r/ECEProfessionals

With baby Arthur too young for the measles vaccine and a sibling due in June, the Otwells grew nervous when the threat of the highly contagious virus started affecting their grocery run.

“We go to the Costco that was kind of a hotbed,” said John Otwell after his state health department's warnings of public exposures at the store.

“A lot of people just don’t get it; they think it’s just a cold. It’s not.”

By Arthur’s 9-month checkup, the South Carolina outbreak had exploded into the nation's worst in more than 35 years, surpassing last year's in Texas.

That meant that under state guidance, Arthur could get his first dose of the MMR vaccine — for measles, mumps and rubella — earlier than the usual 12 to 15 months old"

Their new baby won’t be able to get the shot until at least 6 months — a prospect that worries parents of infants wherever measles spreads.

Babies too young to be vaccinated are among the most vulnerable in a measles outbreak. The disease can wreak havoc on their fragile bodies, making them so sick they stop eating and drinking. They can develop pneumonia or brain swelling, and sometimes die.

Babies depend entirely on herd immunity — at least 95% of a community must be vaccinated to prevent measles outbreaks. But dropping vaccination rates have eroded protection in South Carolina and across the nation. In Spartanburg County, the outbreak's epicenter, less than 90% of students have gotten required vaccines.

“Babies become sitting ducks,” said Dr. Deborah Greenhouse, a Columbia pediatrician. “The burden is on all of us to protect all of us.”

But increasingly, some policymakers and officials push a view of vaccination as an issue of individual freedom and parents' rights, rather than one of public health to safeguard the population as a whole.

At the federal level, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine crusader, has sought to remake vaccine policy and oversaw billions in public health cuts. And though a temporary ruling from a federal judge has slowed his momentum, a raft of bills has been introduced in states, including South Carolina, that threaten to further reduce vaccination rates.

South Carolina’s measles outbreak, totaling about 1,000 cases, has slowed. But measles is spreading in many states, with 17 outbreaks this year and 48 last year, and the U.S. on the verge of losing its status as a country that has eliminated measles.

Dr. Jessica Early never thought she’d have to deal with measles, but the pediatrician feared for her patients and her own baby when it popped up in her Greer community. She and other doctors began offering an approved infant MMR dose as early as 6 months old. Her practice also started giving the second MMR dose — usually for ages 4 to 6 years old — early.

To the chagrin of many doctors, no one knows how many South Carolina infants have gotten measles or been hospitalized by it.

State officials will disclose only that 253 of the 997 cases were among children 4 and younger; they say they won’t break cases down further for confidentiality reasons. It’s not uncommon to group statistics this way.

Officials also don’t know exactly how many infants were hospitalized with the virus because, as in some other states, hospitals aren't required to report measles-related admissions.

Across the state, doctors said they got many questions about whether it was safe to bring infants to waiting rooms or day care.

Thomas Compton — regional director of Miss Tammy’s Little Learning Center, a child care network operating across the outbreak region — said 18 parents pulled children out of his facilities, though they had no confirmed cases. Some abandoned deposits days before their kids were scheduled to start, forcing the company to lay off a teacher.

Although licensed day cares must require vaccines under state law, families can easily get religious exemptions. About a fifth of Miss Tammy's 300 children have vaccine waivers.

When measles surged, Compton said state officials gave little guidance. His staff scrubbed down surfaces, as they did when COVID-19 was raging; tracked local measles cases on Facebook; and relied on Google for information about the disease.

“A lot of parents were really stressed out,” Compton said. “Anytime that we had a little sickness going on or something, they were like, ‘Do you think it’s the measles?’”

Last year, an Associated Press investigation found that Trump administration officials were directing activists to push anti-science legislation in statehouses. Nationally, around 350 anti-vaccine bills were introduced as of late October, AP found, including at least eight in South Carolina.

This year, a state bill would prohibit requiring vaccines for children under 2.

“In other words, it would get rid of those requirements in the day cares,” pediatrician Greenhouse said. “And for people like me, that is a gut punch that is terrifying.” [...]

