Feb 04

When is the Right Time to Introduce Healthy Food to Your Child?

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You’ve heard the news reports. Child obesity is on the rise. Children are developing diabetes that was once primarily seen in adults. Then on the opposite end, you may have read reports emphasizing that young children need fats for their development. There is little mention of eating whole foods. So how do you beat childhood obesity and diabetes, but still provide for your child’s developmental needs?

First Introduction to Food

At around six months of age you may begin introducing solid food to your child. Here we go …You may either choose to purchase your baby food or process your own. If you purchase the ready-made” baby food, ensure that the ingredients are natural. What is the trick to knowing this? If you don’t know what the ingredients are, don’t buy it!

This is where healthy eating habits begin. Start with one type of food source at a time to ensure your child doesn’t have any food allergies. You may choose avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, and pears to start. As your child is still drinking milk, most of the protein and fats will be received in that form. A few months later you then may begin introducing protein from meat or vegetarian sources. So far, it’s pretty simple, right?

As Your Child Grows

Deciding on a healthy diet for your toddler is most likely going to be based on your eating habits. They mimic what they see, so be careful. Whether you are a vegetarian or a meat eater, it doesn’t matter; your child will eventually pick his or her own path. What matters now is providing your child adequate fat and protein for brain and overall development, as well as whole foods to prevent diseases. Avoid those sugary fruit snacks and opt for healthy choices:

  • Fat and Protein – Red meat, eggs, fish, milk, or vegetarian choices. Remember your child needs good fats when making your choice of protein.
  • Vegetables – Tomatoes, spinach, peas, and carrots are the top choices
  • Fruits – Choose only those in season to ensure freshness
  • Unprocessed foods – Whole grains and whole wheat

Continuing the Path to Health

Once establishing healthy eating for your child, he or she will most likely continue on this path. Yes, other children or adults will introduce your child to candy and the greasy fast foods like hamburger, but having a good foundation is what builds a healthy child. Your child will eventually make his or her own decision on what type of food to eat – but a healthy foundation is never forgotten. And the biggest trick to healthy eating for children – NEVER deny them something they want to try. Let them try the food they desire, but explain to them what they are eating. Try it. It may shock you when your child reaches for the apple on the counter, and not the candy brought home from some birthday party…!

 

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Feb 04

Easy Ways to Put Health into the Holidays

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Valentine’s Day is just around the corner – there always seems to be some holiday or other where cookies and the like begin to sprout out from every corner!

As the obesity epidemic increases in our society among the children, we as parents are responsible for what our children consume. We make them breakfast. We pack their lunches. We cook their dinners. We do the grocery shopping for snacks. We are in control of keeping our toddlers and young children on the healthy path of good eating. After all, what they are allowed to consume now will determine how they will eat and how much excess body fat they will carry as adults.

Even if you have been preparing healthy meals and snacks for your toddler or young child throughout the year, the holidays have a way of sneaking in and sabotaging healthy eating habits. It becomes a season of baking, and cookies are often the choice of food related gifts. Of course, you can’t control what others give you. What you can control is your whether your child will eat these items.

Eliminate ingredients with no nutritional value in your baking

You can take mostly any recipe, and make it healthier for your little one. By having healthy treats available, your child will be satisfied and not beg for the unhealthy “treats” in the gift bags of nice red heart-shaped wrappings.

Natural sugars are already something found in your little one’s diet, so the last thing you want is to intentionally add more sugar to their tiny bodies. Additional sugars will only begin the process of multiplying the amount of fat cells that their body has. This is something that will affect them now; as they grow, and even as adults. So the choices we make for our little ones now can determine not only their adult weight, but their future health as well!

Another item you want to eliminate is processed and high fat ingredients. Processed food, as the name implies, is processed and not natural to your child’s body. These foods contain chemicals that are known to cause heart problems and cancer, so why would we want to predispose our precious children to this?

Substituting unhealthy ingredients for healthy ingredients

With all that in mind, here are some few changes that can increase the nutritional value of the cookies you bake:

  • Take out the white baking flour and replace with whole wheat flour
  • Use unsweetened applesauce instead of white or brown sugar
  • Use unsweetened applesauce to replace oil and/or butter
  • Use organic, raw, natural peanut butter for peanut butter cookies
  • Use vanilla for extra flavor when replacing sugar
  • Use cacao nibs in place of chocolate chips

These cookies will not only be healthy, but your child (even your significant other) will not know the difference – honestly! The cookies may be a little bit moister than cookies made with hardened oil, but who says cookies have to be crispy? Your child will love it – and you will love yourself more for giving your child the best start in life. Do you have other healthy recipes? Share them with us!

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Jun 14

Vary Your Veggies & Other Nutrition Tips for Child Care Providers

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There’s a new movement in the U.S. designed to bring parents, educators and child care providers together with the shared goal of ensuring healthier foods are available for children at every meal and regardless of where the meal is served.

What makes this federal effort different from others is the all-inclusive nature of it. It provides definitive solutions for the adults responsible for nutrition in a child’s life. In many ways, it’s inviting parents, child care providers and other educators to come together with a shared goal of instilling better food habits. It’s also kid friendly with rhyming or “sing song” jingles that kids love to memorize: “Go lean with protein” and “Vary your Veggies”.

Child care providers are discovering “activity parties”. These parties serve a host of purposes. From burning off that restless energy kids are known for to encouraging sportsmanship, it allows little ones to burn off some of that restless energy while also encouraging sportsmanship. Some child care providers have even introduced relay races or other age-appropriate competitions, complete with a prize, in order to further their efforts.

