Daycare and Cancer Article

The BBC reports a link between daycare and leukemia.

It brings back a lot of memories about a little girl named Shelby we had at our little school in Evansville, Indiana. Shelby had a pernicious case of leukemia that would require a bone marrow transplant.

Shelby was three when she started with us and seven when she left. She was placed with us to increase her immune system with contact with the other kids. Her parents hoped she would make it to age eight, because that was the optimum age for the transplant.

Her disease did not increase while she was with us, and in fact got a little better. Today, she lives in Nevada and is doing OK. She has not had the transplant.

I think one of the things parents forget is that kids need to get dirty. They need to swap germs and learn to fight off regular children’s illnesses.

Part of that is getting dirty. I go round and round with some parents over dirt. Dirt is a signal that children are playing, and that’s what children should do – play.

Here’s an older, popular column on dirt:

Would you let your child climb to the top of a giant pile of soft dirt and then tumble or slide down on all fours? If your provider allowed this activity in day care would you be upset?

If ordinary playful dirt creates a division in the philosophy of day care between parents or providers, now is the time to talk it out. Summer vacation is nearly here, and a spotless summer could be a big bore to your child and a nightmare for you and your provider.

When parents and providers take great pains to keep children spotless for the sake of another adult, children get a message: casual grime and anything sticky but soap must be the enemy to hands and faces. That, in turn, turns kids off toward arts and crafts. It hypes feelings about being outdoors, and a paralyzes children about eating wonderfully messy stuff like ice cream sundaes.

Agree now about clothes. Spotless, neatly tucked clothes are confining Even the soles of their shoes are suspended from dirt because children are carried everywhere. This can perpetuate a helplessness in children. The child begins to resemble the keepsake doll in the blister pack.

Kids aren’t toys; kids are people, and people get dirty. It’s the real effect of real play. Good providers know that and encourage parents to send children in washable, durable, and comfortable clothes that can take a stain--cheap replaceable T-shirts, and above the knee pull on shorts are wonderful; it’s all they need.

Providers who don’t offer children a variety of messy fun because messy is too much trouble because messy might give a wrong impression of the right kind of primary care are depriving children of exposure to necessary discovery that answers questions about the world of nature and the relationship of natural properties.

Imagine the parent or provider who carefully builds a sandbox for the children to play in, and then tells them to stay out because sand is dirty. That’s like buying finger paint to stand on a shelf as a decoration.

When children find painting, gluing, paper mache and clay a challenge because of clothes or a fear of getting hands dirty, the joy and fun of investigating disappears in adult preening and self consciousness: kids miss out.

What should kids be playing with?
Sand and water
Wet clay
Make-up
Paint
Paper Mache
Cooking batters

In other words, if your provider sends kids home in the summer time looking like they just climbed out of Peter Pan’s swamp, three cheers are in order. Kids are having fun and exploring summer stuff.

If you’re provider’s idea of fun, however, is a brand new video--run for your child’s life. In fact, if the TV goes on at all during the summer between 7:30 and 5:00 run. There is too much to do to waste time on TV.