Hygiene in indoor play areas: Are your kids safe?

Think twice before sending your children to indoor play areas in malls and other places.

By: Debjani Arora | | Published: April 27, 2016 5:28 pm

Many mothers prefer to send their kids to indoor play areas as compared to parks or playgrounds. This is not just restricted to the play area of the malls. In fact, these days in every city there are theme based indoor play areas, colourful, happening and filled with various activities that help to develop social and motor skills of children or so they claim. However, that isn’t the only incentive for mothers to send kids to indoor play areas. Another advantage that they think indoor play areas offer is security and safety. However, regarding health, indoor play areas might not be the best option after all.

There are studies that suggest that indoor play areas can lead to a host of respiratory infection in kids the reason mainly being a lack of ventilation and inlet for fresh air. This could be detrimental to your child’s health. Open spaces help a child to build immunity bit-by-bit, whereas enclosed areas can lead to respiratory infections like asthma. Moreover, a study was done in 2007 also showed that hygiene practises in enclosed areas can be a big issue that can make children prone to infectious diseases. Cleanliness and hand-wash hygiene were two aspects that could make children prone to infections. While the study concluded that cleanliness is an aspect that can be tackled, hand washing hygiene is one spectrum that needs to be emphasised more in indoor play areas.

Remember, various infections spread through dirty hands. And in the play area, where different children come to interact and play, the chances are even higher. In fact, parents also feel that adequate hand washing facilities in indoor play areas can keep children safe. The importance of hygiene in indoor play areas cannot be ignored because infections can be transmitted through contaminated objects held by children.

Reference

1: Gauci C, Borg D. Are children attending child play areas at risk of infectious diseases? What can be done? J R Soc Promot Health. 2007 Jan;127(1):22-8. PubMed PMID: 17319313.

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Published: April 27, 2016 5:28 pm

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