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Diapering Procedure

I've never worked at a center based daycare so I'm not very sure about what the official diapering procedure is when it came to child care.  I do daycare in my home so I don't have a Director or other staff member to assist with this so I asked a fellow family child care college of mine and she gave me the proper steps of the diapering procedure based on the Family Child Care Environment rating Scale standards.  So here we have it, the "quality" way of diapering.
 
Step 1
The first thing you do before starting the diaper procedure is to wash your hands using proper hand washing.
 
Step 2
Next get organized.  This will minimize the chances of contamination.  Get all of the diapering supplies you will need to change the child's diaper and place them near the diapering surface.
  • Wipes.  Take enough out and have enough set aside to wipe the child's bum and to wipe the child's and your hands.  Wet diapers will need 3-4 wipes total, soiled diapers will need more. (wipes must be taken out of the container).
  • A clean diaper.
  • A dab of diaper cream on a paper towel/wax paper if using any.
Other things you can use to further prevent contamination:
  • Extra clothes if the clothes that the child is wearing are soiled.
  • Plastic bag for soiled clothing if you anticipate needing one.
  • Non-porous gloves.
  • Changing table paper to cover the surface from the child's shoulders to feet.
(Except for the changing table paper, place these items near the diapering surface but not directly on it.  For example, if you are using a changing table with a pad on it the items should be placed on the changing table and not directly onto the changing pad.)
 
Step 3
Put the gloves on and place the child on the diapering surface and remove the child's clothing to have access to the diaper.  If the clothes is soiled place them into the plastic bag.
 
Remove the diaper and throw it away into a lined, lidded, hands-free trash bin.  Using the wipes clean the child's diaper area from front to back (one wipe per swipe).  You can also simply open the diaper and leave it under the child during the wiping process then, once finished, the wipes can be put inside the soiled diaper and rolled up inside before throwing away.  If wearing gloves you can make a "diaper bomb" by holding the tightly rolled soiled diaper in one hand and with the other gloved hand taking the outside cuff of the first glove and pulling it down and over the diaper.  Then take the soiled diaper in your other hand and pull your other hand completely out of the glove.  With your ungloved hand take the cuff of your gloved hand and pull down and over the diaper in the same way.  You are now holding an encased diaper and can throw that away. 
 
Step 4
Take a wipe and wipe your hands and throw that wipe away.  Take another wipe and wipe the child's hands and throw that wipe away as well.  Put a clean diaper on and apply diaper cream if needed, throw the paper towel/wax paper away.  Dress the child.
 
Wash the child's hands in the sink using proper hand washing procedures and then release the child to continue play.
 
Roll/fold up the changing table paper with the side that the child laid on in the inside and throw it away. 
 
Step 5
Spray the diaper changing area with a soapy water solution and dry it with a paper towel. 
 
Disinfect the diaper changing area by spraying the surface with an approved disinfectant.  Let the solution sit for 2 minutes then wipe dry (or allow to air dry).
 
Wash your hands using proper hand washing procedures.

Probing Questions to Support Concept Development

Intentionality

I took a workshop on supporting children with intentional teaching.  It was a wonderful class and I came away with a lot of useful information.  The focus of the workshop was to give ideas on how to encourage children’s scientific inquiry skills by allowing them to observe, question, seek their own answers to problems, evaluate, develop mental relationships, having conversations about discoveries, developing theories and documentation.

At first it seems like it’s easier said than done but a lot of this can be done through conversation and open ended questions.  Open ended questions have no right or wrong answer.  This way of asking questions stimulates language use, teaches that there are more ways than one way to solve a problem, affirms children's ideas and encourages creative thinking.  Here is a list of open ended questions and responses that will help you support children's concept development.
  • Tell me your idea.
  • What does it look like?
  • Tell me how you did that.
  • What does it feel like?
  • What do you wish would happen?
  • What can you do next time?
  • What is happening?
  • What can you tell me about it?
  • What's another way you might .....?
  • Which one do you have more of?
  • How do you think you can find out?
  • Is one larger or smaller than another?  Or is it the same?
  • What would it look like if .....?
  • What do you call the things that you are using?
  • What else can you do or use?
  • How are you going to do that?
  • When did you do that before?
  • What will you do next after you finish that?
  • What did you see?
  • How do you know?
  • Why did you decide to use ..... instead of .....?
  • What is it made of?
  • What do you think the problem is?
  • Show me what you could do with it.
  • How did you conclude that?
  • Can you think of another way you can do this?
  • What is the connection between ..... and .....?
  • What do you think you could do next?
  • What is the problem?
  • Why is it a problem?
  • I see that you .....
  • What does this make you think of?
  • I noticed that ..... happened.
  • In what ways are these different?
  • In what ways are they the same?
  • What would happen if .... ?
  • What materials did you use?
  • What do you notice about .....?
  • What might you try instead?
  • How are you going to do that?
  • Tell me about your .....
  • What can you do to fix it?
These open-ended questions can be written on sentence strips and placed high up on a wall or the complete list can be placed on a clipboard and hung somewhere that is easily seen and referenced.  Doing this helped me get used to the questions and gave me ideas to use when working with the children.