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Snack Provision

Daycare centers and parents of daycare children are often charged with the task of providing nutritious snacks that are appealing to children aged 2-5 years. By involving children in the selection and preparation of daycare snacks, snack time can become both a fun and educational experience and an opportunity for children to learn about healthy eating, sharing, food preparation, responsibility, and more.

Healthy Snacks

It is a well-known fact that nutritious eating is critical for children’s optimal growth, development, and health. However according to the Department of Health and Human Services more than 50% of snacks eaten by children today are deserts, sweets, and salty snacks such as potato chips. National dietary guidelines stipulate that young children’s diets should consist of selections from at least two of the following food groups: Grains and Cereal, Fruit and Vegetables, Dairy, and Protein.

Selecting Daycare Snacks

With a growing number of potentially life-threatening food allergies among young children, most daycares are now “nut free” environments, responding to the plethora of peanut allergies rampant today. Other common food allergies include allergic reactions to milk, eggs, tree nuts, fish, and soy. For this reason, many daycares require that all snack foods provided for the group from the outside be prepackaged, allowing for the ingredients to be carefully checked and minimizing the risk of trace allergens on a utensil used to prepare snacks made at home (since even trace amounts of an allergic food can result in an emergency situation).

Alternatively, many daycares provide (or ask parents to provide) “healthy” snacks, which keep sugars and salt to a minimum. Since young children are known to be picky rather than adventurous eaters, coming up with ideas for nutritious snacks which the children will enjoy can present a challenge. Fortunately, there are many free resources (on the Internet and at the library) to help daycare staff, parents, and children generate innovative and tasty treats for daycare snack times.

Daycare Snack Ideas

Keeping in mind that the mere presentation of a snack food can turn it into a winner and a children’s favorite (such as cutting up sandwiches into interesting and bite-sized shapes), here are some great snack time ideas for a daycare setting:

•- Cheese sticks

•- Graham crackers

•- Fresh fruit kabobs (fruit on a stick)

•- Canned fruit (applesauce, canned peaches, canned pears, fruit cocktail)

•- Dried fruit (raisins, dried apricots, dried apples banana chips, and more)

•- Rice cakes in all flavors

•- Yogurt

•- Miniature muffins

•- Popcorn

•- Raw vegetable slices or rounds (cut with a fancy knife into mini-designs)

•- Vegetables and dip or Crackers and dip (Kids love to dip, so be creative and come up with your own children’s snack time “dip” recipes)

•- Vegetable slices with peanut butter or cheese spread

•- Jello

Daycare Snack Time Tips

To make snack time a hit, here some daycare snack time tips from the experts:

•- Avoid overly spicy or strongly flavored foods

•- Serve small portions, allowing for second helpings when possible

•- Serve a mixture of hot, cold, and room-temperature snack foods

•- When introducing a “new” food, serve it alongside a familiar food

•- Consider other daycare-provided meals for the same day to avoid repetition (i.e. do not serve cheese sticks for snack when the lunch menu features grilled cheese sandwiches)

•- Kids love finger foods

•- Add excitement and interest to snack time by presenting a variety of food flavors, shapes, textures, and colors

•- Ask children for their own unique daycare snack food ideas, allowing and assisting them to shop, prepare, and present their snack food to the other children

Insect Bites in Daycare

Children’s insect bites are a common occurrence in daycare settings, and next to food allergies, the most common trigger of allergic reactions in children is insect venom, and bee stings in particular. While most daycares are well aware of and have had some experience with children’s food allergies (such as allergic reactions to peanuts, eggs, milk, and tree nuts), and while many daycares provide annual training for staff on how to recognize and treat the symptoms of allergic reactions to foods, the same cannot be said about other types of allergies.

While bee, wasp, and ant stings are painful for any child, for kids who are allergic they can be fatal. Although kids often outgrow insect sting allergies over time if the correct allergy shots are administered (known as venom immunotherapy), the most dangerous allergic reactions are likely to occur in daycare-aged children.

The Buzz on Bee Stings in Children

Insect bites and stings are common occurrences during the late summer and early fall, when insect populations are at their peak. Although most stings don’t pose a threat for the vast majority of children, about 1% of children experience life-threatening allergic reactions to insect and bee stings, which can range from mild allergic reactions to anaphylactic shock and collapse (unconsciousness). Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that can occur within 20 minutes after exposure to a trigger and that can be fatal in just 10 minutes if left untreated.

