Should food companies aim their marketing strategies at young children? It’s definitely a hot topic. When you go to the grocery store, you don’t just have to watch out for the brightly colored toys! Now there’s also Dora the Explorer fruit chews, Shrek Twinkies and Barbie-adorned cereal boxes.

Obviously these products are not intended to attract you- they are intended to get your child’s attention! Not everyone thinks that’s okay. The Better Business Bureau is a name we’ve all heard. But did you know it started an initiative to limit advertising geared toward young children? It wants companies to recognize that children under 12 are more likely to be influenced by advertisements than adults. It’s asking them to use messages that encourage good nutrition or healthy lifestyles.

Many well-known companies have voluntarily set standards for how they advertise to children. In fact, Coca Cola has pledged NOT to advertise drinks to any children under age 12. McDonalds, Hershey and General Mills are among the other companies that have also made pledges. We encourage you to check them out!

Could advertising to children be used in a positive way? Would putting Dora’s face on a bag of carrot sticks encourage more children to eat their carrots? Let’s hear what you think. Post a comment below.

“Jennifer and her husband live from paycheck to paycheck in Missouri. All of the child care that Jennifer has looked at for her baby costs as much, if not more, than their mortgage. Their income is too high to be eligible for any assistance with child care fees from the state. She wishes she could receive help to make child care more affordable.”

Does this sound like your family? If so, there is good reason. Here at The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) we just released our latest report, Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2010 Update. We found the average cost for care for an infant in a child care center is actually more than a family spends on food every year. That’s not really a surprise when you consider another statistic: the amount families spend on center-based child care for an infant is actually higher than tuition and fees for most four-year public colleges.

College is expensive! You save for your children from birth to be able to pay that kind of tuition, and even then if you can’t afford it, you can still get student loans. Child care, on the other hand, is not something you have an opportunity to save for, and you certainly can’t borrow a student loan to pay your child care fees. So, what should happen?

At NACCRRA, we believe that every child deserves high-quality child care, and that families should not be forced to choose between quality and affordability. We support increased investments in quality improvements and child care fee assistance.

Where do your child care costs fit into all this? Be sure to check out our report and comment below with your own stories!

With all of the alarming stories about over-the-counter medicines in the news recently, parents have a lot of questions about dosage, recalls and drug interactions. That’s why we asked Mimi Pappas, Director of Communications & Outreach for Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) to help us out! At some point every child is going to get sick, and as parents we want to make them feel better. Despite common use, administering over-the-counter medications improperly can create serious risks and Mimi had some great tips on how to minimize or avoid those risks.

Mimi emphasized the importance of carefully reading the list of active ingredients on a drug label. It’s especially important to pay attention to this if your child is taking multiple medications at one time so that you do not accidentally give them more than the recommended dosage of any active ingredient.  In the webinar, Mimi explains that many cough and cold medicines contain a fever reducer like acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) and it is important to make sure that you do not accidentally give your child two doses of acetaminophen.

Pay careful attention to expiration dates. Mimi emphasized that once a medication has expired, the manufacturer can no longer guarantee it. That means that it may not be effective. More importantly, if something about a medicine seems a little ‘off’- if it has an unusual smell, taste, or appearance- then you shouldn’t give it to your child even if the expiration date has not passed yet.

Recalls can be scary, and it seems like we hear about them all the time. CHPA recommends checking out the Food and Drug Administration’s website: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls 

If you follow the link you have the option of signing up to receive email alerts when the FDA makes a recall, and as you sign up you’ll also have the option to receive alerts immediately or once a week as well as the choice to specify the type of alerts you are interested in. If you have a medicine that has been recalled, you will be able to check the lot number on the medication and compare it to the products being recalled. 

Mimi also updated us on some *New Labeling* DO NOT use cough or cold medications in children under 4 years old. Because this is new, it is likely that some medications in your house don’t have the warning, so be sure to check with your pediatrician if you have any questions. 

A bottom line recommendation for all parents and caregivers: If you are unsure about something, take the cautious route and check with your child’s doctor or a local pharmacist.

ALL PARENTS AND PROVIDERS: Don’t forget! Put the phone number for the poison control helpline in a visible place and stored in your cell phone.

Poison Control Helpline: 800.222.1222

Missed the webinar? You can still access all of this important information and MUCH more, including information on how to read drug labels, how to safely dispose of medicines and other common mistakes parents make!

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/858909043

For twenty-five years I taught, supervised and directed child care programs. I always enjoyed meeting the children’s grandparents and really admired the grandparents who took on raising their grandchildren. The grandparents really responded to the information I was always sharing about advocating for children and child care. They seemed to see the larger picture and understand how important it is for our society to invest in good quality child care and help working families. They saw their adult children struggling to afford and find good quality care. Many times grandparents changed their work hours or quit their jobs to accommodate caring for their grandchildren.

This Spring I was privileged to work with three grandparents who were among the 43 parents sponsored by NACCRRA to attend its Annual Research and Policy Symposium and advocate on Capitol Hill.

Karen Tomasini from Casper, Wyoming is a grandparent with legal guardianship of both her daughter, who has a disability, and granddaughter (who is now 5 ½).  She tried a few child care centers before quitting her job to stay home with her grandchild. Karen didn’t feel adequate security was in place in the centers she looked at because of the threat of kidnapping by the father, who lost his parental rights.

Karen felt that her experience meeting with her senators’ and representative’s staff was fantastic. They were very receptive to her perspective as a grandparent. Karen had done her research and found that 4 percent of the grandparents in her state have primary responsibility for their grandchildren (http://www.wpen.net/PDF/GPHandbook1106.pdf). Grandparents end up raising their grandchildren due to issues with physical, sexual or emotional abuse, neglect, abandonment, prison, and drug and alcohol abuse. She feels that many caregivers have not had adequate training to meet the needs of children dealing with these issues. Karen shared with her representatives about the need for better training, child-staff ratios and background checks.