I need a pulse check on how common this scenario is-

My son is 2 and joined a few months ago so he's never been in the infant room. The teachers for ages 1-2 seem really sweet. Yesterday I picked him up at 3 instead of 5 like the teachers are typically expecting so some of them did not know a parent was in the building. They don't do full time cameras but send pics throughout the day.

I was waiting outside his class and saw that in the infant room (2:6), 5 babies were in high chairs eating, one was changing with a teacher, and the teacher that was supposed to be watching the 5 eat was scrolling on her phone for a while and looked up and started screaming at one of the 9 month olds "EAT OR DONT EAT!! WHATEVER! IM NOT GONNA FIGHT WITH YOU!! EAT YOUR FOOD!!" not in a "let's get going/get down from there" yell but in a truly screaming tone. and then kept scrolling. she didn't notice me staring let alone look up at the babies in front of her. The babies weren't crying, they seemed used to this treatment.

At the same time, the 3 year olds were in line to go potty. One teacher was taking them potty and the other had them sit on the floor in the multipurpose room. She sat over them and they just stared at her as she scrolled her phone, occasionally looking up to roll her eyes at their existence and then look back down. They seemed really used to this. As they were walking back I heard a lot of "Ugh __ you should know how to do this already!!! GET UP!" again, not in a normal boundary setting way but like she really hated these kids.

I'm wondering how common this is and why they feel so comfortable being nasty to babies and children and being on their phone all day in front of everyone else who works there. It's not a big center, you'd think they'd be scared of another teacher calling them out or the director hearing them.

I haven't brought it up with the director yet and am not sure how to approach it. The 3 year olds is one thing but if my infant were spoken to like that I'd pull them instantly and I think the other infant parents deserve to know what the environment is really like.

Edit: in the US, this is one of the highest rated centers around

I've often thought about ratio.

Here's what it is where I live

6weeks-15months 1-4

16-35 months 1-7

3-5 1-10

School age 1-15

In my opinion, that's too many kids. Here's what I would have it at.

Infants, 1-3

toddlers 1-5

3-5 1-7

School age 1-10

I feel like these are MUCH more manageable. It also ensures more 1-1 time with each kid and better care. You're not spread so thin.

So for context, it was my first day as a supply ECA at YMCA after school program and they gave me like 13 kindergarten kids to handle completely alone.

I don’t really have much experience actually being responsible for a whole group like that. I did do an internship at an after school program before, but I wasn’t really in charge, I mostly just interacted with the kids and helped with setting up activities while the other staff handled routines and attendance stuff. Thats why I applied to this position because the job requirements were just to have 6 months experience working with children and a high school diploma, so I thought I would be be starting out with more guidance and support.

So when I was suddenly expected to manage everything myself I got anxious. The kids were moving around a lot and I couldn’t properly control the group because I didn’t know any of their names so it was hard to get their attention. At the same time, I felt really out of place because most of the other staff seem to have Early Childhood Education backgrounds, while I’m in social work. One of the educator who took the other half of the kindergarteners was a bit annoyed when I said it was my first day, she reacted like I should already know what I’m doing, which made me feel even worse. I felt so overwhelmed and kind of like I messed everything up.

I genuinely felt like I was about to cry at some points because I was so overwhelmed and didn’t know what I was doing. I thought I would be assisting educators and have more guidance not be alone with that many kindergarteners on my first shift.

Now I keep wondering if this is just normal first day experience or if I was put in a situation that’s actually not set up well for beginners?

Is it normal to be given that many kids alone on your first day as a supply? And does anyone have tips for managing a group like this when you’re still learning everything and don’t know the routine yet?

Any advice would really help because I feel pretty lost right now.

I keep having the reels of animals who learned to use buttons to communicate. I always think that could be great for preverbal babies in the classroom. Just for fun do you think it would be similar to signing or do you think it would be different in terms of language development?

This is going to be pretty specific, but general feedback is welcome. I work in an Early Head Start home visiting program and for some insane reason we do not collect Emergency Contact information anymore. I have a lot of concerns about this; I have brought it up with my supervisor, our health and safety manager, and HR and was shut down. We have our federal monitoring coming up in a couple weeks and as far as I know, the only thing they are looking at is our socialization procedures, which should include a safety plan. When I started and was trained, we collected emergency contact information and had to take it with us when we went on field trips and into homes. I feel like this is a violation of performance standards and common sense to no longer collect this information. We are supposed to have a trauma informed safety plan and calling DCS if a parent has a medical emergency at a play group does not seem trauma informed.

