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Objectives: This study aimed to analyze menu patterns and food group diversity in daycare centers managed by the Center for Children's Foodservice Management in South Korea. Methods: Data from 18 Center for Children's Foodservice Management centers across various provinces (excluding Jeju Island) were analyzed. We examined 8,796 meals served in February, May, August, and December 2021, focusing on seasonal lunch and snack menus for children aged 3-5. Foods were categorized into 19 groups for lunch and 21 for snacks. The frequency of food groups and dietary patterns were assessed using the Dietary Diversity Score. Analyses were conducted using Excel 2016 and IBM SPSS Statistics version 28. Results: Most lunch menus (89%) included five menu items, with a ratio of grain, meat, and vegetables at 88%. Snack menus typically had one item (57%), with significantly more items in the afternoon compared to the morning (P < 0.001). Regarding snack patterns, 75.2% of morning snacks and 61.1% of afternoon snacks contained only one solid food and drink (P < 0.001). Fruit and milk (22.4%) was the most prevalent pattern in morning snacks, while grain and milk (31%) dominated afternoon snacks (P < 0.001). Only 48% of daycare center menus (all snacks and lunch) included all five food groups (grain, meat, vegetables, fruit, and milk). Notably, only 83% included milk and 57% included fruit. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need to improve food variety and diversity in the Center for Children’s Foodservice Management-managed daycare center menus. Developing more detailed guidelines for menu structure and food composition is crucial to ensure children receive balanced and diverse nutrition.

Particulate matter (PM) pollution is a crucial environmental issue. Considering its adverse health impacts, especially on children's immune systems, Korean regulations require annual PM2.5 measurements in daycare centers. Therefore, we developed a low-cost PM2.5 sensor calibration model for measuring the indoor PM concentrations in daycare centers using long short-term memory (LSTM) algorithms. Moreover, we trained the model to predict the PM2.5 based on temperature and humidity, and optimized its hyperparameters. The model achieved a high accuracy and outperformed traditional calibration methods. The optimal lookback period was 76, which led to a high calibration performance with root mean and mean squared errors, a coefficient of determination, and mean absolute errors of 3.57 and 12.745, 0.962, and 2.7, respectively. The LSTM model demonstrated a better calibration performance than those of the linear (r2 = 0.57) and multiple (r2 = 0.75) linear regression models. The developed calibration model provided precise short-term measurement values for the optimal management of indoor PM concentrations. This methodology can be applied to similar environments to obtain new learning and hyper-parameters. Our results will aid in improving the accuracy of low-cost sensors for measuring indoor PM concentrations, thereby providing cost-effective solutions for enhancing children's health and well-being in daycare centers and other multiuse facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daycare centers are the first spaces where children develop social relationships and enhance their senses through public education. Despite its significance, marginal guidelines are provided for the design of centers in the Republic of Korea (ROK); thus, clients have different perceptions of the priority of functions. To bridge these gaps, in this study, guideline for daycare center planning were established by applying value management (VM), rarely introduced in the ROK. First, importance-performance analysis was conducted to identify the gap between the ideal and status of daycare centers based on the developed framework. The analysis results explain the attitude toward risk perception of end-users and construction practitioners. The VM workshop process was then executed thoroughly, and diverse perceptions of risk factors for each space in the daycare center were moderated to propose a sample drawing and guideline. Compared with existing drawings, the room arrangement was improved for utilization and safety, and materials were developed to increase eco-friendliness and safety. The introduction of VM to establish daycare center guidelines suggested that continuous communication to coordinate perceptions supports the integration of stakeholder opinions based on the required space with reduced risks. The unification of the overall goal with a reasonable solution could be identified through the VM process. However, the lack of top management support and inexperience in VM are hindrances to overcome in the context of the ROK. Therefore, the encouragement of clients' participation actively and systematically in the VM process by establishing governance is necessary to increase user satisfaction and outputs. Based on the importance-performance analysis conducted in the pre-VM workshop, it was possible to identify and compare the differences in perceptions of representative stakeholders. Therefore, it could support the understanding of the interests of stakeholders participating in the project in advance through systematic steps, rather than by simply applying VM. This research provided opportunities for stakeholders who do not experienced VM workshops in the ROK. It helped to identify which part was insufficient during the VM workshop. VM can be used in a more advanced way now that the interests of different stakeholders have been taken into account. Thus, environments in which VM can be applied can be expanded, thereby reducing the cost, as the basic purpose of VM, is increasing information sharing and communication and, in turn, increasing the quality and performance of the output as well as