Daily HealthBeat Tip

Kids, homes, and day care

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Good child care counts. But a good home counts even more. Researchers have seen that, and the National Institutes of Health has put out a booklet to turn the published research into information that parents can use.

Such as: Is it OK for me to put my little ones in child care, starting soon after they’re born?

The booklet offers some reassurance on that. The NIH’s Dr. James Griffin:

"Children who are in child care are just fine. But there are things like quality of child care does matter. The children do better in terms of cognitive skills, pre-academic skills, things of that nature." (11 seconds)

But what happens after a child comes home is even more important. Parents are still tops in kids’ eyes. For instance, children do better when a mother is sensitive and caring.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 9, 2006

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