The horrific damage caused by Hurricane Harvey on the Texas gulf coast reminds us of the profound impact that disasters have on children and adults, resulting in feelings of uncertainty for everyone. Young children do best when their lives have predictable caregivers, schedules, and settings. A disaster can throw all of those things off balance, causing emotional stress and developmental challenges for children.

Helping children get off to a good, healthy start in life is one of the hallmarks of quality child care. It makes sense that quality child care programs would have policies in place that support good infant feeding practices, including breastfeeding.

A solar eclipse will take place on Monday, August 21 for the first time in the lower 48 U.S. states since 1979. During a solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and the Earth and blocks all or part of the sun for up to three hours, from beginning to end. On Monday, the longest period when the moon will completely block the sun—a total eclipse—will be about 2 minutes and 40 seconds and will only happen along the “path of totality” (below).  

Spotlight:

Celeste Joyner, Children’s College, Baltimore, MD

The Problem:

Two vegetarians, one pescatarian (who eats fish but no other meat), five omnivores. How does one provider feed such a diverse group of eaters?

The Problem:

Sometimes an adult (parent/caregiver/early childhood educator) has a temperament that is vastly different from that of a young child. How do you bridge the gap and foster a loving, supportive relationship?

Establishing healthy habits in early childhood is critical to the early care and education setting.  The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is an important part of shaping the meals and snacks that child care providers serve for children and staff of all ages.  New documents and training resources have recently been released by the USDA to help participants with the transition to implementing new meal patterns by October 1, 2017.  In addition to these resources, the USDA released updated payment rates and a new labeling verification tool to help providers plan for meals and credit food more accurately, to make it easier for children to receive proper nutrition at every meal and snack time.