assertion

received the attention of Ndu et al (2007) when they stated that personal hygiene

means keeping one’s body clothes and shoes in a clean and neat condition, at all

times.

Skills for Developing Personal Hygiene to Caregivers

To care means to provide what one needs for his health or protection. Giver on

the other hand, means a person who is paid to make sure that a child put under

his custody is protected from germs causing diseases. Caregiver is therefore,

means a person who is paid to take in charge of the child under his custody.

Children at this stage need adequate protection from the microorganisms that

cause sickness to us. So, the need to develop skills for promoting personal

hygiene in caregivers is very important.

Areas of Major Concern

The following below are the major areas of concern in this workshop. They

include:

Skills in promoting personal hygiene in eating and sleeping.

Skills in promoting personal hygiene in toileting.

Skills in promoting personal hygiene in toileting.

Skills in promoting personal hygiene in children’s sitting place/floor.

Skills in promoting personal hygiene in keeping children’ teeth clean.

Skills in promoting personal hygiene in keeping children’s hair neat.

Skills in promoting personal hygiene in keeping school environment clean.

All these and more provide leverage for our discussions

Eating and sleeping skills.

The toddlers who still use feeding bottles, the feeding bottles should be

well sterilized using sterilizing chemicals. Those who come to school with snacks,

the snack containers should be well cleaned to avoid contaminating the snacks.

The caregivers should be trained to wash their hands before giving the children

their snacks and teach children to always wash their hands before and after

eating their snacks with soap. In doing this, you are promoting skill in eating.

Sleeping: Adequate sleep is essential for normal development, children sleep in a

variety of locations i.e. in mat, or gymnastic mats and beds with various sizes. The

sleeping floors should be well cleaned with disinfectant. The bed should consist of

a change of waterproof sheets, fitted with mattress sheets. The child should be

carefully put on the mat and make sure that the place is well ventilated.

Toileting: Toileting equipment such as baby’s bath tubs bowels should be kept

clean before and after use. The toilet should be kept clean all the time with

harpic. The child’s body should be well cleaned after toileting. In addition,

children’s toilet should be carefully disposed into the school toilet. Toilet training

should begin as early as possible. The caregiver should choose the right time to

begin toilet training. A child of 18 months will begin to realize that he is

performing when he is actually passing a bowel movement or urinating. Children

according to Montessori (1990) should be trained to control bowel movement

before they are able to control the bladder. What is required of the care giver is

to help and encourage the child to always have a relaxed attitude during the toilet

training. During the disposal of the toilet, do not show disgust when cleaning up

the child after toilet. Secondly, do not become cross if the child makes a mistake

or becomes anxious, rebuke or course the child. Thirdly do not become over

pleased when the child succeeds so that if he fails, he will feel as though he has

failed. Remember that whatever you do or say, the child recognizes or learns it.

Children’s Sitting Floor

The floor should be thoroughly cleaned or scrubbed daily with disinfectant.

The walls, windows and tables and chairs should always be kept clean. The place

where the children are sitting should be well spaced and ventilated. If the

caregiver is able to do this, he is promoting personal hygiene.

Nappy Changing

The children’s wears either cloth or disposable nappies or pampers should

be carefully changed. For instance, if the child is sleeping but it is noticed that the

child soiled or wet nappy, there may be no need of waking him up to change the

nappy. But if the child is allowed to sleep for several hours in a wet or solid

pampers, skin initiation may occurs and may eventually lead to nappy rash. If

eventually, you want to change the soiled nappy, lay the child on a flat surface

preferable on a clean mat, and change it. The child’s bottom should be cleaned

thoroughly with wipes or cotton wool dipped in warm water. Remember that the

child’s bottom should be wiped front to back especially for girl-child. Powder or

nappy cream can be applied but these may not be necessary as long as the child’s

bottom is dried up before the clean nappy is applied.

Clothing:

Clothing helps to conserve heat and helps to maintain a normal body

temperature. The type of clothing a child should wear depends on the

surrounding environment. What matters in the children’s wears is to keep their

cloths neat always. Avoid dirt cloths or clothing with beads or loose button as

they may be eaten by the child and ensure that there are no dangling stings or

pins etc which may cause accident especially when the children are mobile. A

caregiver should be neat always and insist that the children under his care appear

the same.

Other areas the care giver should pay special attention to are-:

- Children’s fingers and toes – they should be cut short and thoroughly

cleaned to avoid infection. This is because the microorganisms that cause

diseases to us live in dirty fingers toe nails. If the children are allowed to eat

with fingers unclean, this may result to infection. Most importantly, the

caregiver’s finger and toe nails should be neat at all times and should be so

before touching the children.

- Children’s teeth- should be inspected daily, if dirt teeth discovered, the

teeth should be cleaned with brush and paste. Dirty teeth leads to tooth

decay tooth ache and bleeding gum. The caregiver should inspect the

children’s teeth on daily basis and her own should appear neat also.

