The hygiene concept is an integral part of the educational concept at the St. Leonhard Day-care Centre.
You can’t always keep things totally spick and span in a day-care centre. And it doesn’t even have to be. The important thing is that the basic rules of hygiene are respected. Individual hygiene plans and child-oriented hygiene education are particularly helpful. This hygiene concept is defined by the implementation of legal regulations.
The hygiene concept is designed to be self-monitoring. The employees at the St. Leonhard Day-care Centre are obliged to adhere to the concept and implement it.
All procedures and measures with the aim of preventing disease and maintaining the health of people and the environment. Hygiene measures are always preventive measures.
Physical care and support makes up a large part of the work in infancy and toddlerhood. We want to satisfy the needs of every single child in terms of hygiene and personal hygiene. We monitor the health of the children and their interests, dislikes and preferences in personal hygiene. The children should find nappy-changing a pleasant experience in a quiet environment and with loving care, thus developing a healthy, natural relationship with their bodies. As they grow older, we support the parents’ efforts to educate their children about cleanliness. In order to stay healthy, certain hygiene rules are also important, such as washing your hands after eating and after going to the toilet. Using finger games and songs, the children get to know their bodies and name the different parts of their bodies. They also learn to express their own bodily needs, e.g. thirst – hunger – going to the toilet.
Regular hand washing can help to avoid the incidence of infectious diseases at day-care centres. Washing hands and the correct use of disposable paper towels are essential actions to reduce pathogens.
The hands should always be washed and disinfected:
With children, it is particularly important to pay attention to appropriate personal hygiene. Because children’s bodies in particular are very sensitive.
Children’s delicate skin needs special care and teeth need to be brushed regularly.
Teach the child to wash itself as early as possible. This not only promotes independence, but also helps your child to develop motor skills. It also promotes a healthy relationship with their own body.
As in so many other things, the carers are the role models from whom the child learns the essential things. In everyday life, a child observes the behaviour of the carers and acts accordingly. How often are teeth brushed? Who washes their hands before eating?
How neat and clean are the people to be looked after? Regular personal hygiene is carried out in such a way that the health and well-being of the child is maintained.
One of the most effective ways to make life difficult for viruses and bacteria is to thoroughly wash your hands regularly. The children need to get used to this from the outset. The carers should set a good example. In this way, the risk of an influenza virus, for example, being transmitted from one person to another is reduced many times over.
There is a separate and specific hygiene concept for personnel working in the kitchen, which is binding and an integral part of this hygiene concept.
The kitchen must comply with the requirements of the relevant legislation.
To this end, the management instructs the cook and other kitchen staff about the hygiene regulations.
Anyone who produces, handles, stores, transports and delivers food must apply the following legal provisions:
Essential for personal hygiene:
The purpose of cleaning is to remove dirt and the germs it contains from surfaces, objects and floors. No dry dust removal should be carried out at the St. Leonhard Day-care Centre, only moist dust removal should be carried out, as dry dusting leads to dust being stirred up (pathogens are often bound to dust particles). WIBIS disinfectant cleaner 8709 is used to clean the surfaces. Please note that a special agent must be used for oak parquet floors.
Minimum change intervals for linen
What? | When? |
---|---|
Sleepwear | weekly |
Bedding | every 2 weeks |
Blankets/quilts | washed or professionally cleaned 4 times a year |
Dish towels | daily |
Personal flannels | daily |
Personal terry towels | after use |
These intervals may need to be shortened depending on the type of soiling that occurs.
During times of increased risk of infection (e.g. influenza outbreaks or gastrointestinal infections), the washing intervals should be shortened accordingly (bed linen, towels, etc.).
There are always conflicts between infection control and environmental protection, for example when it comes to washing laundry. Nowadays, lower washing temperatures are promoted for energy conservation reasons. From an infection hygiene point of view, this is often counterproductive, sometimes even dangerous, because the pathogens are then no longer reliably killed.
What? | When? | How? |
---|---|---|
if the washing machine is not used for a long time, clean and dry the filter | after the washing cycle | Clean the filter / Leave the door open |
Clean outside and inside | after every wash | Detergent drawer/washing drum |
To eliminate germs | weekly | Full wash cycle without loading at 60°C with a detergent containing bleach |
leave the tumbler open after use/clean filter | after tumble drying | Clean the filter / Leave the door open |
Dirt is carried into buildings on the soles of shoes (approx. 80%). Doormats must therefore be vacuumed daily, tapped out weekly and machine-cleaned twice a year. In the case of rigid doormats in frames, the recesses must be cleaned thoroughly once a week and the rigid doormats themselves cleaned twice a year using a high-pressure cleaner and a mild detergent, or more often depending on the degree of soiling.
Group rooms are used intensively and must be thoroughly cleaned regularly.
Upholstered furniture, sofas, mattresses and similar seating and lying surfaces should be provided with suitable removable and washable covers that can be washed regularly. If the upholstery is not washable or cannot be disinfected, disposal may become necessary in individual cases for hygienic reasons.
Vacuum the fitted carpet twice a week (preferably daily).
Materials cupboards must be cleaned 2x a year.
It is important to ensure that toys are easy to clean and can ideally be washed in a washing machine or dishwasher.
What, how, when? |
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Doll’s dishes should be dishwasher safe (65°C). |
Textile toys should be washable at 60°C. |
In the event of visible soiling, to the toy must be cleaned immediately and, if necessary, disinfected. |
The intervals for cleaning toys and toy boxes depend on the probability of the objects being put in the mouth and the degree of soiling, at least 2x per year. |
Cleaning at least twice a month, pay particular attention to toys that are often put in the mouth (e.g. teething rings, grab rings, textile dolls, etc.). |
The balls from the ‘ball bath’ must be washed in a washing machine at 60°C at least twice a year, December and July (temperature resistance to be checked according to manufacturer's instructions). |
If children take a regular midday nap then, from a hygienic point of view, the bed linen should always be used by the same child.
