Title: SAFETY PRACTICES AND POLICIES
By: Cheryl Wilcox
Walden University
Edu- 1005-1
Professor Erin Eissler

While reading "Safety, Nutrition, and health in early childhood and working as a teacher for Head Start, I have learned about the different hazardous situations and safety threats, safety policy, ways to prevent these hazardous situations and safety threats from happening, and how families ensure the safety of a child at home.
HAZARDOUS SITUATIONS AND SAFETY THREATS First, poison is one of the most common items found in households and early childhood education environment. These items are cleaners, medicines, plants, pesticides, and certain foods that can poison children if it gets into their system. In my classroom Head Start requires me to keep chemicals and other poisonous items in a locked cabinet unreachable to children, and post poison control number by the phone. Plants that are poisonous like poison ivy, poison oak, and sumac are not present in the classroom environment because it damages the skin by causing rashes. Families can ensure the safety of their children by storing all poisonous materials in a locked cabinet; examine all plants in home, and post poison control number by phone. It helps when the child is taught by teacher are parent what type of foods are good to eat and what is not, encourage children not to put any type of poisoning items in their mouth, and why we keep poison materials locked in a cabinet. Second, U.S PIRG Education Fund toy- related accidents causes more than 202,000 children to be injured each year, and 36 percent of those injured are children under 5 years of age. Toys and other children's products (CPSC, 2005) cause approximately 70 percent of deaths for children 4 years of age and younger. Other toy accidents involve choking, stabbing by projectile toys, and strangulation. To prevent accidents from