We are thrilled with the wonderful responses we are still receiving following our recent post about our dinner service.
Another way in which we try to help our busy parents is by coordinating health checks at our centres.
Hearing, eyesight and oral health are part of the Healthy children’s checks. These are basic physical examinations and assessments recommended for children to have prior to them starting school.
Parents now have the opportunity to have their child’s teeth, eyesight and hearing tested during their childcare hours by experienced healthcare providers and receive a full report on their child’s wellbeing.
We believe that by offering these services in the comfort of our centres we are helping busy parents to free up precious family time, since it would otherwise require them to make these appointments in their own time.
We should mention that some of these services may come at a small cost to families and do require a minimum number of children to participate in order to take place. Also, when possible we extend this offer to the younger children at our centres.
Our dedicated staff report great feedback from participating families. Some parents admitted having their own fear of the dentist and were happy that in this way their fear is not projected on to their child.
Cessie Roland, whose son Freddie attends our Wyoming centre says: “The school dentist visit was a great experience for Freddie. I love that the L&L staff spent time either side of the visit focusing on learning about dental health in a fun way. I was worried Freddie would not open his mouth when it came to his turn to see the dentist, but he loved every minute of it! In fact our son loved seeing the dentist at daycare so much, that when asked whathewanted to do for his birthday he said ‘go to the dentist’.
We are firm believers in education for healthy habits and believe early intervention and detection is key.
Here are some interesting statistics we found:
- A national survey in January 2018 revealed one in three Australian pre-schoolers have never visited a dentist and aren’t brushing their teeth twice a day. https://www.rchpoll.org.au/polls/child-oral-health-habits-in-australian-homes/
- Approximately one in five Australian children suffers from an undetected vision problem or requires ongoing assessment. http://www.vision2020australia.org.au/news/2015-09-15/optometrists-recommend-early-eye-examinations-for-kids
- Each year in Australia approximately 551 children are born with moderate to profound permanent childhood hearing impairment. Early detection and intervention minimise the impact of hearing impairment, improves communication and language skills and psychological wellbeing.
