Attention Parents, Nursery and Kindergarten Managers!

Microbiologist Dr. Faculty Member İpek Ada Alver reminded that children between the ages of 0-5 are most often in crowded environments and that nurseries are the most important of these environments, and made important warnings to parents and nursery and kindergarten managers.

With the increase in the number of working mothers, educational institutions such as nurseries and kindergartens have become more preferred instead of babysitters. At the same time, with the increase in the number of activities related to children such as playgrounds, theater, musicals, play groups, the frequency of children being in crowded areas has also increased. Experts say that infections in children starting kindergarten also increase with the winter season. Microbiologist Dr. Lecturer İpek Ada Alver from Altınbaş University stated that “Porters who do not show signs of disease, that is, symptomless carriers, harbor the infectious agent in their bodies and this situation is frequently seen in children in kindergarten period”. For this reason, he emphasized, children can quickly spread the infection to those around them.

Danger of reinfection in kindergarten outbreaks

“Since children are new to infectious agents, they may carry multiple viral and bacterial infections in their bodies at the same time or one after the other. This increases the risk of reinfections and can lead to a more severe and contagious illness,” Dr. Ada Alver added. “Recently, we have been observing various bacterial and viral infections such as pneumonia (pneumonia), bronchitis, measles, COVID-19, influenza, adenovirus, rotavirus and scabies infecting children one after the other,” Alver said, underlining that parents often encounter symptoms such as recurrent cough, nasal congestion or runny nose, sneezing, persistent fever, diarrhea and vomiting.

Prof. Dr. Ada Alver stated that these symptoms are important and can cause long-term complications in the child if not treated early, “When the child encounters more than one infectious agent, the immune system may decrease and the child may become vulnerable to other diseases,” and urged parents to be careful in this regard.

Hygiene should be the first education in kindergarten

İpek Ada Alver explained that it is necessary to provide training to parents, including those who provide education in crowded areas such as kindergartens, kindergartens and playgroups, on how to protect themselves from infectious diseases. Ada Alver, who also stipulated that children should be given hand and toilet hygiene training, summarized what needs to be done as follows: “When we look at the outbreaks spreading in kindergartens, we see that they are mostly caused by hand hygiene and the shared use of contaminated items. We recommend providing infectious disease awareness training to daycare management and instructors, ventilating common areas in daycare every day or using air purifiers with hepa filters, disinfecting children's playgrounds and toys, and disinfecting toilets.”

“Break the chain of infection!”

On the other hand, children with signs of infection should be immediately notified to their parents and taken to a specialist doctor. Ada Alver said, “The child should be kept away from crowded environments by resting at home for at least a week. It will be effective in breaking the chain of infection by not coming to the nursery.” and gave information about the points to be considered in protection against epidemics in the nursery.

Childhood vaccines are our most important armor

Altınbaş University Microbiologist Dr. Lecturer. Prof. Dr. İpek Ada Alver noted that the primary rule of protecting children from epidemics in crowded environments is to fully complete all vaccinations in the childhood calendar published by the Ministry of Health. Ada Alver found that after the mistrust against covid vaccines, there has been a decrease in the rate of childhood vaccinations. She stated that this situation puts the health of future generations at risk. On the other hand, he emphasized that Meningitis and Rotavirus vaccines, which are within the scope of paid vaccines but which must be done during childhood, should also be completed.

In addition, Ada Alver pointed out that another issue to be considered is breast milk and said, “We recommend that prebiotic and probiotic foods, which are foods that strengthen the immune system, should be included in the child's diet list. In this sense, it is very important that the nutrition list is enriched with prebiotic and probiotic foods by the daycare center management.” and talked about the importance of childhood vaccines and nutrition in protecting children from infections.