Safe And Healthy Children S Environments

Designed for Health and Nutrition in Early Childhood Education courses offered in colleges and universities across the country. Safe and Healthy Children's Environments is distinctive in three ways: Safe and Healthy Children's Environments, Second Edition, aims to provide a valuable resource to caregivers of children to easily understand, access, and use information in meaningful ways to support the healthy development of all children. The second edition has been thoroughly updated and revised to reflect current research and methods in caring for children to ensure health and well-being in modern learning environments. This text presents issues in health, safety, and nutrition in a way that keeps the child at the heart of each chapter. Working as both a learning and reference tool, this text is written to facilitate research while using clear and concise language.

Millions of children and adults across the nation spend their days in school buildings, and they need safe, healthy environments to thrive, learn, and succeed. This book explores the school environment using the methods and perspectives of environmental health science. Though environmental healht has long been understood to be an important factor in workplaces, homes, and communities, this is the first book to address the same basic concerns in schools. The editors are physicians and educators trained in pediatrics, occupational and environmental medicine, and medical toxicology, and the authors are experts in their fields drawn from across the United States and abroad. Each section of the book addresses a different concern facing schools today. In the first six sections, the various aspects of the school environment are examined. Chapters include the physical environment of the school, air quality issues, pest control, cleaning methods, food safety, safe designs of playgrounds and sports fields, crime and violence prevention, and transportation. In the last two sections, recommendations are made for school administrators on how to maximize the health of their schools. Appropriately evaluating the school environment, implementing strategies to address children and adults with disabilities, emphasizing health services, infectious disease prevention and recognition, and occupational health for faculty and staff are all addressed. The entire book is evidence-based, readable, generously illustrated, and practical. An indispensable resource for parents, school staff, administrators, government officials, and health professionals, this book is for anyone who cares about the health of our schools.

"The manual ... is intended as an introductory resource tool for health professionals around the world, and especially in developing countries, who aim to increase their knowledge and understanding of children and environmental health."--P. vii.

Healthy Children: A Guide for Child Care 2nd edition examines the health needs of children attending child care settings. Child care professionals are advocates for children's rights, and good health is one of the basic rights of any child. Knowledge of health and related issues enables the child care professional to have a comprehensive understanding of how good health can be achieved for children and their families. The text addresses the new child care competencies developed by the Australian National Training Authority and provides the knowledge needed to achieve the competencies covered in each health-related unit. The wide range of topics covered will give students a broad understanding of each subject.

Children's health has clearly improved over the past several decades. Significant and positive gains have been made in lowering rates of infant mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases and accidental causes, improved access to health care, and reduction in the effects of environmental contaminants such as lead. Yet major questions still remain about how to assess the status of children's health, what factors should be monitored, and the appropriate measurement tools that should be used. Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth: Assessing and Improving Child Health provides a detailed examination of the information about children's health that is needed to help policy makers and program providers at the federal, state, and local levels. In order to improve children's health-and, thus, the health of future generations-it is critical to have data that can be used to assess both current conditions and possible future threats to children's health. This compelling book describes what is known about the health of children and what is needed to expand the knowledge. By strategically improving the health of children, we ensure healthier future generations to come.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Recent research has found that children are particularly vulnerable to environmental hazards. Air and water pollution, environmental risks in the home, and toxics in food and drink affect children more than adults. This volume examines policies designed to protect children from environmental threats, identifies factors that influence their health, and investigates childhood diseases that are caused or affected by the environment. State and federal legislation also are reviewed.--Publisher's description.