The death of a young child in a daycare centre is a serious incident – deaths of children in daycare centres are nonetheless extremely rare
The Safety Investigation Authority, Finland conducted a preliminary investigation into an incident in Pyhäjoki on 1 April 2025 involving the death of a child while in daycare in a daycare centre.
The child was napping outside in a pram as usual. No adults or other children were present outside during the nap. Approximately three hours later, a childcare worker found the child lifeless in the pram. Despite resuscitation, the child died.
Letting small children nap outside has been commonly recognised as healthy for children, and the practice has long traditions in Finland. There are no nationally uniform instructions for letting children nap outside in early childhood education and care. The early childhood education and care services in the municipality of Pyhäjoki have had a common principle that small children may nap outside, and this has been agreed upon together with the child’s guardians. There are no updated safety instructions or separate instructions for monitoring and ensuring the safety of a child sleeping outside in a pram.
”Whenever we consider whether to launch an investigation, we always assess if safety has been adequately taken into account in the activities leading to the incident. An important perspective in this consideration also involves reflecting on the recurrence of a similar accident or incident or the likelihood of it occurring again”, says Hanna Tiirinki, Chief Safety Investigator at the Safety Investigation Authority, Finland.
In 2014, the Safety Investigation Authority, Finland published a themed investigation on the deaths of children. No deaths of children occurred in day-care centres during the investigation period. According to Statistics Finland, in 2023, the number of children who died before the age of one was 76, which is the lowest number in more than 30 years.
” When determining whether the Safety Investigation Authority will launch a safety investigation into an incident or accident, we must also ask whether the investigation can produce relevant safety information. According to our assessment, this is not the case here. We also assessed whether the accident posed a risk to several people. This was not the case in the assessed incident. Overall, it is important that we assess or investigate incidents and accidents and that we learn from them”, Tiirinki notes.
”Any incident or accident involving a death is a serious matter. Ensuring the safety of a child left to sleep outside is always dependent on adults. After the assessed incident, the municipality of Pyhäjoki has taken measures to avoid similar incidents by issuing an order to day-care centres not to put children outside for a nap. To make sure that children’s naptime is supervised, the municipality has also issued an order for daycare centres that an adult must be continuously present with sleeping children. The municipality has also started updating the guidelines for managing crisis situations at daycare centres”, Tiirinki adds.
Based on the preliminary investigation, it was assessed that the Safety Investigation Authority, Finland would not launch a safety investigation into the matter. A safety investigation is not expected to provide additional information that would lead to substantial safety improvements.
Link to report on preliminary investigation