Real Food at Day Care
Recently I received an email from a member of our local Weston Price chapter, who was concerned about finding a day care for her kids where they would be fed the nutrient-dense foods that we all know is so important…
“I wondered if you know of anyone in this group who is offering daycare services? My husband and I are looking at daycare options in the GR area and I was thinking how wonderful it would be to have a day care in line with the WAPF and Nourishing Ways line of thought…? Just wondering if it's out there!”
After having done day care in my home for over twenty years, I had a few thoughts to share with her. (By the way, this was one of the best things I ever did. I met amazing kids and parents, many of whom are still great friends; I was able to be home with our kids and earn an income, as well as providing them with playmates at our door every day! Read more about that here.)
So I thought I'd get real with you today, not only about the issue of food at day care, but I'll also touch on a few other stray topics. If you have any other question you're curious about regarding day care situations, feel free to ask in the comments, even if it's not food related. I'll be honest with you and tell you what I think. (As if you thought I'd ever hold back!)
My email response:
I don't know of anyone in the area who does day care with the WAPF approach to feeding kids, however, I can give you some insights on this as someone who did day care for over 20 years…
For the first 18 years, I fed the typical SAD (Standard American Diet) to my family and day care kids. Toward the end of this time, I started taking care of my neighbor, Kathy's, newly adopted son. I knew she was a “health nut”, but thought it was interesting because she never paid too much attention or asked many questions at all about what I was feeding the kids. She's also a naturopath, so I really expected her to end up annoying me with special requests or nit-picking about this or that, but it didn't happen at all. One day when she picked him up I was telling her about a diet I had started on (South Beach), and she gently suggested that parts of the diet may not be all that healthy. I was intrigued, and after I asked a few more questions she shared the WAPF website with me. Long story short, I ended up having a major change of heart about food (read the longer story here: my “food conversion”). Later this blog was born, and I also became a WAPF local co-chapter leader.
As I slowly switched over how I fed my family, I did the same with my day care kids. I never ever gave them anything different than what I fed my own kids (with the exception of raw milk, and only because I wasn't allowed to give them raw milk), so those poor kids had to suffer through my numerous failed recipe experiments the same as my family did!
I share all of that to just let you know that my suggestion is this:
Find a day care person who you feel super comfortable with, who will keep your child safe and give them a fun atmosphere to play with other kids in, who will hopefully grow to love your child, and who you can develop a great relationship with. I ended up close friends with most of my day care parents and always loved their kids and each of their different personalities–many have been and will always be my lifelong friends. If they're not feeding anything too terrible you could remain low key about it as Kathy did, or if you must, you could send food with them; but keep in mind that it's a pain to serve two separate meals each day. (And for goodness sake, don't ask for a lower rate if you do send your child's food each day. When parents are cheap and aren't willing to be generous or at least fair with the person watching their children each day, it puts a bad taste in your mouth. I was blessed with mostly very fair parents over the years, and many very generous too.)
Something important to remember:
Weston Price improved kids' health with only ONE meal a day, so if you're feeding your kids breakfast and dinner and the day care person really only gives them snacks and lunch, they'll likely do fine. You could also offer to send in healthier snacks for everyone now and then, and when she sees the kids going for it, maybe she'll be willing to start buying similar foods.
If you don't go all weird on her, but instead build a relationship and keep the lines of communication open, over time you may end up impacting not just the health of your own kids, but of all the kids who go there and their families!
Her follow up:
“Thanks very much for your reply and your insights from many years of doing daycare. That's great that you came to WAPF through one of your kiddos' mother/family. That was encouraging to hear what you mentioned about even having one meal switched to a WAP-style affected children's health. The day cares we spoke with don't seem all too excited for us to bring in lots of outside food…but you are right that at least we can feed our son nourishing food for the rest of the meals outside the lunch and snacks at daycare.
Thank you also for the thoughts about who to choose for day care. I find that the day cares that we've looked at show you all the shiny parts about the facility, but you barely meet the day care providers who will be spending the whole day with your children…that's the part that seems to matter the most!”
My last reply:
Have you tried in-home day care like what I did instead of a facility? Facilities usually don't pay employees much more than minimum wage, so there's often a big turnover in staff, which isn't good for the kids. No matter where you're looking, though, you should make sure drop-ins are okay. I left my door unlocked *always* and told my parents to come in and not to even knock because we might be downstairs or out in back. (That was easier on me, too, so I wasn't always running up to answer the door when we might've been reading stories or right in the middle of something.)
Any comments? How have all of you handled this issue in your family? Do you have any day care questions for me? If anyone wants to know, I'll tell you what I hated about doing day care, or I'll tell you about the crappy USDA food program guidelines…
More you might like:
Holly says
I try. The doctor’s notes were the most annoying thing for daycare, I’m glad they got rid of that. I had to have a doctor’s note to send her with cloth diapers (bumGenius AIO, very close to what a disposable diaper looks like) and then the food.
But I can say at five, she’s smart and healthy and sometimes sasses the teachers when they spout the “butter is bad” with “Butter is great!” I always say there isn’t a vegetable that can’t be made better with more butter. 😉
KitchenKop says
Yeah, that doctor note thing is BEYOND comprehension, how blind people can be to common sense! Your daughter sounds like my kind of gal. 🙂
Holly says
I have two kids in daycare (the older one just moved on to school) and this is one of the big name daycare centers. With my older daughter, she started daycare at 6 weeks and I brought her lunch and snacks every day and still do provide this for school. The daycare was ok with it when she was an infant, and then when she was 2, they instituted a new policy where I had to get a doctor’s note for her to have her own food. We keep kosher and organic so I just had the doctor write that down. When a new Director came on board, they got rid of the doctor’s note requirement and were more welcoming of me bringing in food.
