Feeding the kids, no matter how old they are, is one of the main issues of good childcare.

We hear so many nightmare stories about how children are given a steady diet of chickpeas in one childcare facility, and not enough food in another, a piece of cheese for lunch someplace unlicensed, and graham crackers for every snack in a center, it may be interesting to parents to understand the rules surrounding meals in childcare.

The United States Department of Agriculture Child Care Food Program, better known as USDACCFP has been around since World War II. It was established and designed to amend growth and development problems in America’s poorer children whose parents had to work, and who found themselves in full time care. The program paid child care providers to do it right, and it still does.

The program inspects childcare facilities that are on the program. They reimburse the money spent on food and food maintenance.

Essentially, the program demands that children be fed certain food components at meal times. Meals may not be skipped and must be served in a reasonably timely manner.

The food program is not demanding.

For breakfast, a child needs to have milk, a grain product and a fruit or vegetable.

For lunch, a child needs to have milk, a protein, two fruits or vegetables or one of each, and a grain product.

For snack, a child needs to have one serving from any two food groups – like milk and crackers.

Lots of people are confused about the food program because the food program’s nutrition often differs from individual points of view. For example: a breakfast of eggs and bacon and potatoes and milk would not count as a reimbursable meal, but a breakfast of toast, raisins and milk would. It’s a matter of serving all components which are fruit or vegetable, bread and milk.

It’s the same with lunch. A peanut butter sandwich and milk and canned soup is not a lunch that is reimbursable, but a slice of cheese, a piece of bread, a quarter apple, a teaspoon of raisins and milk fulfills the USDACCFP component list.

As a monitor for the USDACCFP for over ten years, I realize the shortcomings of most people’s idea of nutrition. There’s a steady quarrel at my house about the “food-ability” of things like canned pasta, canned soup, boxed macaroni and cheese, Jell-O, and ready-mades.

“Peanut butter is not a food.” The fight’s on.

Peanut butter is half a protein, and as a legitimate source of protein for a child’s lunch, one must add beans or peas or cheese or egg, so why serve the peanut butter to begin with unless it’s just a snack?

Likewise, canned soup and pasta has no nutritional value. Neither does Jell-O, canned pudding, or most store- bought cookies.

Understanding good nutrition is only half the lesson. That’s the head lesson.

The heart lesson is realizing that food is not a “budget cutter.” Cheaping out on a menu to save a few dollars is about as dumb as it comes because food is an investment in life. Feed a child well, and not only will the doctor bills evaporate, but the adult will also be a healthier person. That’s the heart lesson.

Food is the heart of a child’s day. Food is fun; food is replenishing; food is a discovery.

The best plan for feeding children is to make half of it child-friendly and half of it child-discovery.

Starting in August, menus will be posted at the front of the school. We are going to join the USDACCFP. One of the outstanding agreements we have at the Garden School is that food is a priority. For us, it’s a moral issue, so our menus more than exceed the Federal requirements, and they always have.

If you would like to come and eat with your child, please let us know. We serve our lunches family style, and we would be happy to set a place for you.

When you do it right, you get kids who shoot for the sky. Children who travel the world and do really neat stuff make being an older parent as much fun as being a younger parent.

This week, Edith’s family is visiting. It’s an exciting time for her. Her son, Regis, has a particularly interesting job. He’s a writer and traveler for the Lonely Planet. His web site is on a new links list called “Fun Places to be Links.” You can also visit it by clicking Regis. I hope you enjoy it. Look for his blog Regis St. Louis.

You will find other fun places to be in the next weeks. These are the links we will use for our geography and history classes. So read up and be able to answer your child’s questions!

Here’s another area of the country and more parental discontent. If you read between the lines, you can see the same problems and the same discontent.

Changes Spark Anger At Child-care Center

Thursday, July 28, 2005

By Ben Cunningham

The Grand Rapids Press

CALEDONIA — Changes at the Duncan Lake Early Childhood Center have sparked discontent among parents, but district officials vowed to work on any problems.

