Need some help with samanilla? (or however you spell it)

blb

Songster
12 Years
Jan 13, 2008
109
1
131
Maryland
Hey all. I'm my almost 6 week old chicks to pre K on monday. ( I'm a nanny and have I in the class) The teachers are very excited. I have brought in my snake before which was a hit.

The teacher just told me yesterday that another teacher might not let the kids touch the chicks because of the threat of samanilla. I was going to put a small run in the playground and have the kids hold and pet the chickens with wet ones and instant hand sandizer right by. The 'other' teacher is hatching eggs and won't let the kids hold the chicks when they are born because of the threat.

Ok, I thought you got samanilla from eggs? I can see with new born chicks but at 6 weeks won't the threat be much less? I am bringing 5 chicks I got from a friend. I was going to have the teacher have the kids use the instant hand sandizer the minute they were done with the chickens and warn the kids not to put their hands near their mouths.

My teacher says she isn't worried, just wanted me to know that they might not let the kids hold or tough the chickens.

I'm going to read a story then talk about chicken facts.
 
Chicks *can* carry salmonella (same as eggs can - think about it, chicks come from eggs...
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). However the risk is lower if the chicks have been hatched and brooded in sanitary conditions (and especially if the eggs are from a NPIP flock source), and lower still if the kids wash their hands properly afterwards.

http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/easter_chicks.htm

That said, I can certainly see where in today's litigious environment a school or schoolteacher might have concerns about going against what are, let's face it, CDC recommendations that kids under 5 not handle chicks. <shrug>

There is also, of course, a certain risk to the *chicks* being handled by kids, so it is not entirely a one-way equation
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Pat, who has no intention of preventing her 3 yr old from handling the chicks that we have ordered for a few weeks from now, but then I know that I am not going to sue myself if anyone gets sick
 
Pre-K sized hands hand seriously harm chicks in the excitement of seeing them for the first time in person. I don't know if I would let them handle the chicks very much beyond a small finger stroke to feel the feathers.

As far as any threat I would have the children wash their hands because they are more likely to give their germs to the chickens than the other way around.
 
Bring a bottle or two of hand sanitizer for the kids to use before and after touching the chicks then they should wash their hands. I too would not let the kids handle the chicks just look, listen and touch.
 
Thanks all.

I have the hand santizer and wet ones. THe chickes are now 6 weeks old so i'm not worried about the kids hurting them. MOst of the kids are 5 or almost 5 so I'm not worried about that too much either.

I will let you know how it goes!
 

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