Teaching children to be safe with food and water begins at an early age. Children are watching you and they are influenced by what you say and do.
Unsafe food and drinking water can spread food-borne illnesses. Children under 2 years of age are more vulnerable because their immune system isn’t fully developed.
NEVER let children:
- Touch raw meat
- Eat raw cookie dough or cake batter made with eggs
- Eat unpasteurized food, like milk, cheese and honey
- Eat raw or undercooked food
Learns ways to reduce your risk of food-borne illness at home.
Around water, young children are particularly at risk. They’re mobile, curious and need constant adult supervision. But, they’re also eager learners, so discuss water safety and teach them to respect water. Most importantly, never leave children alone in the bathtub, by the pool or beach. A momentary absence or lapse of supervision is the biggest risk factor for death in children under 10 years of age¹.
When it comes to water:
- Discuss water safety
- Make sure your family learns to swim
- Watch your children at all times and never leave them alone around water
- Stay within arm’s-reach of toddlers and non-swimmers
- Put a personal flotation device (PFD) on your child
- Ensure your pool is fully fenced with a self-closing, self-latching gate
- Empty wading pools and small inflatable pools when not in use
- Check beach status before you go swimming at local beaches
Lambton Public Health works with the community to prevent or reduce the burden of food-borne and water-borne illness by:
- Inspecting food premises
- Following up on confirmed/suspect food-borne illness
- Providing safe food handling education
- Monitoring the quality of water that is used for drinking and for recreation
- Issue advisories to the community as to water use as needed