The trickiest part for my daughter was when they would have birthday celebrations. I didn’t always know in advance if a kid was going to bring in cupcakes, so sometimes she would have her usual snack and the rest of the kids would get cupcakes. I tried to work with the teachers in advance so I could try and provide a safe fun snack for her those days.
She’s now in kindergarten in school and still brings her lunch and her own snacks. We’ve had more problems in school than we had in daycare. The 2 weeks of “nutrition” learning they did was a nightmare, I nearly had a fit when they put fats in the same category as junk food. Grrrr…… And they wouldn’t let her have her pumpkin bread as an afternoon snack because it wasn’t a fruit, vegetable, or cheese. She was crushed. She’s also slipped up a few times and had food that I normally wouldn’t allow but she’s learning. She’s getting better about asking about the ingredients in food instead of her old default of “Is it Kosher and organic?” I’ve had to teach her that sometimes soy and corn syrup can be labeled as organic but still not good to have.
KitchenKop says
Holly,
Wow, how frustrating!!! Good for you for being so on top of it, though. 🙂
Kel
Heather says
I sent lunch most of the time with my child to daycare. I never positioned or explained this as me trying to be “healthy,” I said I just love to make lunch for my child, which is true. I don’t think it has to be insulting if you send lunch and/or snacks to daycare with your child.
KitchenKop says
Hi Heather,
I agree, there are always ways to do things without being insulting, it’s just that it was tricky sometimes to feed all the kids something different, but in the whole scheme of things, not that big a deal I guess.
Kelly
Sarah says
Hi Kelly,
I work as a pre-k teacher at a child care center and you are right about the low pay rates and the high turnover. I don’t mind it too much, as I am trying to get experience since I have my teaching degree and couldn’t find a job at a school this year. However, I could possilby see myself doing in-home daycare when I have kids. What did you like/ not like about it?
Thanks,
Sarah
KitchenKop says
With all jobs there are good things and bad things, but overall I loved it. It probably takes the right personality, because you can’t be a pushover or you’ll hate it because the kids would run all over you, but I established boundaries with the kids right away (firm but kind), so they always knew what to expect and that way we all did great. Everyone could have more fun that way. If you ever have any specific questions for me, let me know, I’d be happy to answer.
Probably the only thing I didn’t like was the rare overly anal parents… Or the rare tough kid. But I always grew to love them, and then it was easier to blow things off. I learned early on to pick my battles, too, the same as with my own kids! 🙂
Kelly
Susan says
This is a little off topic, but it still has to do with kids……
My 17 year old daughter is taking a Child Development class at school. The teacher announced that they would be doing a fundraiser to help buy supplies for the class and that they could either donate $40, or sell the healthy snacks the school has okayed for the $40 instead. Knowing that money has been tight at our house, my daughter decided to sell the snacks.
She went to pick up her “loot” yesterday and after going through the bag of “healthy” snacks, she wanted to give them back, but not knowing if we could afford the $40, she took them anyway. When I picked her up that day she was quite upset about what the school had deemed healthy: Rice Krispie bars, hot fudge sundae flavored Pop Tarts, Gummi bears and Cheez-its.
She asked if we could afford the $40 so she could turn the food back in because she said she wouldn’t feel right about selling these items to to her kids because, as she put it, “Somebody has got to stop feeding my generation this crap”!!!
So yes, coming up with the $40 will be difficult for us, but I am so proud of her for feeling so strongly about this, that I will sacrifice whatever it takes to help her make her statement. Besides, as she so eloquently pointed out, selling these “healthy” snacks on behalf of a Child “Development” class seems like an oxymoron!!
Sheesh, she makes me proud! We switched to real food 5 years ago and I have been talking non-stop about thier benefits since. I didn’t realize my blabber was sinking in, but am so, so glad that it has!!
KitchenKop says
Wow, I am so proud of her, too!!! 🙂
Magda says
When I did in-home daycare for my little one, I let the lady feed my son breakfast, snacks and lunch. It wasn’t too bad: she did eggs for breakfast most of the time and lunch was always protein and veggies. Snacks were goldfish.. oh well. He did okay.
My younger one was at home till he was almost 1.5 so no problems there!! Our nanny fed him what I left in the fridge. Now that he’s at daycare, I do bring his own food: breakfast, both snacks and lunch. Their food is awful: mostly canned or frozen, and very, very processed. No eggs for breakfast – EVER!! Hardly any fresh fruit at all… My little one does great: he loves avocado and sauerkraut, eats most veggies and does not complain if I don’t give him bread with breakfast LOL!! My older one now decided he no longer wishes to have lunch at school the one day he used to.. up to now he only took sandwiches for lunch (which are still better than cafeteria food!) but now he wants warm lunch as well!! He watched me make noodles carbonara for my younger one this morning (rice noodles, cream, Parmesan, egg yolk, bacon.. drool….) and said he wants that, too!!
Sorry for the long post.. this is definitely a tough subject.
Tiffany says
This is something close to my heart since my kids are in school or in daycare. Right now I am using a mom and not a daycare facility or even an in home daycare. I send my daughter’s lunch but I don’t worry if she gets snacks from the sitter since she is getting a nutritious and WAPF breakfast, lunch and dinner. For the kiddo in school it is a bit different. The school lunch program is slowly undergoing changes and even though they are fighting it they are starting to produce homemade meals and even a local foods day once a month where the meat comes from a local grass fed cattle (who do practice the WAPF diet). On homemade days and of course local days she will eat lunch at school in order to help them and encourage them to do more homemade meal days. I actually told the ladies who serve the food the only days my daughter is allowed to eat the school meals are those days.