trust among stakeholders. If the guidelines and sample drawing generated in this research are followed in a practical manner, daycare facilities with reasonable building costs and appropriate functionality can be established, as the opinions of representative stakeholders and experts are genuinely reflected. These aspects are an improvement over the existing plans; therefore, they could increase the satisfaction of end-users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Home Economics of Japan is the property of Japan Society of Home Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this research is to assess the neuropsychomotor development (NPMD) of 6- to 18-month-old infants and identify factors that may pose a risk to their development. They underwent NPMD assessments, while the parents/guardians were interviewed through the other instruments. Altogether, 64 infants participated in this research. The results revealed infants with questionable NPMD: 29.7% verified with AIMS and 32.8%, with Denver II. There were significant associations between NPMD and maternal low educational attainment (P =.032); family low socioeconomic status and NPMD (P =.026), verified with AIMS and Denver II (P =.037); stimulation opportunities at home and maternal low educational attainment (P =.00026), socioeconomic status (P =.035), and NPMD, verified with AIMS (P =.02) and Denver II (P =.009). The following were identified as risk factors for NPMD: maternal low educational attainment (the lower her attainment, the more likely for the NPMD to be questionable) and family socioeconomic status (infants from disadvantaged homes tend to have questionable NPMD). Stimulation opportunities at home were also significantly associated with NPMD—that is, insufficient stimulations at home may lead to questionable NPMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to quantify the influence of ventilation methods on children's exposure to indoor particles in a daycare center located in an urban area. The ventilation methods applied to the center were monitored for 1 year. It appears that indoor PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations of the center were basically determined by outdoor conditions. The fluctuations in outdoor particle concentration also affected the ventilation behavior during class. The windows and doors of the classroom were frequently closed during both class hours and nights when the outdoor particle concentrations were at high levels. Statistically significant differences in the I/O ratios were found among the ventilation methods. The PM10 I/O ratio with the closed windows was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than that with the open windows, and when the mechanical fans were operated, the I/O ratio dramatically decreased (p < 0.01). The I/O ratio of PM2.5 showed a similar trend to that of PM10 except for the mechanical fan operation. The filters rated lower than MERV 11 appear to be insufficient to remove submicron particles from the mechanically supplied outdoor air when the PM2.5 concentrations are high, such as during the heating period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pressure differences are a key factor in the behavior of building ventilation and air leakages through the building envelope. Field measurements of the air pressure differences over the building envelope were conducted in 24 Finnish municipal service buildings. The measured buildings were mainly schools and daycare centers, of which half were new buildings and half recently retrofitted. All buildings had mechanical ventilation. The measurements were conducted during 2016–2018. The total number of measurement points was 100, and the duration of individual time series varied. According to the results, the mean air pressure difference was within the range of national recommendations (small underpressure indoors) in 81–89% of measurement points, but some cases experienced either strong underpressure or overpressure conditions. In some cases, the air pressure difference showed a clear stepwise constant behavior, while other cases showed larger temporal variation. The conditions varied between different operating situations and the time of year. The study also supports the current recommendation that air pressure difference measurements should be done as continuous measurements of at least one week duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particulate matter (PM) pollution is a crucial environmental issue. Considering its adverse health impacts, especially on children’s immune systems, Korean regulations require annual PM2.5 measurements in daycare centers. Therefore, we developed a low-cost PM2.5 sensor calibration model for measuring the indoor PM concentrations in daycare centers using long short-term memory (LSTM) algorithms. Moreover, we trained the model to predict the PM2.5 based on temperature and humidity, and optimized its hyperparameters. The model achieved a high accuracy and outperformed traditional calibration methods. The optimal lookback period was 76, which led to a high calibration performance with root mean and mean squared errors, a coefficient of determination, and mean absolute errors of 3.57 and 12.745, 0.962, and 2.7, respectively. The LSTM model demonstrated a better calibration performance than those of the linear (r2 = 0.57) and multiple (r2 = 0.75) linear regression models. The developed calibration model provided precise short-term measurement values for the optimal management of indoor PM concentrations. This methodology can be applied to similar environments to obtain new learning and hyper-parameters. Our results will aid in improving the accuracy of low-cost sensors for measuring indoor PM concentrations, thereby providing cost-effective solutions for enhancing children’s health and well-being in daycare centers and other multiuse facilities.