Symptoms of Bee Stings in Children

Non-allergic children’s symptoms of a bee or wasp sting occur at the site of the sting and include:

•- Pain

•- Swelling

•- Redness

•- Burning or itchiness

More severe symptoms of bee sting allergies and anaphylactic shock in children include:

•- Rapid swelling around the eyes, lips, and tongue

•- Reddish rash or hives

•- Throat constriction

•- Breathing Difficulty

•- Wheezing, hoarseness, difficulty talking

•- Itchiness

•- Stomach cramping

•- Severe numbness

•- Dizziness

•- Loss of consciousness

Expert Advice: Treating and Preventing Bee Stings in Daycare

Physicians offer the following expert advice on how to treat and prevent bee stings and insect stings in children:

•- If stung by a bee, carefully and gently remove the stinger as soon as possible using the side of a credit card or your fingers, taking care not to pinch or squeeze the stinger (which causes more toxin to be released into the skin)

•- Only honey bees leave a stinger behind (as opposed to stings by wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, and other flying insects)

•- Wash the affected area with soap and water

•- To reduce swelling, apply cold compresses or ice

•- To relieve itchiness, pain, and swelling, apply calamine lotion or administer over-the-counter antihistamines such as Benadryl

•- For minor pain relief, use ibuprofen or acetaminophen, or administer a bee-sting swab (bought from a pharmacy) to dull the pain

•- For stings inside the nose, mouth, or throat, transport children to the emergency room since swelling in these areas can cause shortness of breath even in non-allergic victims

•- Educate daycare staff to recognize and treat both regular and allergic symptoms of insect stings

•- Provide annual training for staff on basic first aid treatment, how to treat bee stings, insect bites, and allergic reactions, and how to administer the EpiPen adrenaline auto-injector in cases of anaphylaxis

•- Children with known histories of allergic reactions should carry an emergency adrenalin/epinephrine kit at all times. If a child’s allergy kit is not with them, do not wait for symptoms to occur! Report to an emergency room or call 911 immediately

Through increased awareness and education, your daycare will continue to provide a safe learning and play environment – even when the bees sting!

Allergies in Daycares

Most daycares have had some exposure to allergies, given that the number of children with potentially life-threatening food allergies has skyrocketed in the last decade. While allergic symptoms first appear mild or moderate, a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis can occur within a matter of only 20 minutes after exposure to a trigger. The most common allergies in daycares are food allergies to peanuts, eggs, milk, tree nuts, sesame, fish, and soy, with mere trace amounts of a food resulting in a life-threatening situation.

Consequently, most daycares today are “nut free” environments, and many daycares require that snack foods brought for the group from the outside be prepackaged so that ingredients can checked and to eliminate the possibility of allergen traces on utensils used to prepare the snack. However, most daycare staff and caregivers are not trained to recognize the signs of allergies or to know how to deal with an anaphylactic reaction.

Allergic Symptoms

Various allergies share the following similar allergic symptoms.

Mild to moderate allergic reaction

•- Skin irritation (hives, redness, welts, eczema)

•- Swelling of the face, eyes, lips

•- Itching and tingling of the mouth/throat

•- Cramps, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting

Severe allergic reaction – Anaphylaxis

•- Shortness of breath

•- Tongue swelling

•- Tightness in the throat (respiratory blockage)

•- Hoarse voice/difficulty talking

Anaphylactic Shock (the most extreme form of anaphylaxis)

•- Wheezing; persistent cough

•- Pale and floppy

•- Blue skin/lips/nails

•- Low blood pressure

•- Collapse/Loss of consciousness

Left untreated, anaphylactic shock can be fatal in just ten minutes.

Preventing Allergic Reactions in Daycare

Childcare providers must be educated to achieve a thorough awareness of the symptoms, treatment, and dangers of allergies and allergic reactions, and all staff should receive annual training on how to administer the live-saving EpiPen adrenaline auto-injector. The ingredients of all food packages entering the daycare should be routinely checked, and if there are any doubts concerning food labels, the product should be discarded. The daycare registration process should include a section asking about allergies and this information should be stored in an easy-to-access file and be regularly updated.

Parents play an important role in preventing allergic crises in daycare by equipping their children with medical alert bracelets detailing the child’s allergies and by educating their children to look out for forbidden foods and to recognize their own signs of allergic reaction. If a child has a known history of allergic reactions, it is the parents’ duty to send all appropriate medications and allergy kits to the daycare and to educate staff on how to administer them.

Peanut Allergies in Daycare

Particularly prominent in daycare settings are peanut allergies, with anaphylaxis occurring in 20% of all peanut allergic reactions. Daycare staff should be well aware of the following three methods of treating food allergic reactions:

•1) Antihistamines: For mild allergic symptoms, administer an antihistamine such Benadryl. If this treatment is not effective, further medical treatment is called for.

