Infection Control
How do you ke
ep 15 babies living in one house, healthy? They all crawl around on the floor and love to taste each other’s snacks. They all play with the same toys. They do not sneeze into tissues. What’s a mother to do?
The first thing you see when you visit the Nursery is our handwashing station. All who enter here must wash their hands at the door—or else! This goes for visitors and staff alike. No exceptions. Hands carry lots of germs and those same germ-bag hands also carry babies. So when you come to visit, “Zie vill vash!”
The next step is shoe removal. Since most of our babies are crawling on the floor we don’t welcome any outside dirt inside. So take your shoes off at the door. Regulars have their own special shoes that they wear inside. As a visitor you are treated to a box full of flip flops that you can choose from, at the door. You must wear these flip flops or you will be denied entrance to the holy of holies. They are washed every few days and put in the sun to dry so we know they are clean. The sun hates germs and kills them by the gazillions.
Our floors are all linoleum, and easy to clean. They get washed twice a day with bleach and soapy water. This makes a good surface to crawl on and play on. But most babies are small and only sit in one place so we have 2 thin mattresses in the center of the room for their sitting pleasure. The sheets on these mattresses get changed a lot when accidents occur. Even sitting babies are messy.
In the same room is the toy dresser. The bottom 2 drawers, which are really big wicker boxes, contain the toys. These boxes are taken out when babies are present (which is almost all the time). The babies empty them, play with the toys, and then play with the boxes. The toys are all washable plastic and are washed several times a week and dried (you guessed it) in the sun.
The babies themselves are bathed daily, at least once. Sometimes another bath or two is necessary. Their clothes are changed as necessary. And since we have 3 full bathrooms it is not unusual to have a nanny in the shower. Accidents happen.
We have a washer and dryer – a real luxury. In sunny weather the laundry is hung on the line and only has to go in the dryer for 10 minutes to kill the phutsi fly eggs that may have been laid on them. During rainy
season the dryer is going almost nonstop to try and keep up. We are thankful for the washer and dryer. We use cloth diapers and fifteen babies make a lot of laundry.
Do people ever complain about the rules? Sometimes. We had a man who wouldn’t take his shoes off, so he was told he couldn’t come in. Once we had a guy with a wooden leg who couldn’t take his shoe off! We gave him a clean plastic bag to put over his shoe and in he came. So when you come to visit, don’t expect a bye on Attila-the-Matron’s infection control rules.
Do the babies ever get sick? Yes. But we do the best we can.
ep 15 babies living in one house, healthy? They all crawl around on the floor and love to taste each other’s snacks. They all play with the same toys. They do not sneeze into tissues. What’s a mother to do?The first thing you see when you visit the Nursery is our handwashing station. All who enter here must wash their hands at the door—or else! This goes for visitors and staff alike. No exceptions. Hands carry lots of germs and those same germ-bag hands also carry babies. So when you come to visit, “Zie vill vash!”
The next step is shoe removal. Since most of our babies are crawling on the floor we don’t welcome any outside dirt inside. So take your shoes off at the door. Regulars have their own special shoes that they wear inside. As a visitor you are treated to a box full of flip flops that you can choose from, at the door. You must wear these flip flops or you will be denied entrance to the holy of holies. They are washed every few days and put in the sun to dry so we know they are clean. The sun hates germs and kills them by the gazillions.
Our floors are all linoleum, and easy to clean. They get washed twice a day with bleach and soapy water. This makes a good surface to crawl on and play on. But most babies are small and only sit in one place so we have 2 thin mattresses in the center of the room for their sitting pleasure. The sheets on these mattresses get changed a lot when accidents occur. Even sitting babies are messy.
In the same room is the toy dresser. The bottom 2 drawers, which are really big wicker boxes, contain the toys. These boxes are taken out when babies are present (which is almost all the time). The babies empty them, play with the toys, and then play with the boxes. The toys are all washable plastic and are washed several times a week and dried (you guessed it) in the sun.
The babies themselves are bathed daily, at least once. Sometimes another bath or two is necessary. Their clothes are changed as necessary. And since we have 3 full bathrooms it is not unusual to have a nanny in the shower. Accidents happen.
We have a washer and dryer – a real luxury. In sunny weather the laundry is hung on the line and only has to go in the dryer for 10 minutes to kill the phutsi fly eggs that may have been laid on them. During rainy
season the dryer is going almost nonstop to try and keep up. We are thankful for the washer and dryer. We use cloth diapers and fifteen babies make a lot of laundry.Do people ever complain about the rules? Sometimes. We had a man who wouldn’t take his shoes off, so he was told he couldn’t come in. Once we had a guy with a wooden leg who couldn’t take his shoe off! We gave him a clean plastic bag to put over his shoe and in he came. So when you come to visit, don’t expect a bye on Attila-the-Matron’s infection control rules.
Do the babies ever get sick? Yes. But we do the best we can.
posted by Paul and Darlene Heller at 9:50 AM
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