Pat's Chats


Written this month by Jessica DePan. Jessica has a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education Pre-k through sixth and a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She has twelve years experience in the Childcare field, the last six as a Director. Jessica is also Pat's daughter.

March is National Nutrition Month, and, as we enter into it, the health of the children in our care, as well as all children, is what comes to mind. I was recently at a conference with a seminar on nutrition and health. The session was based on nutrition and healthy eating with children and was presented by Susan Gugliuzza, RNC, MS. She kicked off her presentation with this startling statistic: Infants born in 2000 and beyond will be the first generation to not outlive their parents. I believe it had its intended effect as I sat there to consider how on earth a whole generation of children could be expected to die before their parents. With the advances that we have seen in medicine and technology, how could that be? She continued on by talking about the prevalence of early onset diabetes and heart disease - the leading cause of death in the United States, and it's two major contributing factors - diet and exercise.

As parents and caregivers, we are in the unique position to change children's lives - especially when it comes to diet and exercise. Did you know that a child's food preferences are formed by the time they are 24 months? This means that during your child's first two years of life, you have the power to affect the entire course of that life. By modeling healthy food choices and portion sizes, we can set our children up for a lifetime of good health. By exposing children to lots of different fruits and vegetables we are insuring their health. On the flip side, if we are feeding our children fried food and sweets, they will enter into a lifelong battle, (as most of us do) against these tastes that have been ingrained in their initial eating patterns, to try and be healthy. In Susan's words, "Children are great imitators of their environment." It is a unique opportunity we have, as parents and educators, to change the lives of the children we love so much, for the better, by making healthy food choices that will last a lifetime.
Miss Jessica




Pat DePan,
BS Developmental Psychology
Owner of Care-A-Lot Childcare Centres, Inc. since 1985



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