•2) Epinephrine (Adrenaline): Children with known food allergies should have an “EpiPen” with them at all times to treat moderate to severe reactions.

•3) Emergency Response: If a child shows no signs of immediate improvement after the administration of epinephrine, call 911.

Non-food Allergic Reactions

While the most common triggers of anaphylaxis are food allergies, children may also be allergic to insect venom, with bee stings, wasp stings, and jumper ant stings the most common triggers, followed by bites from ticks and fire ants.

Managing Kids’ Allergies

Fortunately, allergic reactions and anaphylaxis are preventable and treatable occurences. With properly educated parents, children, and daycare staff, fatalities associated with severe allergic reaction can be avoided.

As a day care center provider you need to have a very clear ‘pick up policy‘. After all, in these days of child custody disputes and child abductions you don’t want you or your staff to inadvertently hand over a child to the wrong person.

Sign In/Sign Out Register

Many daycare centers require that parents or other people responsible for a child, like a nanny or housekeeper, sign an attendance register when dropping off a child at daycare as well as when they pick up the child. If the child is absent without you being informed in advance it’s a good idea to check with the parent or child’s caretaker that the child is supposed to be absent. This safeguards the daycare center as well as the child. This is especially important where the parents are separated or divorced.

Separated Or Divorced Parents

In this situation you can’t necessarily hand over the child at pick up time to the parent who brought the child to day care. Very often separated and divorced parents have complicated child care and custody agreements. Unfortunately they don’t necessarily inform the daycare center of any changes to regular arrangements. For example, one parent may usually have the child the first part of the week, and the other the second half. In any particular week however they may decide to change things around because of other circumstances, like a family get together or a work commitment. You need to make sure you coordinate well with both parents to ensure that you don’t upset one or the other by unwittingly handing the child over to the ‘wrong parent’ on the ‘wrong day.’

Even in a two parent household another family member like a visiting aunt or grandmother may come to pick up the child. Of course the considerate parent will let you know in advance to expect someone else, but sometimes emergencies occur and another person may have to come to pick up the child.

Register Of Approved People

Keep a register of approved alternative people who are permitted to pick up each child. Even with such a register you will still need to ask for proof of identity from the substitute pickup person just to safeguard yourself, unless you or your staff know the person well. However it is still a good idea to check with the parent that the substitute is to pick up the child that day. This is especially important in child custody dispute situations. One way of protecting yourself, the child and the parents is to ask substitute pick up people for a password before handing over the child to them.

Late Pick Up

To make sure that children are picked up on time many day care centers fine parents who pick up children later than the agreed time. Some day care providers will even exclude a child if the parents are consistently late picking up. If a parent is unavoidably delayed they need to arrange for an emergency approved person to come and pick up the child.

Emergency Pick Up

Being able to contact a parent or approved substitute quickly in an emergency situation is essential. So make sure that you have emergency telephone numbers of all your parents, and ensure that they have your emergency number as well so that they can contact you in a hurry if necessary.

Remember the clearer your pick-up policy the better. That way your staff and the parents will know where they stand, and it will help to keep the children in your care safe and secure.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever given your toddler Children’s Tylenol because he was crying and you didn’t know what was wrong with him. You wanted to give the child relief, but also, you might want to confess that you were dying to sleep/do your work/give your ears a break. You assumed he was teething. He didn’t have any overt signs of illness, though it’s possible he was coming down with something. So you gave him Tylenol. Is that a crime??

Malicious Medication

Some researchers think so. They believe that medicating children can sometimes be a form of neglect or even child abuse. Over a million children in the U.S. suffer from some kind of abuse, but if you add malicious medication to the brew, the numbers may even be higher. Experts say that this type of abuse has become quite common.

Caregivers and even parents are drugging kids to calm their behavior or to give the caregivers/parents themselves a bit of respite from their childcare responsibilities.

The new trend in medicating children to subdue them was discovered by Denver physician Dr. Shan Yin from the Rocky Mountain Poison Drug Center. Yin studied 1,400 cases of children who were suspected of having been the victims of pharmaceutical abuse during the years 2000-2008. These cases had been reported to the National Poison Data System.

Fifth Category

In these cases, both parents and caregivers were found to have given children cough syrups, cold medicines, pain killers, alcohol, sleeping pills, sedatives, and antipsychotic medicines to their child charges with malicious intent. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, child abuse falls into four categories:   neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse. Now Dr. Yin adds a fifth form of abuse: the malicious use of pharmaceuticals.

Yin spoke to the media about the motives involved in pharmaceutical abuse of children: amusement, punishment, and the yearning for a break from childcare duties.

