Daycares & Discrimination - Round Two 02/21/2010
So I was finally able to get the low down on the menu approval system for daycares. To get to the bottom of things, I had to pressure directors to give me a reason for rejecting Maya. Ninety percent of the time the reason they gave was the fact that they would feel safer if they could eliminate dairy products from their menu for that classroom, but that Public Health Services would not approve the menu unless it had milk in it. Thus the problem. Last week, I had a conversation with one of the nutritionists at Public Health - the people responsible for approving daycare menus. She informed me that there is no such mandate that dictates milk must be present in the menu unless it's for children under 2 whereby that is indeed the case. However, for children over 2 (i.e. toddlers and preschoolers) there should be no reason why the daycare cannot replace milk/dairy items with things that contain the same nutritional values. She also said that they work with some daycares to help adjust the menu to accommodate lack of dairy and that it has been done successfully before. It's baffling as to why daycares are reluctant to implement something that they suggested in the first place. I do not ask daycares to ban milk, eggs, or otherwise, but there have been daycares that said they would feel more comfortable if they banned dairy. These are daycares that already eliminated nuts/peanuts, as well as eggs, from their menu. Many of the daycares I've visited have banned eggs from the entire centre for the sake of one child, yet when it comes to milk, they will not do the same for my child. I am confused as to why daycares would not simply replace dairy with soy derivatives that are already fortified with all the nutrients available in dairy products. In the past year, more than one daycare has mentioned that they think it's "unfair for the rest of the kids" to ban milk from the menu. Yet, they do not think it's unfair to ban eggs, peanuts, or sesame for the sake of one child. What's really unfair is that my daughter's life is put in danger because someone else would be happier consuming what's poison to her. My little girl is not allergic to sesame or wheat, but I had no problem with daycares that eliminated both of those foods. It's perfectly acceptable for her not to eat wheat or sesame if it means another child will be safe. She can eat those items at home. It's a small price to pay to make sure that children are safe. Is my child less worthy than those kids? I don't ask these daycares to ban any food items because I prefer education about cross contamination over banning, but if those daycares are the ones pushing to eliminate the item, what right do they have to decide that my daughter's safety is worth less than the safety of other kids? This, in and of itself is discrimination. It's simple; I believe any allergic child's safety is worth more than the convenience of eating an allergen. With that in mind, I believe any daycare that thinks otherwise has no business being in the child care industry.  1 Comment Birthday Party 02/07/2010
 Yesterday, we celebrated Maya's third birthday at the grandparents' house. This year was the first year that I actually made edible dairy, egg, and nut free treats. To make sure the place was safe for Maya, we decided to take care of the whole food/snacks/treats thing. I made everything from scratch, including the kids' lunches. It was a great party. Both recipes for the cake and cupcakes came from Kelly Rudnicki (Food Allergy Mama). I used the Red Velvet cake recipe for the Dora cake, which was a huge hit with the kids because of the obvious theme, but the adults loved how moist it was and the flavour got rave reviews. For the cupcakes, I used Kelly's Vanilla Cupcake Recipe. Oh and the frosting was Kelly's recipe too. To round out the party I also made several cookies and other snacks. Among those were snickerdoodle cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and wildberry rugelach. My father-in-law fell in love with the chocolate chip cookies (so he's going to get a batch every time we visit). The snickerdoodles and rugelach were so popular that people actually took them home to snack on them later. As for the kids, it was a challenge for us to keep them from digging into the cake with their fingers. They could not get enough of the frosting. It was a miracle that I was able to take a picture of it before the kids started poking holes at it with their cute little pinkies. No one believed that the food was dairy, egg, and nut free. Everything tasted better than the usual cakes and cookies that have eggs and milk in them. I was so pleased and of course my little girl was happy. She got to have her cake and eat it too, not to mention, the presents. We had one very excited little girl. Thank you Kelly! You helped me make my little girl's day and that is worth a lot to me. Food Allergy Mama's recipes are amazing and I have tried many of them. They all taste fabulous. I strongly recommend her book if you like baked goods. I cannot say enough about it. In the meantime, if you want to check out the individual recipes that I made for the party, click on the links below. Snickerdoodle Cookies Chocolate Chip Cookies Wildberry Rugelach Red Velvet Cake Vanilla Cupcakes with Frosting   |