What? |
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See also 9.: The blankets/quilts, pillows and mattresses must be cleaned at least twice a year and after being assigned to a different child. |
For reasons of infection hygiene, mattresses must be equipped with a moisture-proof mattress cover which can be wiped clean and disinfected if necessary (to avoid disposal of the mattress). |
Mattresses that need to be temporarily put away must be stored vertically for ventilation, against partitions and ventilation grilles. This not only ensures hygiene, but also allows moisture to be released from the mattresses, thus preventing the formation of mould. |
Each child has its own cuddly toy/comfort blanket etc. which is stored in a child-specific location. It must be determined who is responsible for regular cleaning, the parents or the carer. Information on laundry hygiene – frequency, washing procedures, etc.
The function as a transition object should be taken into account when considering the question of cleaning.
As the cleaning and reprocessing of dummies also depends on the different materials used for dummies, these tasks should be the responsibility of the parents. Parents may be advised to make sure that the material is food safe.
What? |
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Dummies must be labelled in such a way that the educational staff can clearly assign them to the individual child. |
The storage should be child-specific, e.g. in a ventilated box, so that the dummies can dry off and germ multiplication is prevented. |
Clean the plastic boxes in the dishwasher regularly. |
Cuddly toys must be washed in the washing machine at 40°C before any holidays and before the Christmas holidays. These intervals may have to be shortened depending on the degree of pollution of the soft toys.
The sanitary area requires special attention and must be thoroughly and regularly cleaned according to a fixed plan, so that the required cleanliness/hygiene is guaranteed.
Disposable paper towels provide more security, shared towels are not allowed.
What? | Cleaning/washing |
---|---|
Personal flannels must be hung up without touching each other | wash daily at min. 60°C |
Textile wipes for babies and toddlers | are washed every evening at min. 60°C |
Bibs | depending on soiling, change at least 2x per week and wash at min. 60°C |
Personal napkins | depending on soiling, change at least 2x per week and wash at min. 60°C |
No rugs are allowed in the bathroom.
Keyboards must be cleaned once a week.
Laptops, computers and accessories such as computer mouse and keyboards must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected once a month.
A checklist provides information about cleaning, removal of hair, washing with soap and when it was replaced.
WHAT? | WHEN and HOW? |
---|---|
First, remove all hair from the brush. Either by hand or with a special brush cleaner. | After every use |
Basic cleaning | 1 x at the end of the month -- Pour hot water with some soap into a bowl. Now place the brush with the bristles down in the water and let it soak for at least 2 hours. -- Make sure the brush dries properly. Either on the radiator or in the sun. Otherwise there is a risk that it will start to get mouldy. |
Potties must be used on a child-specific basis and cleaned as follows:
Note:
For protection against infection, the nappy-changing area is one of the areas in day-care that requires special attention from the point of view of infection hygiene.
Due to the development of their immune system, small children have more infections than adults. At this age there is also an increase in gastrointestinal infections, e.g. from rotavirus or norovirus. It is quite possible that over 100 billion infectious particles per gram of stool are excreted by small children.
The nappy-changing area should be set up as a separate area, wherever possible separate from the group rooms to avoid air pollution and also separate from other hygienically sensitive areas, e.g. dining rooms or kitchen.
The plastic containers used for cleaning must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected each time the child is changed.
The disinfectants and care products must not be accessible to children. These must be stored in lockable cupboards.
All children learn how to brush their teeth.
Brushing is important for keeping children’s teeth healthy:
The following hygienic requirements must be met:
Children and adults need ‘air to breathe’. Each person consumes approx. 30 l of oxygen per hour from the room air and approx. 26 l of carbon dioxide is released into the room air. The consequences of increased carbon dioxide concentrations are decreasing concentration and fatigue. To prevent the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, a sufficient amount of fresh air must be available indoors for each person.
Several times a day, intensive ventilation with windows fully open.
Season | Ventilation time |
---|---|
In summer | 5–10 minutes (depending on outside temperature) |
In spring/autumn | 5 minutes |
In winter | 3 minutes intensive ventilation, at least 1/3 of the room air is replaced by fresh air |
Tilt windows is not sufficient and should also be avoided during the heating period.
The air exchange rate can be further increased by cross-ventilation (opening opposite windows/doors).
There is a lot of advice on safety aspects, mainly from the accident insurance institutions. For safety and hygiene reasons, regular inspections of the facility and maintenance of the equipment and floor/protective mats etc. must be carried out in outdoor areas. The safety concept of the St. Leonhard Day-care Centre must be taken into account.
The bacterial load is further increased by:
No poisonous plants may be brought into the day-care centre!
Other plants need regular and appropriate care.
After each use, the prams must be cleaned.
They must be washed and disinfected once a month.
In the event of a pandemic/epidemic, the management develops a pandemic/epidemic plan in consultation with the board.
Note from the Swiss Childcare Association (www.kibesuisse.ch)
Quote: https://www.kibesuisse.ch
A pandemic is an infectious disease that spreads across countries and continents.
An epidemic is localised. The management is responsible for dealing with questions relating to the pandemic and preparing the facility for the effects of a pandemic.
Verband Kinderbetreuung Schweiz recommends drawing up a pandemic plan adapted to the situation of the institution and introducing it adequately. This document will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
The following steps serve as a suggestion when creating a pandemic plan:
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