Probably the most infamous of case histories for pharmaceutical child abuse is that of Caylee Anthony of Orlando, Florida. The prosecutor’s theory is that the 2 year-old died as the result of an ether overdose. It is believed that Caylee’s mother Casey gave her daughter ether so she could leave her little girl and go party with friends.

Dr. Yin said that in 14% of the cases he studied, the children experienced moderate to severe injuries, including death. Yin further stated that there are 160 cases like this each year, including a minimum of two deaths. The physician wants emergency medical personnel and pediatricians to be on the lookout for this new type of child abuse and to employ drug screening where there is the suspicion of malicious medication of children.

Safety is always an issue that is uppermost in the minds of daycare providers. No matter whether the care they provide is from a small home-base, an exclusive private center, or from a local community center, providers worry about whether they have the wherewithal to compete with the newest technology in use by the largest centers and institutions. While there is some truth to the idea that technology can provide cutting edge performance, there is still much a smaller daycare center can do to keep their charges safe.

Make Provisions

Of course, it’s difficult to think about these issues. It’s frightening to think that someone would try to come into a center and harm innocent children, but it’s better to have foresight and make provisions than to fail and regret that failure forever. Once you have some safety measures in place, you will feel more self-confident and the children under your care will benefit from your calm self-assurance.

Start by having an emergency plan at the ready. Most daycare centers have drawn up plans on coping with natural disasters such as fires or tornados, but few have any contingency plans for tragedies of a criminal nature.

In 2006, Carl Roberts IV chose to hit on the one-room West Nickel Mines School because he knew that the school would never suspect it could end up the victim of a homicidal maniac. He also knew the school had no security measures in place and that it would be many hours before any incident would be reported to the police. Roberts shot himself and 5 Amish girls aged 6-13 because he was angry at the death of his premature infant son.

Lessons Learned

The lesson learned from this tragedy is to make sure to have a course of action at the ready and to ensure that all are aware of that plan (parents, students, and teachers) and know how to play their parts. Make sure to coordinate your plan with city authorities. Big schools and institutions may have policemen or in house security people, but smaller centers can’t afford such an expense. However, there is no reason that daycare center directors can’t speak to the local police and sheriff to obtain practical advice about drawing up a security plan. These public servants are there to protect the public. After drawing up your final plan, submit a copy to all relevant authorities.

Once you decide how the plan will go, begin instituting regular practice drills just as you would for fire or tornado emergency procedures. This not only gives the teacher the chance to play out their roles and become familiar with them, but it also helps the children to get used to acting out their parts so that if Heaven Forbid, the worst should happen, there will be no panic and children will perform their roles with confident aplomb.

Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is a series of behavioral activities through which one parent persuades his child to hate the other parent. Such actions make a healthy relationship impossible with either parent and as a result, the child may experience significant and chronic psychological distress.

PAS is a form of child abuse and daycare providers need to watch for signs of the syndrome. When a custodial parent is guilty of this form of child abuse, a daycare provider may witness him/her:

*Actively prevent the other parent from having contact with the child

*Upbraid the other parent in front of the child

*Threaten to throw the child out of the home, stop loving him, or withdraw financial support

*Actively teach the child to reject or fear the second parent

*Make false accusations that the other parent is abusive

General Deterioration

The daycare provider may also notice a general deterioration in the parent/child relationship.

By taking active steps to inhibit contact between the child and his other parent the custodial parent robs the child of his inalienable rights. The parent/child relationship is like a biological and emotional contract that never expires. Each parent has given parts of himself to create the child who is a bit of both parents plus something of himself. Learning about his parents helps a child to learn about himself.

Shared Commodity

It is best when two parents can both give of themselves to the child within the home, but when this is not possible the unfortunate fact is that the child becomes a guest of sorts in the non-custodial parent’s presence. While this is a sad fact, the child should at least be allowed to benefit from the strengths and knowledge of the non-custodial parent and to see that his parents can get along well enough to provide him the idea that they both love him and that they can work together for the benefit of this shared commodity: the child.

Parental Backbone

Pulling together for the sake of the child in terms of parental decisions and emotional/financial support is crucial for the child’s psychological development. Without this firm parental backbone, the child feels a sense of insecurity about his parents’ relationship to himself and doesn’t learn how to bridge the gap between a relationship impasse and mutual concerns. He doesn’t learn respect for those who are different than himself. He doesn’t learn about flexibility. He doesn’t feel that his parents love him enough to set aside their disagreements long enough to give him what he needs. All of this bodes ill for his future interpersonal relationships.