The center has seen a new director, a new building and rate increases in the day-care program during the past year. Parents recently outlined grievances over staff turnover during a recent Board of Education meeting.

“We are not getting the services we pay for,” said parent Angie Brown, during a recent meeting, adding that the district is sending mixed messages.

Another group of parents, when asked to specifically define their grievances, said there were “hundreds of problems.”

Beginning Sept. 1, the district’s rates for day care for a child five hours or more per day for four days or more a week jumps from $130 per week to $150. A part-time rate, for three days or fewer a week or less than five hours, rises from $38 per day to $44.

In comparison, Caledonia Appletree Christian Learning Center, a private facility, charges about $175 for five days of care, and Kid’s World Child Care/Learning Center charges about $160 per week.

District officials said the rate hike comes from a variety of causes, most
notably a desire to maintain competitive salaries and an effort to make the
center more self-sustaining.

Assistant Superintendent Carol Nelson-Purkey said bond money has been available to upgrade technology and other items in the general education in recent years, leaving other money to subsidize the Early Childhood Center. She said rates have not increased in more than three years, despite the rising cost of such things as natural gas.

Parents said they object not only to the rate increases but to the way they were informed of the changes, through an impersonal letter delivered just before spring break.

“It is not meant to be for profit, but we are trying to make things self-sustaining,” said Janel Switzer, who took over as the center’s director late last year.

Switzer oversaw the move from the now-demolished buildings on Johnson Street to a new facility in the former high school. She is leading the district’s effort to give the day care a more educational emphasis.

“Since we really are an educational institution, that really is the direction we are trying to take it,” she said.

While some turnover in staffing has taken place, the exact numbers are unclear as district representatives say personnel matters are confidential. Nelson-Purkey said much of the turnover has come because staff members are moving to private facilities that pay higher wages.

Switzer said the district offers training to employees to allow them to better blend with the institution’s newer educational philosophy.

“Change is always difficult,” she said.

“As an employee of the (center), I can honestly say that I felt the pain of our families and fellow workers,” Sheri Maxlow, an 11-year employee of the day care wrote to the board. “The lack of respect that we have all felt has not showed the support we once felt that our district tried to provide to all families in our community.”

Nelson-Purkey says she is meeting with any staff members who are having problems. District officials said they will continue working with parents to address concerns.

A Sunday school class was studying the Ten Commandments. Theywere ready to discuss the last one. The teacher asked if anyone could tell her what it was. Susie raised her hand, stood tall, and quoted,”Thou shall not take the covers off thy neighbor’s wife.”

Our Father who does art in Heaven, hallowed be my name…

Picture? Leah and Holden are both graduates of the Garden School or will be next week. They have been best friends for a long time.

I think this is a really cute picture. It was taken by Jordan Barclay at the Freedom Festival. It’s also for sale.

Here’s an article from Jacksonville, Florida. I was curious about it because that’s where my son and his family live. I found it interesting that they are going through this “fixer upper” mentality about child care just like we are in Evansville with the Welborn Foundation Grant.

I am aso curious as to why it took so long to discover why childcare is such a mess nation wide.

Here’s the article:

By Mark Spain

First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL — The earlier children get off on the right foot to learning, the greater their chances for success later on in school.”We know that children do better when they are prepared at an earlier age,” said Susan Main of the Early Learning Coalition Of Duval, Inc.

The Oaks at Durkeville is one of 14 child care centers participating in the coalition’s pilot program to improve child care facilities in Jacksonville. “It’s gonna trickle down to the children. Our program is getting a boost and we are better equipped,” said Charlene Gross of The Oaks at Durkeville.

By utilizing a five-star rating system, with one being the lowest and five being the highest, parents can easily determine where their child’s facility stands. “The five star center is the epitome in the field. But we’ve set the bar really high and don’t expect many centers to reach it right away,” said Main.

The coalition evaluates the centers on everything from ratio and staff compensation to professional development and parent and family involvement. There are eight areas viewed for the evaluation. “We’re gonna be looking for every opportunity to build this program and help parents and students learn. We’re going forward in a big way,” said Main.