Child care providers have always encouraged parents to send healthier snack choices. The worst thing a child care provider wants to deal with is a group of four year olds who have just consumed an overload of sugar. Now, these same providers can take a pro-active approach when looking for cooperation from parents. There’s even a colorful flyer available for download on the government site nutrition.gov. Approaching parents can sometimes be a challenge, and certainly when broaching certain topics. These flyers eliminate much of that discomfort.

From the parent’s perspective, there are specific tips and recommendations for raising healthier children. New guidelines also encourage frozen, canned and dried fruits when fresh choices aren’t available. There was a time when many in the medical community thought canned fruits offered no nutritional benefit. Now, though, nutritionists say canned is fine when fresh fruit isn’t available. For parents, there’s a fantastic source of information on the site, Especially for Moms. It’s informative, current and can be a powerful tool for moms and dads looking to ensure life long healthy eating habits.

The bottom line is we have one shot at raising healthy kids who, in turn, raise their own healthy kids. The decisions parents and child care providers make today will have life-long effects.

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Nov 17

Networking and Your Child Care Business

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Anyone not in the daycare business can’t grasp the concept that child care providers can sometimes feel a bit isolated; after all, they’re surrounded by people all day, even if they are young children.  It can happen, though and in fact, it happens often.  This is why networking is so important.  Networking can do a lot more than allow providers the opportunity to chat with like-minded people.  Referral agencies, associations and local chapters of national branches of various groups can help you grow your business, provide information that you might otherwise never know and of course, provide a bit of sanity among adults who “get it” after a long day of a dozen four -year olds with head colds.

Perhaps the most important reason for joining your local referral agency is due to the fact many parents will consult these agencies in search of the right child care facility.  They know these agencies will not only be able to provide legitimate and safe facilities to bring their children, but they also know this is where they’ll discover those less than ideal businesses they should steer clear of.  This makes your community’s referral agency an invaluable tool in your marketing efforts.  There is a national agency, Child Care Resource and Referral, and you can visit the site at www.naccrra.org.

Inclusion on the roster is easy and you’ll want to provide at least the basic information, including:

o   Years in business

o   Hours of operation

o   Phone number, address, etc. and a website if possible

o   Your accounting methods – you can provide the Alpha Cares website address if you’re one of our customers and if not, you can visit the site and see for yourself the advantages we offer over other child care provider accounting software.

o   The ages you accommodate – for instance, 6 weeks to 12 years

o   Your child care provider’s licensing information

Of course, your local Better Business Bureau should be in your crosshairs, as well.  Join the BBB and you will have a powerful advocate who will verify your credentials and serve as an excellent source of networking and marketing efforts.

Even if you have a waiting list of eager parents, keeping up with your networking efforts will keep you – and your business – in the loop for all the latest legalities in this industry.  It can also provide countless opportunities to learn the latest “must haves” for playground equipment, new snacks on the market and all those other countless details that you work to ensure are perfect.  Don’t forget to visit Alpha Cares – we offer the latest and most inclusive software for daycare providers on the market.

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Feb 01

Reassuring Parents

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You chose child care for a reason: you sincerely love children and have a lot to offer them.  You might have been blessed with the art of patience (and for many of us who lack that graceful ability – we envy you), you have an ability to educate and you work fiercely to protect children.  It’s those new stories in recent weeks of child abuse, neglect and even murder that has your skin crawling and your heart breaking.  Odds are, parents are more than a bit concerned over these horrific displays of human nature and evil.  So how do you reassure them that your child care center is safe and your employees are just as dedicated to protecting children in their care as you?  It’s a tough dilemma, to be sure.  There is a graceful way, however, of approaching the subject that while awkward, can put many of your parents at ease as they leave their most precious in your charge.

Often, it’s not what you say, but what you do.  In fact, it’s those non-verbal cues that parents are looking for.  It’s your responsibility to ensure the bases are covered in your child care business.  If your business hasn’t adopted a mission statement, you might want to consider that.  A mission statement guides the actions of the business and defines the purpose of that business.  In the case of a day care center, that purpose is to provide a safe and nurturing environment for those children trusted to your care. It might also include assurances of your vigilance to hire only those most qualified with no criminal background and ideally, an educational background in child development.  Mission statements are prominently displayed in a company’s reception area or near the entrance and always in plain sight.

Reiterate your position on unannounced visits during the day.  A transparent approach is crucial in a child care center and parents should know you welcome these visits.  It puts their minds at ease and reiterates your dedication and commitment.

Believe it or not, a too-stringent approach might send off red flags.  Any child care center that has rules that are too difficult or too strict is alarming in many ways.  Parents respect structure; however, when a child who was only moments earlier chatting away and singing while in the vehicle with Mom arrives and immediately “falls in” to the rules and becomes silent due to the regulations of the child care center is a bit disturbing.  There is a balance between little ones who come in and put their coats on the hook and those children who come in and prepare for a rigorous structure.  It’s not natural or healthy.

Anytime injuries or death, such as those cases out of Chicago and Kansas in recent weeks, are in the news, we all shudder.  A healthy line of communications between you and the parents who trust you will go a long way in alleviating their fears and concerns.  You know your intentions are good and when parents of those left in your care know it too, it’s a win-win for the children whose well being is the priority of you and their parents.

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