nevertheless, the only statistical difference in treatment between these groups was that more children (4.4%) in the control group needed hospital admission compared with 2.4% of children in the daycare group (P=0.003) ( 5). Most of the injuries in daycare were a result of falls from playground equipment, interaction with another child, or collisions or falls from furniture. There were significantly more cuts and bruises or abrasions in the daycare group, but statistically fewer burns, poisonings and foreign body insertions compared with the nondaycare (control) group.

Of the 112,000 records in the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program database (1990 to March 1992), 1008 injuries occurred in a daycare setting among children younger than five years of age (60.5% of injuries were in boys). This suggests that while safe equipment and design are helpful in injury prevention, appropriate supervision of child behaviour is critical ( 4).

In a survey ( 4) of four San Francisco Bay Area (USA) child care centres, 56% of the injuries were due to child factors, and 42.9% were due to child and environmental factors, while only 1.5% of the injuries were purely due to environmental factors. Child care injuries can be classified into two categories: child factors (falls, collisions, compression pinches, pushed or hit, thrown objects and bites) and environmental factors (wet or slippery floors, equipment or furniture, objects on floor, sharp objects, and windows or doors) ( 4). nevertheless, injuries in child care settings remain a serious, but preventable, health care issue. This may be because child care centres and family day homes provide more supervision and/or safer play equipment ( 3). However, children who spend more time in nonparental child care have a reduced risk of (unintentional) injury ( 2). Guardians are naturally concerned for their child’s safety, particularly when cared for outside of the home. Injuries to children remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality.

Carl Goes to Daycare by Alexandra Day