The health, safety and well-being of children is of primary concern for child care providers. As trusted professionals, child care providers often serve as a resource for new parents and families. One of the ways that child care providers can help ensure that children are healthy is to encourage that families follow the childhood immunization schedule. Receiving timely and age-appropriate vaccines protects infants, children, and teens from harmful diseases.

Fireworks went off when I was born…or at least that is what my Mom told me. I think it was more like flares than fireworks.  You see I was born while my Dad was deployed to Vietnam. Apparently, nothing could keep my Mom, a very young mother, from calling her husband about his second-born daughter’s birth. Nothing. Despite his being in a war zone, on a mountain, in a tent, she demanded he know. She picked up the phone from her hospital room, dialed “0” and started from there.  My mom exemplified the type of scrappy determination military families cultivate as they regularly uproot their lives in service to their country and in support of their active duty spouses.

Child Care Aware® of America's Senior Director for Emergency Preparedness, Andrew Roszak, is keeping track of all things disaster-related. He recently authored an in-depth look at recent federal initiatives aimed at protecting children in disasters, which appears at Domestic Preparedness.com.

In May, Child Care Aware^® of America (CCAoA) will begin piloting the Family Voices, Quality Choices resource suite—a collection of child care consumer information and outreach materials—at two Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies for a period of four months. Child Care Services Association in North Carolina and Child Care Aware^® of Kansas have partnered with CCAoA to feature these materials in their consumer engagement efforts.

It was a news article that changed the arc of Carla Wallin’s career. In the early 2000s, the article reported the results of a research study on breastfeeding rates in the U.S. Rates were falling, and the dip was associated with women returning to work or school after giving birth.

Spotlight

Barb Sinner, Barb’s Daycare, West Fargo, ND