Keeping Kids Healthy During the Cold and Flu Season

Cold weather doesn't cause colds or flu, but the viruses that do tend to be more common in the winter. Help keep your children healthy by teaching them to wash their hands frequently and sneeze or cough into the bend of an elbow. 

Here's some valuable tips to help you know when to keep your kids home from day care.

Cold and flu viruses are the most common cause of illness in day care facilities. Even if your child has had his/her immunizations, viruses can still effect their immune system and cause colds, sore throats, coughs, vomiting and diarrhea. 

It's not uncommon for children at any age in their first year of group care to experience more infections - possibly 8-12 colds more than if the child was cared for at home (without exposure to siblings or other kids). 

With consecutive years in day care, the frequency of cold and flu illness decreases because children develop immunity from virus exposure. Diarrhea typically occurs once or twice a year in a typical child. 

Child care recommendations for staying at home when a child comes down with a respiratory illness is as follows:

• Prevents the child from participating comfortably in activities

• Results in a need for care that is greater than staff members can provide without compromising the health and safety of other children

• Poses a risk of spread of harmful disease to others 

If a child is suffering with a respiratory illness (cough, runny nose, or sore throat) and fever, he/she should be excluded from their day care program. It's fine for the child to return after the fever associated with the respiratory symptoms has resolved (assuming no fever-reducing medicine is used to control the fever).

Day care staff are E.C.E certified and since Gingerbread House Day Care is a licensed facility, we make certain that all our teachers receive the recommended immunizations, including the flu vaccine. We require all our children that we care for to also receive the recommended immunizations set forth by their pediatrician or medical practitioner. 

The single best way to protect against the flu is to get vaccinated each year and to practice good hygiene...wash your hands and rub them dry. This is a fundamental and it puts the health and safety of everyone in the day care facility first. 

To your child's health! 

Kids Need Water Not Fruit Juice

Fruit juice may taste great to your child, but it's loaded with sugars that can contribute to adverse health conditions like obesity, tooth decay, and overall poor nutrition. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recent recommendations state that fruit juice should not be given to infants under 12 months of age because it offers no nutritional benefit to them. Water and breast milk should be the preferred drink. 

After 12 months of age, the AAP sates that infants can be given limited amounts of juice each day but advices that for all age groups:

• Fruit juice offers no nutritional benefits over whole fruits. Whole fruits and vegetables have nutrients and fiber while fruit juice is loaded with quick processing sugars (this includes fruit juices that have no sugar added).
• Children should not be given fruit juice at bedtime or as a treatment or management for diarrhea.
• For children ages one through 6 years of age it's still recommended to limit fruit juice to no more than 4 ounces per day. Read the label and make sure it is 100% fruit juice, a lot of juices are loaded with sugar and have very little 'real' juice if any. It should also be pasteurized for safety and don't give juice in a sippy cup or bottle, this is very important for preventing cavities.

These are guidelines — and with any guideline, there may be exceptions (if your child is on an iron supplement, for example, your doctor may want you to give it with orange juice). If you have questions about this recommendation, or anything else about what your child should eat or drink, talk to your pediatrician.

Here is the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement on fruit juice: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/139/6/e20170967

Social and Emotional Learning

Meeting children's social emotional learning (SEL) needs in preschool can enable them to thrive mentally, physically, and academically in kindergarten and well beyond into adulthood. 

Developing social-emotional skills during preschool includes being able to get along and cooperate with others, manage strong feelings, focus attention, and persist at challenging tasks.

Social emotional skills developed during the preschool years are important because they are critical for long-term school and life success. Early development of these skills is reached to have a number of positive adult outcomes, including: good physical and mental health, interpersonal relationships, education, employment, and more.

In conclusion, preschool SEL programming has the potential to reduce the school readiness gap and help children become healthy, thriving adults.