Tag Archives: Preschool

Colorado preschools upset over state’s new chicken ban

Posted on by
Reply

Boulder County preschools and child care centers that keep chickens are protesting a new state rule that bans live chickens, ducks and other poultry.

chicken.pen.childcareAt Niwot’s Shepherd Valley Waldorf, the eggmobile — a mobile coop that houses about 100 chickens — is now on a nearby property owned by parents and the chicken lessons are on hold.

“In preschool and kindergarten, they’re learning through experiences,” said Ruth Godberfforde, Shepherd Valley’s outreach and admissions director. “Taking care of chickens is a wonderful, purposeful activity. We want to keep that connection with nature and animals.”

An online petition to repeal the new rule has garnered more than 2,000 signatures. The campaign also is supported by Temple Grandin, a well known Colorado State University agriculture professor.

The state regulations, which went into effect Jan. 14, ban licensed child care centers from keeping live poultry on site or bringing them into classrooms. Live birds are still allowed in classrooms where children are older than 5.

The ban is designed to protect young children from salmonella, a bacteria that’s often carried by poultry and causes diarrhea, vomiting and fever, according to state health department officials.

Young children are considered especially at risk because their immune systems are still developing, making it more likely they’ll need to be hospitalized. Plus, young children often put their fingers and other objects in their mouths. increasing the likelihood that they’ll get sick.

Colorado routinely has one or more outbreaks each year of salmonella that are associated with live poultry, said Therese Pilonetti, unit manager for the state health department’s Division of Environmental Health and Sustainability.

In a typical outbreak associated with live poultry, young children make up half of all cases, she said.

Opponents to the ban say the state doesn’t have any evidence linking a salmonella outbreak in Colorado to chickens at a child care facility. Instead, they say, any risks are mitigated by good health practices like washing hands after being around the birds.

“We’ve had animals in different capacities over the last 20 years,” Shepherd Valley’s Godberfforde said. “We follow all the health and safety guidelines and have never had any issues.”

NZ preschool blames hand sanitizer for child’s drunkenness

Posted on by
Reply

The owner of an early childhood centre in Invercargill, New Zealand, where a 4-year-old became grossly intoxicated says the girl consumed alcohol-based hand sanitizer and the center would not be using the product again.

dumboJackie Woodward, owner of the Woodhouse Early Learning Centre, has spoken of the “horrific” few days she and her staff have endured after the girl was hospitalized in a drunken stupor shortly after leaving the childhood premises.

The girl was picked up by her mother from the center at 5.30pm on Monday.

But the mother soon became alarmed at her behavior and rushed her to hospital, where she collapsed into a nurse’s arms and was later diagnosed as being intoxicated. Her alcohol reading was 188mg, nearly four times over the legal driving limit.

Woodward said they believed the girl had climbed onto a bookshelf and reached the hand sanitzser connected to the wall above while the on-duty staff member was putting on a load of washing in another room.

The mother has criticized Woodward’s staff for failing to pick up that her daughter was drunk.

Woodward, who has removed the hand sanitizer from its position and put it in a locked room, said she would not be using the product again, instead sourcing non-alcoholic hand cleaning products.

“I had no idea it was 60 to 70 per cent alcohol content.”

She was relieved the child was okay.

Who hacks about botulism? Hackers blamed for UK pre-school botulism scare

Posted on by
Reply

A Hampshire nursery school says hackers were behind reports a potentially fatal infection had caused it to close today.

The County Council had put out a statement saying Kings Worthy Pre-School on Church Lane, Kings Worthy, near Winchester, was closed today after a severe case of botulism was found.

botulism microThe illness attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis and even death.

But the school says it is open as normal and no illness has been reported. It says it’s IT system was hacked last night (Tuesday 29 April).

Hampshire County Council is investigating.

Salmonella strikes 13 preschoolers in Estonia

Posted on by
Reply

Estonian Public Broadcasting reports an outbreak of salmonella at a nursery school in Tabasalu, a small town just outside Tallinn, caused illness among 13 children and one assistant teacher last week. Five of the children had to be hospitalized.

Health Board Public Relations Manager Iris Saluri told the Delfi news service that though laboratory tests had not yet confirmed the source of the outbreak, it probably originated in a batch of scrambled eggs. However, because some of the children fell ill later than others, it was possible that the disease was also spread person to person, she said.
 

Cheech and Chong may be the cooks: why people shouldn’t purchase brownies from streets vendors

Posted on by
Reply

I can’t wait until Sorenne goes to pre-school, only to be greeted by a teacher giggling, muttering to herself, “Dave’s not here.”

That’s what happened in April, 2009, when the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) notified officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) in California about a group of preschool teachers with nausea, dizziness, headache, and numbness and tingling of fingertips after consumption of brownies purchased 3 days before from a sidewalk vendor.

As reported in today’s U.S. Centers for Disease Control weekly update, “the findings also underscore the need to consider marijuana as a potential contaminant during foodborne illness investigations and the importance of identifying drug metabolites by testing of clinical specimens soon after symptom onset.

On the morning of April 7, 2009, a preschool teacher put brownies, which she had purchased on April 5, on a table in a break room to share with staff. The day before, she also had given two brownies to her adult son at home. Five preschool teachers (not including the teacher who had purchased the brownies) and the teacher’s adult son were the only persons who ate the brownies. Each person ate only one brownie. At approximately 1:30 p.m., the preschool director and the administrator noticed that one of the teachers suddenly looked drowsy and was complaining of drowsiness, ataxia, dizziness, shortness of breath, and numbness and tingling of the face, forehead, arms, and hands. When the director and administrator learned that the teacher who had shared the brownies had purchased them from a sidewalk vendor for a church fundraiser, they suspected the affected teacher’s drowsiness was associated with her ingestion of the brownie 30 minutes before onset of symptoms. The teacher did not seek medical care.

The brownies were sold as single, unlabeled units, individually wrapped in plastic wrap, costing $1.50 each. The preschool director contacted the head pastor of the church, who reported that the church had not held a fundraiser, and the pastor subsequently notified LAPD to investigate. After interviewing persons at the church and the preschool, LAPD suspected foodborne illness and contacted DPH on April 8.