ObjectiveTo investigate SARS-COV-2 viral clearance and viral load kinetics in the course of infection in children aged 1–6 years in comparison with adults.MethodsProspective cohort study of infected daycare children and staff and their close contacts in households from 11/2020 to 06/2021. Adult participants took upper respiratory tract specimen from themselves and/or their children, for PCR tests on SARS-CoV-2. Data on symptoms and exposure were used to determine the date of probable infection for each participant. We determined (a) viral clearance, and (b) viral load dynamics over time. Samples were taken from day 4–6 to day 16–18 after diagnosis of the index case in the respective daycare group (5 samples per participant).ResultsWe included 40 children (1–6 years) and 67 adults (18–77 years) with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Samples were available at a mean of 4.3 points of time per participant. Among the participants, the 12-day study period fell in different periods within the individual course of infection, ranging from day 5–17 to day 15–26 after assumed infection.Children reached viral clearance at a median of 20 days after assumed infection (95% CI 17–21 days, Kaplan-Meier Analysis), adults at 23 days (95% CI 20–25 days, difference not significant). In both children and adults, viral load decreased over time with trajectories of the mean viral load not being statistically different between groups. Kaplan-Meier calculations show that from day 15 (95% CI 13–15), 50% of all participants had a viral load

Daycare centers (DCCs) are where infants and toddlers (0–4 years old) spend the most time besides their homes. Given their higher susceptibility to the effects of air pollutants, as compared to older children and adults, indoor air quality (IAQ) is regarded as an essential parameter to monitor in DCCs. Recent advances in IAQ monitoring technologies have enabled the deployment of low-cost air quality monitors (LCMs) and single sensors (LCSs) to continuously monitor various indoor environments, and their performance testing should also be performed in the intended indoor applications. To our knowledge, there is no study evaluating the application of LCMs/LCSs in DCCs scenarios yet.Therefore, this study is aimed to assess the response of five types of LCMs (previously not tested) and five LCSs to typical DCCs emission activities in detecting multiple IAQ parameters, i.e., particulate matter, carbon dioxide, total volatile organic compounds, temperature, and relative humidity. These LCMs/LCSs were compared to outcomes from research-grade instruments (RGIs). All the experiments were performed in a climate chamber, where three kinds of typical activities (background; arts-and-crafts; cleaning; [in a total of 32 events]) were simulated by recruited subjects at two typical indoor climatic conditions (cool and dry [20 ± 1 °C & 40 ± 10%], warm and humid [26 ± 1 °C & 70 ± 5%]).Results showed that tested LCMs had the ability to capture DCCs activities by simultaneously monitoring multiple IAQ parameters, and LCMs/LCSs revealed a strong correlation with RGIs in most events (R2 values from 0.7 to 1), but, for some events, the magnitude of responses varied widely. Sensirion SCD41, an emerging CO2 sensor built on the photoacoustic sensing principle, had a more accurate performance than all tested NDIR-based CO2 sensors/monitors. In general, the study implies that the selection of LCMs/LCSs for a specific application of interest should be based on emission characteristics and space conditions.

