When Daycare Turns Deadly

There are many parents that decide to work after they've had children. These children end up going to daycare during the time that the parents work. We want to trust the smiling faces of the daycare workers and trust that these people will do everything possible to keep our child safe while we are away. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Sometimes things happen while our children are in daycare, and the result can be fatal.

One potential hazard is that the daycare your child attends does not keep up-to-date on product recalls. Dozens of dangerous children's products are recalled every year. Children have died in daycare centers using recalled products. One licensed facility in New York had a child death due to a Playskool Travel Lite Crib. The side collapsed on the 16-month-old boy and caught his neck, suffocating him. Thinking this was a freak accident, you can imagine the parents' horror when they found out that this crib had been recalled by the government five years earlier and was responsible for the death of several other children. Had the daycare center kept up with product recalls, this death could've been prevented.

Most states don't require daycare centers to check for recalled products. Illinois, Michigan, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri now require licensed day care facilities to verify that they aren't using recalled products.

What can you do to help keep daycare safe? Make a list of products that are in use in the center. Do a check on these products. If you go online, The Consumer Product Safety Commission has a list of all recalled products, and you can sign up for recall alerts. With the efforts you and the daycare facility put forth, everyone's children can be sure to be safer.

Negligent and abusive care givers are potentially deadly to our children in daycare. There have been so many cases of children who have died at the hands of daycare workers. One tragic case left a 2-year-old girl dead after having been left in a van on an 85-degree hot June day in Milwaukee, WI. The driver had closed the vehicle without ever checking to be sure that everyone was out. The inside temperature of the van could have reached 128 degrees. When the girl's mother went to pick up her daughter, no one knew where the little girl was. The mother never even got an apology from the driver or the daycare. It's sad to know that adults trusted to take good care of a child would hurt a child. It's even sadder when the abuse or neglect results in death.

Over-crowding in unlicensed daycares can leave children without proper supervision. This can result in injury or death. The best thing parents can do is be responsible in putting your children into the hands of a trusted friend or family member. When choosing a licensed facility, it is more likely that they will have the proper adult to children ratio.

If neither of you can opt to raise your children and they end up in daycare, stay vigilant to help keep your child safe. Drop in early, unexpectedly once in a while to check in with your child. I put my children in a daycare years ago, dropped in early one day, and found, much to my disgust, a worker laying next to my child, covering her head with a blanket and shushing her because it was nap time. My little girl did not take naps. This was something I had discussed with the daycare before her placement there. They told me that it was fine if she did not sleep and that they would find something else for her to do at rest time instead. This was obviously a lie, since the woman was clearly trying to force my child to be quiet and sleep. That woman was lucky, after I witnessed her covering my child's head with a blanket, that I did not mummify her from head to toe and toss her out on her backside. Needless to say, neither of my children returned to daycare, and I made arrangements to care for my children myself. Don't ever think it won't happen to your child.