- Children’s hair, ears and hands should be cleaned always. The caregiver

should ensure that the children’s hairs, ears and hands are thoroughly

cleaned.

- The school environment or compound should be thoroughly sanitized

through careful disposal of wastes. Solid wastes such as plastics, empty

containers that do not decay should be carefully disposed to reduce the

effect of infection.

However, the above enumerated ways of developing skills in promoting

personal hygiene in the caregiver for early childhood care may not be possible to

come by. It has become evident that childhood care and development is not given

the necessary attention it deserves. It has been observed that inadequate

knowledge and awareness of early childhood education, inadequate resources,

poor toilet facilities and poor policy implementations are factors associated with

inadequate provision of good sanitary conditions in ECCDE class. We shall discuss

them in turns.

Inadequate Knowledge and Awareness

It is a common knowledge to observe that some of the caregivers do not have

adequate knowledge about the early childhood care and development. They are

also not well aware of the quality of health care and concern children need at the

early stage in life. Some school proprietors engage the services of untrained child

minders or care givers to handle children put in early childhood education. Due to

their inadequate knowledge and information about children’s development, they

may not be aware of dangers of untidy environment to children. Secondly, she

may not know that she should appear neat always. Poor hygiene retard children’s

growth and development and their mental development will be seriously

affected.

Inadequate Resources:

In some private and public schools, there may be lack of both human and material

resources to provide sound health care and development. For instance, many

caregivers who take care of the children in the school are not trained to handle

children in their early stage in life. Secondly, some schools may not have the

disposal sites where they can dump their refuse. The implication is that bacteria

and virus which live in such refuse may cause diseases to these children. Many

childhood diseases are caused by dirty environment.

Poor Toilet Facilities

Some caregiver centres have poor toilet facilities or not at all. Those who care to

have toilets; their toilets are not kept clean. Children may inhale bad odour from

the dirty toilets which can cause sickness to these children. The children may not

have developed enough anti-bodies that can help to fight diseases in their body,

they develop sickness quickly. Poor health facilities can lead to poor development

in children.

Health Policy

Due to politics in Nigeria today, there are no clear sound health policies. If there is

any health policies in Nigeria, the political situation in Nigeria, do not allow such

health policies fully implemented. One ugly thing is that policies in Nigeria are not

backed by law, this no sanction incase such policies are not implemented. For

instance, in the past, there were sanitary inspectors or sanitary regulations. Do

we still have them now? This is a question we have to answer. Even if we have

them now, due to bribery and corruption, they will not achieve any result. If God

fearing people are chosen as sanitary inspectors or regulators, sanitary conditions

of schools should be the first thing they will check and place sanctions for any

care centres that do not have good sanitary provisions.

Advantages of Good Personal Hygiene

The advantages of good personal hygiene are:

1: The diseases- causing microorganisms that come into contact with the

Children will be reduced.

2: As a result of the above, the children will enjoy good health, healthy Growth

and mental development would follow.

3: As a result of good personal hygiene, parents save a lot of money. This may

be spent on medical treatment of their children.

4: When the children are healthy, they look neat and happy. Consequences of

Poor Personal Hygiene

The following may result if the caregiver’s personal hygiene is poor:

1: Parents may spend a lot of money for medical bills instead of using the

money to buy basic needs of the children.

2: Poor hygiene can lead to out brake of diseases such as dysentery, Cholera,

measles and chicken pox etc.

3: Poor hygiene can lead to tooth decay, skin rashes, bad odour,

4: Diseases causing organisms on our unclean bodies, clothes, shoes and in the

centres, may enter the children’s’ bodies and cause diseases to these

children.

5: Poor hygiene makes the children and the centre’s surroundings look untidy.

Recommendation:

Based on the points raised in this paper, the following recommendations

are proposed.

1. The federal and state ministries of health should come up with sound

health policy for early childhood education and development with

sanctions attached to it.

2. There should be a return of sanitary inspectors to check or inspect the

sanitary conditions of the centres or schools that handle early childhood

education.

3. The ministry in charge of environmental sanitation should come up with a

policy mandating each caregiver centre (both private and public) to create

sanitation site or field for refuse disposal..

4. Every centre or school that handles early childhood education should be

mandated to provide good toilet facilities in the school

5. Sensitization workshop for all caregivers in charge of ECCDE on the need to

promote personal hygiene in their centres.

Conclusion

If the above recommendations are strictly adhered to, there is no doubt

that a solid foundation is laid for the children’s growth, education and

development.

REFERENCES

Manteasiori, M (1990). Absorbent mind. New York: Dell.

Onyango, P.(1991). Issues of early childhood in East and Central Africa. International Programme Department. Redd Barua.

Ndu, F. O.C, Ndu,L.O, Olarewaju, A.O & Somoye, F. (2007). Basic science. An integrated science course for junior secondary schools. Ikeja: Longman.