If anyone has helpful information/links, I would appreciate it.

So I’ll try to keep the story vague and short for privacy of everyone involved. This is obviously just my perspective on the situation.

I’ve been working at a center for about 6 weeks now, this is my first time working with the age group and I’m very much learning as I go, although I’ve been told repeatedly that I am doing good so far.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have noticed that my lead teacher (my direct superior) has been increasingly harsh towards me. This got to a point where it was affecting me emotionally and making it harder to do my job. I decided to have a private conversation with my coworker who I’ve grown to trust during a break and ask for advice on how to handle the situation. Unfortunately, someone overheard and it got back to the lead teacher. She confronted me while very heated and said a lot of mean things about how I shouldn’t trust people and she has people keeping their eye on me. She also said she was going to “get me in trouble” for various things that were quite frankly just not true.

I decided to bring it up to the program manager who is her boss to explain the situation where she decided we should have a meeting to clear the air and see if we can move past it. I said that was a good idea and moved on with my day, the lead teacher had left at this point.

The next day was rough with her being rude to me and rolling her eyes at me but I was just trying to focus on the kids. She was visibly treating me differently than the other assistant teacher in the room. At the end of her shift, right before she left, she decided to bring up to me that she was upset that I “wrote her up.” I tried to defuse the situation by telling her to just go and enjoy her weekend and get some rest because it wasn’t a good idea to hash this out while things are so heated, however she kept on berating me over reporting to her superior. I think she was trying to bait me into saying something bad because she kept on seeking validation from the other teacher who was visibly uncomfortable and who made it clear that they didn’t want to be involved and that they didn’t know what was going on. It is also worth mentioning that this happened during nap time and a couple of the toddlers who had just started waking up witnessed the whole thing.

Am I going crazy here? I don’t even really understand how it got to this point. Can this be considered retaliation? I feel like she became hostile towards me because I told a superior. Appreciate all perspectives.

Our very sweet daycare teacher changed my 3.5 month old’s diaper when I was picking her up yesterday. She lifted her ankles way too high to the point even part of her upper back was off the table, putting strain on her neck. Baby was fine and not crying. Is it overreacting and crossing boundaries to request they change her without lifting the ankles too high? Should I suggest rolling her to the side or doing frog legs? I don’t want to ruin the relationship we have!

Side note- baby is already in physical therapy for torticollis and neck tension, and I do not want it to get worse.

Hey everyone! Due to the situation in the GCC we’re currently doing remote learning. It’s a longgg day for my little pre-kg class online, most of them are still only 3. I’m trying to make it as fun as possible with dance breaks, science experiments, story time, little interactive quizzes on wordwall and such but we’re a few weeks in now and I can tell they’re getting bored 😴. Would love any ideas from ECEs if you’ve taught online or parents what you feel would be good for your children if they were learning remote ✨

I work in childcare and I’m honestly at a breaking point. I love the children, the families, and most of my coworkers, but there’s one staff member in my room who has been consistently making my job miserable.

It’s not one big dramatic thing, it’s more constant behaviour—undermining me, making things uncomfortable, the kind of stuff that builds up over time. Because we’re in the same room, I can’t really avoid her, so I’m dealing with it all day every shift.

I brought it up to management and we had a meeting with the director and assistant director. Their response was basically that we both “have a point” and we just need to work it out between ourselves. I’ve genuinely tried since then, but nothing has changed and I still feel uncomfortable and genuinely anxious coming into work.

At this point I feel stuck. I don’t want to leave because I actually like my job, but I also don’t know how much longer I can deal with this every day.

I’m considering asking to transfer to another centre within the same company, but I don’t know if that’s the right move or if I should be pushing management harder to step in.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? Did you stay and try to fix it, or just leave? I’d really appreciate any advice.

which should I choose as ece student