As a registered nurse, I found myself primarily working with children who have special needs. One day my 14-month-old daughter had an asthma attack while in child care. The staff never called to tell me at work because they didn’t recognize the symptoms. I arrived that evening to find my daughter having retractions between her ribs. I immediately rushed her to the emergency room where they diagnosed her with atelectasis (a complete or partial collapse of the lung). She was hospitalized for a week.

Finding Help, Finding Hope. That’s the theme of this year’s National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. Awareness Day was created to help focus the nation’s attention on the importance of children’s positive mental health and the essential role it plays in overall healthy development.

Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity for Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies—CCR&Rs as Community Resilience Hubs. This initiative, administered through CCAoA’s emergency preparedness team aims to increase the capabilities of communities working with child care centers and family child care providers in preparing, responding, and recovering from natural disasters and emergencies.

On Friday, April 22, 2016, the USDA announced that it has finalized meal pattern revisions to the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). This rule updates the meal pattern requirements to better align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which was required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

National Infant Immunization Week (April 16-23) is an annual observance to highlight the importance of protecting infants from serious vaccine-preventable disease like whooping cough, measles, and influenza.