Only a few clusters of invasive pneumococcal disease have been described globally in children, and most of these cases occurred before pneumococcal vaccination implementation. Two unusual cases of pneumococcal meningitis, occurring in the same daycare center over a 3-day period, were reported. Both cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were sent to the National reference center for pneumococci. In addition, we decided to perform a pneumococcal carriage study on all children and staff of the daycare center to analyze the pneumococcal serotypes circulating in this DCC and to discuss an antibiotic chemoprophylaxis. CSF culture was positive for pneumococcus, and serotype 25A was identified by latex agglutination. The second case had negative CSF culture, but CSF antigen test and gene amplification results were positive for Streptococcus pneumoniae. Serotype 12F was identified by using molecular biology. The absence of correlation between these strains was confirmed by multi-locus sequence typing. In the carriage study, we included 29 children (median age 1.9 years, interquartile range 1.4–2.5) and 10 adults. Among the children, 24 carried Streptococcus pneumoniae (83%). The main serotypes isolated were 23A for 6 children and 25A for 5 children; serotypes were non-typeable for 3 children. Only 1 of 10 adults tested carried Streptococcus pneumoniae (serotype 12F). Despite this temporo-spatial pattern, the cases were unrelated and not due to carriage of a particular serotype. No specific action has been taken for the other children attending this DCC, and no other case of bacterial meningitis occurred.

Background: As a result of the increase in older people covered by long-term care insurance (LTCI), prevention of sarcopenia and maintenance and improvement of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) have become important themes. This study aimed to clarify both the differences in HRQOL in older people with and without sarcopenia covered by LTCI and the correlation between HRQOL and physical function. Methods: Participants were 101 older people with LTCI at a daycare center in Japan. We investigated clinical factors using the EuroQol five-dimension three-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-3L). Analysis was by unpaired t-test, Mann–Whitney U test, chi-square test, analysis of covariance, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Results: Compared to the no sarcopenia group (n = 40), the sarcopenia group (n = 24) had significantly lower body mass index, skeletal muscle mass index, gait speed, EQ-5D-3L, and adjusted EQ-5D-3L (p < 0.05). The EQ-5D-3L showed a significant correlation with handgrip strength in the sarcopenia group (p = 0.02) and significant correlations with gait speed and one-leg standing time (both, p = 0.01) in the no sarcopenia group. Conclusion: We clarified differences in HRQOL in older people with and without sarcopenia covered by LTCI. This information on the interrelationship between HRQOL and physical function may help maintain and improve HRQOL in these people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many children spend considerable time in daycare centers and may be influenced by the indoor microorganisms there, including fungi. In this study, we investigate the indoor mycobiomes of 125 daycare centers distributed along strong environmental gradients throughout Norway. Dust samples were collected from doorframes outside and inside buildings using a community science sampling approach. Fungal communities in the dust samples were analyzed using DNA metabarcoding of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region. We observed a marked difference between the outdoor and indoor mycobiomes. The indoor mycobiomes included considerably more yeasts and molds than the outdoor samples, with Saccharomyces, Mucor, Malassezia, and Penicillium being among the most dominant fungal genera. Changes in the indoor fungal richness and composition correlated with numerous variables related to both outdoor and indoor conditions; there was a clear geographic structure in the indoor mycobiome composition that mirrored the outdoor climate, ranging from humid areas in western Norway to drier and colder areas in eastern Norway. Moreover, the number of children in the daycare centers, as well as various building features, influenced the indoor mycobiome composition. We conclude that the indoor mycobiomes in Norwegian daycare centers are structured by multiple factors and are dominated by yeasts and molds. This study exemplifies how community science sampling enables DNA-based analyses of a high number of samples covering wide geographic areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Among 1–7 years old children the worldwide prevalence of mental disorders is ~20%. Without treatment, the prognosis of such disorders in children is poor. Early intervention is estimated to result in a positive return. However, traditional screening to detect children at need is particularly challenging due to the concerns by false positives. The aim of the current study was to develop a more acceptable though effective method using the existing annual evaluation meetings between parents and teachers in a more systematic and goal directed way. The method should build on the teacher's and parents' complementary