During her tough times, Karen sought the support of her minister. They decided to start a support group for grandparents raising a second generation of children. The group is called P2TA (Parenting the Second Time Around). Twenty to 30 grandparents participate in this group each month. Her support group feels that grandparents need monetary assistance, respite care, safe care and teacher training to assist children with challenging behaviors due to their circumstances.

Karen is continuing to advocate for children in her state. She is speaking to the state Child Care Finder Advisory Board this June about the needs grandparents have for better child care standards.

I commend Karen and hope that more grandparents speak up and take action on behalf of their grandchildren and all children. Every voice makes a difference. See what you can do in your community.  Join the CCA Parent Network and take an important first step!  www.ccaparentnetwork.org

For more information:  “Grandparents:  A Critical Safety Net”

The other day, I posted one of my usual missives about the horrible condition of child care in America on my Facebook page. It was just another day in my life in which I try to get people to wake up and smell the coffee about how far we (advocates, parents, child care providers, policy makers, the media, and everyone else) have to go to improve child care. Soon thereafter, and one of my childhood friends who doesn’t really know what I do for a living responded to the post by saying “It’s terrible! And those parents keep on working and sending their children.” I was horrified and quickly deleted the post.

That post made me wake up and smell the coffee about the implications of the messages I send out!  I looked back at my Facebook and Twitter posts, and I realized that I’m not completing the thought! People who don’t know me think I am “anti-child care!” Whhhoooa! I know child care, and when done well, it provides children and parents with many positive outcomes. As a matter of fact, high-quality child care includes developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that make the most of the critical early learning years when brain development is most rapid.  As a working mother and a child care professional, I know it is simply a necessary fact of life for most people in our nation. Clearly, I support parents and their need to work.

It’s true that based on the reports produced by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, I have come to believe that by and large, child care in America is in a deplorable state due to lack of standards, regulations, oversight, and adequate training. I also know, based on my experience as a parent of a child who has been in child care and as a child care center administrator in a multi-site organization dedicated to high-quality early learning experiences, there are examples of wonderful, well-operated programs throughout the country. Because I do know what high-quality child care looks like from the inside, and as someone with experience at the national level, I am passionate that all children and families have the highest quality care.

Why would someone who works on behalf of child care promote negative stories? It seems counterintuitive that advocates would not want to promote the stories of great examples of child care that works. Here’s why I post about negative stories:

• While there are good examples of family child care and child care programs, they are few and far between. The National Institute of Child Health and Development rated only 10% of programs throughout the nation as “good.” It’s hard to build interest based on such a small sample.
• NACCRRA’s studies reveal that parents believe the government is doing its part to protect children in child care, when, in fact, there is an alarming lack of standardization and regulation of child care throughout the country.
• There is a general lack of awareness about child care, and as an advocate, I need to do my part to raise awareness and educate the public.
• The media, policy-makers, and the general public don’t pay attention to the “feel-good” stories.
• The stories of the tragic results of poor child care provide clear illustrations of what needs to be done to improve quality throughout the nation.

I’ve learned that it is important for me to “complete” the thought when I post, so people who read the posts understand that I am not implying that parents should avoid child care, and most importantly, I do not want to make anyone feel guilty about using it.  I also don’t want to perpetuate the chasm that exists between working parents and those who have the luxury of a myriad of choices. As a matter of fact, I am posting in order to encourage people to join me, NACCRRA , and our new Child Care Aware Parent Network to advocate for Federal legislation for better regulation, funding, and oversight of child care through states and the local agencies that are tasked with child care licensing. Learn more about our Policy Agenda , and join us to educate the public and advocate for the world-class child care because 11 million children in child care in America are counting on us.

After 25 years working in the field of early childhood education, I never imagined I would be poised to launch a new national virtual membership organization for young children with an amazing team of dedicated, passionate, and expert advocates at the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. We’re thrilled to lead the development of an organization that will reach parents, grandparents, and other advocates for children through 21st century online organizing strategies. We’re also excited about being at the forefront of finding new ways to mesh this virtual network with the strong and proud history of grassroots organizing that that our country’s child care resource and referral agencies bring to the cause of educating and mobilizing parents.

So, what prompted Linda K. Smith, the Executive Director, and the Board of Directors of NACCRRA, to set out to build an online Parent Network? First, working parents of young children are under-represented in the halls of Congress. The needs of working parents are not clear to our policy makers and are getting lost amidst a sea of highly organized special interest groups. Our research on parents and grandparents suggests that there are clear mandates that are not being heard, and parents’ needs are not being met. Most of all, there are 12 million children who are regularly in the care of someone other than their parents and only 9% of regulated child care settings across the country can be considered  “high quality.”  Because there are few federal child care standards, and state standards are so low and so poorly implemented throughout the nation, children are being hurt, killed, and neglected in settings that are less than high quality. Finally, child care has always been hard to afford for many working parents, but with our recent economic downturn, the challenges are becoming insurmountable. Even parents who make minimum wage often cannot qualify for assistance. Parents are being forced to take their children out of child care. What will become of these families?

NACCRRA believes it is time to represent parents and ensure that their stories are told and heard by the public and by policy makers. Child Care Aware Parent Network is our initiative to gather, organize, and mobilize parents by arming them with great information and tools to help them voice their concerns. This blog space will be devoted to the parents in our Parent Network. Their stories will be brought to you by the insightful staff at NACCRRA and our member agencies throughout the country. I hope you will join us on our journey through this blog as we search for the answers to the complex problems facing working parents throughout the country.

Fran Simon
Chief of Parent Engagement
NACCRRA