The Early Learning Coalition hopes to include 100 centers in an additional pilot program. Participation in the program is purely voluntary.

This is one of Taylor’s Dad’s photographs he took of us at the festival. He has prints for sale. If you are interested, please let Miss Judy know.

We had a great day that day. It was hot, but sitting in that jet plane and watching all those sky acrobats was really a treasure.

This is probably the best picture of our summer we have. We thank Jordan Barclay.

I get a lot of stories about people who do great things or even simple things from media marketers. I liked this one especially on the eve of receiving three calls for twins today, so in honor of twins, I’m passing it along. I will say that I’ve written for the St. Louis Children’s hospital and their programs on a number of occasions, and they are a wonderful group of people.

By Sheena Quinn

Stevie Sipes’ life-changing journey began in 2003 when, at age 20, she noticed a painful bump on her head. Tests revealed bone lesions throughout her body – on her back, leg, hip, knee, clavicle and other bones. Stevie was diagnosed with Langerhan’s cell histiocytosis (LCH), a rare disease that arises from a defective immune system that cannot regulate itself. Stevie’s case was extremely aggressive and potentially fatal, attacking her lungs and bones, drastically reducing her lung function.

Several rounds of chemotherapy in increasing intensity did nothing to improve her lung function or reduce the lesions. Stevie’s last option was a bone marrow transplant from an exact match to replace her defective immune system with a healthy one. The transplant would also require more chemotherapy in order to prepare Stevie’s body to accept the donor cells. Thankfully, her younger sister was an exact match and Stevie received the life-saving bone marrow transplant. But doctors feared that Stevie would never be able to conceive a child because of the high doses of chemotherapy she would need to receive.

“My doctors told me that I would probably be sterile and wouldn’t have kids after all of the therapy,” says Stevie. “They believed that the high doses of chemotherapy would probably ruin my ovaries.”

Infertility is just one potential late effect, or consequence, of chemotherapy or transplant. Dr. Shalini Shenoy, associate director of the bone marrow transplant program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH) and co-founder of SLCH’s Late Effects Clinic, says, “We at the clinic always discuss this possibility with patients, as well as the other late effects that might develop with treatment.”

At the clinic, Dr. Shenoy worked with doctors to implement a reduced chemotherapy regimen for Stevie and a reduced intensity transplant using antibodies to decrease the incidence of late effects.

After a successful bone marrow transplant, Stevie’s immune system began to regulate itself. The lesions got better and her lung function stabilized and improved. She was able to gradually stop all her medicines.

Then, nine months later, Stevie received a small miracle – actually two; she was pregnant with twins. Less than 18 months after her bone marrow transplant, she gave birth to healthy twin boys Cori and Dalton.

Dr. Shenoy credits the reduced-intensity chemotherapy administered at the clinic for Stevie’s ability to sustain her pregnancy. This type of regimen at the clinic is designed to preserve tissue and organ development, which can be stunted by intense chemotherapy, as well as prevent some of the late effects known to be associated with the treatment.

The Late Effects Clinic aims to help survivors of cancer and other diseases requiring similar treatments to deal with the challenges resulting from their successful treatments by providing comprehensive, lifelong care.

The long-term effects of childhood cancer treatments have come to the forefront of the medical society. Statistics from the National Institutes of Health indicate that 30 years ago only 30 percent of children diagnosed with cancer survived into adulthood. Today, the survival rate has grown to 80 percent, presenting pediatric oncologists with a new challenge – caring for these cancer survivors into adulthood.

Stevie’s success story is not a common one. Many patients have ovarian failure or premature menopause after transplant because the chemotherapy decreases the ability to make estrogen. Hence, Stevie’s story has some encouraging implications for girls facing this kind of treatment.
I hope you are interested in this inspiring story or the long term effects of chemotherapy. I will be in contact shortly. Stevie and her family as well as SLCH’s pediatric oncology experts are available for interviews.