Wednesday, July 06, 2005
I Can't Believe They Asked Us...
(Hey Dr. Cara - I'd love to hear your take on this one!!!)
Let's start this out by my clarifying that I love the Kindercare (KC) that LM attends. I love his teachers, the payments are high but nothing exorbitant, and most importantly, LM enjoys his time there. But I must say, they SCREWED up.
So, last Thursday, DaddyR picks LM up from KC and the director of the center pulls DaddyR aside to ask if it was possible not to give LM any more boobie-milk BM while he was at the center. (Yes, LM is STILL nursing...). She then compounds the issue by asking if it would be okay if they gave LM cow's milk instead.
So, what's the problem, you ask?
Well, there are a few:
Let's start this out by my clarifying that I love the Kindercare (KC) that LM attends. I love his teachers, the payments are high but nothing exorbitant, and most importantly, LM enjoys his time there. But I must say, they SCREWED up.
So, last Thursday, DaddyR picks LM up from KC and the director of the center pulls DaddyR aside to ask if it was possible not to give LM any more boobie-milk BM while he was at the center. (Yes, LM is STILL nursing...). She then compounds the issue by asking if it would be okay if they gave LM cow's milk instead.
So, what's the problem, you ask?
Well, there are a few:
- LM spends 10 hours a day at day care (6:30p to 4:30p), and eats most of his meals at day care. Both DaddyR and I agree that it would be best if he did have some BM throughout the day as it's something we both feel is important. Cutting it out of such a large part of his day seems to be wrong. It seems surprising to me, that a child care professional would request a child STOP drinking BM.
- DaddyR is a vegan++ -- not only does he not eat ANYTHING that has come from an animal, but he doesn't eat processed sugar, wheat, or anything that's not organic - so the cow's milk thing didn't go over very well at all. (On top of that, there's no way they'd give him ORGANIC anything...)
- The reason the director gave for her request was that it's the company policy that if a teacher gives a child another child's BM, they are fired, no questions asked. Even if it was an accident - LM left his milk on the table and another kid picked it up and drank it - the teacher would be gone. (I'm sorry, but why am I paying big bucks ($196 WEEKLY) if the teacher can't keep an eye on my child?)
So anyhow, DaddyR was really mad about this whole issue - he's now wanting to pull LM from his beloved day care. We've worked it out (sort of) with the day care but now the director is on DaddyR's S-list.
*Sigh*
Comments:
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Okay, so from a medical point of view, I can see why they would be freaked if someone else drank LM's BM (all these abbreviations will get enjoyable). Granted we both know (or I'm assuming) that you, robin, have no infectious diseases and that another child will not be exposed to HIV or Hep B (which is prolly why they are worried). However, they don't know this and it seems a policy to expect and prevent the worst - another child drinking LM's BM (technically, Robin's BM, not to be confused with that other BM) and getting HIV or some other illness. That being said, If this was such an issue, they should have made this a policy that all children are not to have mother's breast milk at school. Withholding something that provides nutrition among other immune benefits that mother's milk provides is horrible. And I worked at a preschool, I don't think I've ever seen child drink another's milk, mother's or cow's or rice etc. In fact, as soon as a child stood up, we asked if they were done and if they were, the cup and snack plate was immediately taken into the kitchen and dumped out. It's not exactly brain surgery. I suppose if push comes to shove, perhaps there's organic milk-like liquid LM can have at school and save the BM for evenings and weekends. Good Luck with that!
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