School is out, the children are either at home driving you crazy, or they may be attending a summer camp or are in day care because you are a working parent. Chances are that your children are spending quite a bit of time outdoors. Parents should be particularly aware of how much time that their children are spending outside if they are attending day care. During the "school year" even for pre-schoolers, the day is generally much more structured than during the summer months. This is a time when day care providers take the opportunity to "lighten up" on curriculum and may use a lot of outdoor time for learning about the environment. Even for children who are attending a summer camp, chances are that the majority of the day is spent outdoors.
Why should you be concerned? Children often get very wrapped up in their activities and are unable to express when something may be wrong. For children who are spending a lot of time outdoors there is the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and sunburn. The most urgent of these conditions would be heat stroke because it can be fatal. However, even sunburn, as we have all been made aware, can have long lasting effects and perhaps be life-threatening years from now.
Children need to have shaded areas to play in if they are outdoors in extremely hot temperatures. There should be plenty of liquids available for children. Children should be able to get to cool places in the heat. I feel that the most difficult of these (in my experience) is to be sure that children have access to liquids. There are often no water fountains where children may be playing (and if there are, do you really want your child drinking from one? Another topic at a later time!) Adults in charge of supervision may be unaware that children are becoming dehydrated and not encouraging children to have something to drink. My suggestion is to supply your child with their own water bottle - maybe even two of them, for the day and educate your child to drink frequently. Let your child's day care provider or counselor know that you are concerned and want your child to have access to their water bottle at all times. When adults are in charge of large groups of children it can be easy to forget that each child is an individual with needs that are not necessarily like someone else's.
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