knowledge and perception of the child, and fit into the everyday routines in daycare centers. Method: During a period of 6 years, a developmental process aiming for a novel screening method was carried out in cooperation with eight Norwegian daycare centers. After conception of the idea, the framework of the Dialogue Based Early Detection including the first version of the Early Worry Questionnaire (EWQ) was constructed. An iterative process involving parents and teachers completing workshops and subsequent testing facilitated a re-modeling of the method. Results: In the resulting Dialogue Based Early Detection a 36-item version of EWQ was completed by both parents and teachers ahead of the annual parent-teacher meeting. During that meeting the participants should try to reach a consensus whether there was a concern, some uncertainty, or no worry for the child, and which appropriate actions should be taken for a possible follow up. Both parents and teachers reported that the EWQ supported them in verbalizing already existing worries for the child. Teachers reported that parents were better prepared and participated more actively in the evaluation meetings. However, some parents complained that there was too much focus on possible worries. During the testing, challenges of language development, conduct, emotional reactions, toileting, attention, and eating were detected among the children. Conclusion: The Dialogue Based Early Detection method was endorsed by both teachers and parents and holds promise as a tool for improving early awareness and identification of developmental and mental health problems of preschool children in daycare centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista @mbienteeducação is the property of Nucleo de Publicacoes Institucionais and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

BackgroundAmong 1–7 years old children the worldwide prevalence of mental disorders is ~20%. Without treatment, the prognosis of such disorders in children is poor. Early intervention is estimated to result in a positive return. However, traditional screening to detect children at need is particularly challenging due to the concerns by false positives. The aim of the current study was to develop a more acceptable though effective method using the existing annual evaluation meetings between parents and teachers in a more systematic and goal directed way. The method should build on the teacher's and parents' complementary knowledge and perception of the child, and fit into the everyday routines in daycare centers.MethodDuring a period of 6 years, a developmental process aiming for a novel screening method was carried out in cooperation with eight Norwegian daycare centers. After conception of the idea, the framework of the Dialogue Based Early Detection including the first version of the Early Worry Questionnaire (EWQ) was constructed. An iterative process involving parents and teachers completing workshops and subsequent testing facilitated a re-modeling of the method.ResultsIn the resulting Dialogue Based Early Detection a 36-item version of EWQ was completed by both parents and teachers ahead of the annual parent-teacher meeting. During that meeting the participants should try to reach a consensus whether there was a concern, some uncertainty, or no worry for the child, and which appropriate actions should be taken for a possible follow up. Both parents and teachers reported that the EWQ supported them in verbalizing already existing worries for the child. Teachers reported that parents were better prepared and participated more actively in the evaluation meetings. However, some parents complained that there was too much focus on possible worries. During the testing, challenges of language development, conduct, emotional reactions, toileting, attention, and eating were detected among the children.ConclusionThe Dialogue Based Early Detection method was endorsed by both teachers and parents and holds promise as a tool for improving early awareness and identification of developmental and mental health problems of preschool children in daycare centers.

Air pressure differences are a key factor in the behavior of building ventilation and air leakages through the building envelope. Field measurements of the air pressure differences over the building envelope were conducted in 24 Finnish municipal service buildings. The measured buildings were mainly schools and daycare centers, of which half were new buildings and half recently retrofitted. All buildings had mechanical ventilation. The measurements were conducted during 2016–2018. The total number of measurement points was 100, and the duration of individual time series varied. According to the results, the mean air pressure difference was within the range of national recommendations (small underpressure indoors) in 81–89% of measurement points, but some cases experienced either strong underpressure or overpressure conditions. In some cases, the air pressure difference showed a clear stepwise constant behavior, while other cases showed larger temporal variation. The conditions varied between different operating situations and the time of year. The study also supports the current recommendation that air pressure difference measurements should be done as continuous measurements of at least one week duration.

