Donuts at Daycare!!!

Seriously...what is this world coming to???

I have a very good friend who works outside the home and her son stays at a very reputable and widely known private, non-franchised childcare facility in our area. Like me, my friend is quite the planner and researcher when it comes to delving into any new adventure. For example, being the responsible person she is, she began interviewing childcare providers well before her due date when she was pregnant, even while knowing that she would be home with her son for twelve weeks before returning to work and putting him in the care of others.

As my friend did her research for a suitable provider, she would tell me stories about the different facilities she had visited and questions she had asked of the providers themselves. From what she told me, I honestly think she made the very best choice from all that were available. All of this was done around a year and a half ago, as her son is the same age as my daughter - sixteen months.

My friend, I'm going to call her "S," is a registered dietician with a Master's degree (in Dietary Science or whatever it's called). She is one of those people who is conscious of what she puts in her body but not overly picky like some people where you would never see them eating anything considered unhealthy. No, S is one of those fun people who practices healthy habits but also knows that an occasional indulgence never really hurt anyone.

Just like my family has been doing, S has been trying to be even more conscious regarding her family's nutrition and their consumption of organic foods. Although the childcare facility where her son goes provides snacks for the children, S has been sending healthier snacks with her son and specific instructions to feed him the aforementioned snacks. However, recently her son's daily reports (I'm sure there's probably a specific name for these reports but I don't know what it is) have indicated that he is being given the same snacks as the other children: vanilla wafers, Crunch Berries, and a few others that I don't remember right now. Um...let's see here, that equals sugar, sugar, artificial food dyes, preservatives and who knows what else. I don't know because I do not buy those things and haven't looked at any of the boxes for quite awhile now.

S has spoken to the childcare providers about her son not receiving the snacks she sends with him. However, understandably so, she is in fear of being "that parent." You know the one...the parent who makes a fuss about everything - or at least, "everything" in the eyes of the person on the receiving end. I am "that parent" - I know, because I see the looks when I go to a restaurant and ask, "Does that have gluten in it?" or when we go to the doctor or dentist and I say, "I don't really want my son to even be on a prescription but if it's absolutely necessary, it needs to be gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free, dye-free and have no artificial sweeteners." I've seen the looks...people start getting this glazed over look and right then you know that whatever you are telling them is being totally lost somewhere in the deep recesses of their heads.

Speaking of "glazed over," you can imagine S's shock when she walked into the childcare facility one day to pick up her son - or maybe it was a visit, I'm not sure of the specific details of why she was there at snacktime - and the providers were slicing up yeast donuts to give to the children for their snack. Yes, you read that right: DONUTS!!! For. their. SNACK.

Let me clarify something here: I am not one of those parents who never lets my child have any sort of treats. Nor am I a parent who waited until my children were "X" (you fill in the blank with the desired number) years old before they were given something containing sugar or anything so incredibly stringent as those sorts of dietary rules. Yes, I know a few moms who have said their four-year-old has never had a cupcake......yet they will sit there and give them fruit leathers because they're "nutritious" or raisins by the handful. I'm not going to debate that either of those things don't have plenty of vitamins in them, but where I see the problem is that they contain just as much, if not more, sugars in them as a cupcake. The only difference being that the cupcake most likely has refined sugars in it - unless, of course, I am the one who made it using a reformulated recipe to include honey or agave nectar as the sweetener - whereas the sugars in the fruit leather and raisins are naturally occuring. But I'm getting off-track here.....what's new, right? Anyway, the point of this is that I am not an uptight grinch when it comes to my children having sweets and treats. I do allow them - they just have to meet a few requirements.

So back to S and her predicament....

These childcare workers were cutting up donuts to give to the children. Please, please, pleeeeaaaase tell me that S and I are not the only ones who see a major problem with this! First, we are talking about 16-month-old children being given donuts...for...their...snack! That is their snack? Hellooooo??? By the time snacktime rolls around, these children are probably pretty good and hungry. Is a yeast donut really the best thing to be giving a child with an empty stomach? All that sugar is going to go straight into the bloodstream and forget about the lack of health benefits here, it's the next stage of events that would worry me if I was one of the childcare providers. Seriously, who wants to be in a room full of toddlers all hopped up with a sugar rush from donuts? With that many toddlers bouncing off the walls, you may as well go to one of those indoor bounce house places at 7PM on a Friday evening when the kids are all fed and happy and just getting started on the bouncers.

S and I only spoke very briefly about this so I don't have many details but I have to wonder about a few things. For instance, do the parents of the children receive bad (or at least, not as good) daily reports on the days when the children have been given donuts? And if so, have any of the employees made this connection? It seems obvious to me, but then, I'm on the outside looking in. What sort of person would even think giving a toddler a donut for a snack is nutritious? I know that S can't possibly be the only one concerned about this, so are the other parents unaware of what their children are eating or just afraid to speak up? If this kind of thing is acceptable at one of the best facilities around, then what in the world is going on inside the not-so-great ones? Again, I do give my kids treats but let's save the donuts for a time when it is either considered a treat, or perhaps, as part of a weekend breakfast meal and there is also protein and some sort of fresh produce that must be eaten in order to earn the donut.

This situation just reminds me of how fortunate I am to be a stay-at-home mom. No worries about my kids eating things I don't want them to have. No awkward confrontations with people who think I'm being picky about how they are caring for my child. No worrying about whether my instructions for my child are being carried out. Aaaahhh...it's good to just be a mom even if it does mean wanting to pull my hair out some days.

Wow...All of this writing has got me hungry for a late night snack. Now where in the freezer did I hide that last GFCF donut?!?