Daycare services serve to prolong aging at home. This decreases both families' care burden and the government's financial burden. We identified key factors in the person-centered approach of South Korean daycare center workers to develop and validate a Korean person-centered care questionnaire. Twenty-one items were developed, and 10 expert interviews were conducted. The items were applied to 271 daycare center staff (19.2% male vs. 80.0% female, mean age = 50.68 ± 11.37 years) to evaluate their reliability and validity. Twenty items concerning intimate relationships and the environment, consumers' self-determination, and home-likeness domains were derived, explaining 40.28%, 10.44%, and 6.97% of the total variance, respectively. The overall tool's Cronbach's alpha was 0.905, demonstrating internal consistency. Inter-rater agreement ranged from 0.221 (fair) to 0.765 (good). This tool will be useful for individual staff members as well as for the National Health Insurance Service's evaluations of service quality at daycare centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common cause of congenital viral infection in developed countries. The incidence of in utero infection is high in pregnant women who are CMV antibody negative. An important infection route is in contact with children who attend daycare centers (DCCs). However, there are few reports on CMV excretion in children at DCCs in Japan. Saliva samples were collected twice during a 6‐month interval from children attending one of two DCCs (DCC1 and DCC2 groups) and from those receiving home care (HC group). The samples were used to quantitatively evaluate CMV using real‐time polymerase chain reaction and to determine glycoprotein B (gB) genotypes. The percentage of subjects who demonstrated CMV excretion in either the first or second sample collection was higher in the DCC groups than in the HC group, with incidences in the DCC1, DCC2, and HC groups of 53.4% (n = 47 of 88), 23.9% (n = 16 of 67), and 12.7% (n = 7 of 55), respectively. Compared with the DCC2 group, the DDC1 group had a higher incidence of CMV excretion and included more subjects with a high number of viral copies. In both DCC groups, the incidence of CMV excretion was highest in children younger than 3 years of age. In all three groups, the predominant genotypes were gB1 and gB3. Based on the higher incidence of CMV excretion in the DCC groups compared with the HC group, it is considered that CMV infection is acquired mainly in DCCs in children under the age of 3. Highlight: CMV infection is acquired mainly in DCCs in children under the age of 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis due to human astrovirus in a daycare center, describing the transmission mechanism, the most affected age groups, conditioning factors and the extent of the outbreak among household contacts of the daycare center attenders. Data were collected from persons exposed at the daycare center and their home contacts. Fecal samples from affected and non-affected daycare center attenders were analyzed for viruses causing acute gastroenteritis by RT-PCR. The percentage of households affected and the attack rates (AR) were calculated. The attack rates were compared using the rate ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals. Information was obtained from 245 people (76 attenders and 169 contacts) of whom 49 were clinical cases. Five HAstV-4, two HAstV-8 and three non-typable HAstV cases were identified (six from clinical cases and four from asymptomatic infected people). The global AR was 20% (41.2% in children aged < 2 years). Data were obtained from 67 households: 20 households of affected attenders and 47 of non-affected attendees. Household contacts of affected attenders had a higher AR (74.3%) than that of non-affected attendees (2.4%). We found asymptomatic infections amongst daycare attendees. The transmission of HAstV during the outbreak was not limited to the daycare center but extended to household contacts of both affected and non-affected attenders.

An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study, of 93 children aged 1-4 years registered in 5 non-state daycare houses in Sueño neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba was carried out from January to May, 2017, with the objective of identifying the risk factors which influenced in the oral illnesses that they presented. To collect the information a schedule was made for this aim and an inquiry to parents and children was carried out, besides the oral examination to the last ones. Among the risk factors the cariogenic diet (96.7%), followed by the use of the baby bottle (59.1%) prevailed; also, the malocclusion turned out to be the most frequent disorder, mainly the increased prominence and the open bite. Although the patients without disorders prevailed, they were exposed to these factors. Therefore, it should be insisted in the previous diagnosis of malocclusions to minimize or to avoid their negative impact on the health of the children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature about early childhood education proposes an interlacing between educating, caring, and playing as a subsidy for the teacher's action. However, those actions and their possible effects on the bond with the baby must be more accurately understood. Our aim is to think of this relationship as the basis for an interested presence of the adult educator. To do so, we will use the topological figure of the Möbius strip on the proposition of a connection between caring, educating and playing, regarded as a single action in the educational work with babies in the daycare center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the three-month closure of clinics and day centers in Iran due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown, parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) became solely responsible for their care and education. Although centers maintained telephone contact, it quickly became evident that parents needed more detailed advice and guidance. Staff from 30 daycare centers volunteered to take part in a two-month online support and training course for 336 caregivers of children with ASD of different ages. In addition to the provision of visual and written information, synchronous video sessions were used to coach parents on the learning goals devised for the children. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected to understand the acceptability of using telepractice and the outcomes achieved. A low dropout rate and positive feedback from parents indicated that they perceived telepractice sessions to be useful. The factors contributing to parents’ satisfaction were identified. Although the use of telepractice would be a good alternative for caregivers in any future lockdowns, it could also be used in conjunction with daycare center services to encourage greater parental participation, or with families living in areas with no day centers. Further studies are needed to compare telepractice to usual daycare face-to-face interventions, and to document its impact and cost-effectiveness for parents and children.

Background In developing countries, the prevalence of giardia- sis in daycare centers is considerably high. There had been inad- equate report of giardiasis in Indonesia. Objective To know the prevalence of giardiasis in children and the number of children with symptomatic and asymptomatic giar- diasis who attended daycare centers at Rancabali tea plantation, Bandung district. Methods This descriptive study was conducted in daycare cen- ters between August to October 2002. Giardiasis was defined as the occurrence of G. lamblia cyst in stool specimen independent from the presence or absence of symptoms. Four of 12 daycare centers were chosen by cluster random sampling. All children aged 1 to 60 months attending daycare and staying for at least 2 weeks were included in this study. Three consecutive stool specimen pre- served by 10% formalin, concentrated by formalin ether, were ex- amined microscopically to find the G. lamblia cyst. Results Giardia lamblia cysts were found in 27 (29%) of the 92 children attending the daycare centers at Rancabali tea plantation (95%CI 20;38.6%). Of these children, 15 showed symptoms such as diarrhea episodes (8 children), diarrhea (5 children), bloating (5 children), abdominal cramp (5 children), and vomiting (3 children). Three children showed mild to moderate malnutrition. Ten children aged 13 to 36 month-old with G. lamblia-positive stool showed such symptoms. Conclusion The prevalence of G. lamblia infection in children at- tending daycare centers at Rancabali tea plantation was almost similar with other place in developing countries. More than half of patients had symptomatic disease

Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and etiological profile of enteropathogens in children from a daycare center. Methods: From October 2010 to February 2011 stool samples from 100 children enrolled in a government daycare center in the municipality of São José do Rio Preto, in the state of São Paulo, were collected and analyzed. Results: A total of 246 bacteria were isolated in 99% of the fecal samples; 129 were in the diarrheal group and 117 in the non-diarrheal group. Seventy-three strains of Escherichia coli were isolated, 19 of Enterobacter, one of Alcaligenes and one of Proteus. There were 14 cases of mixed colonization with Enterobacter and E. coli. Norovirus and Astrovirus were detected in children with clinical signs suggestive of diarrhea. These viruses were detected exclusively among children residing in urban areas. All fecal samples were negative for the presence of the rotavirus species A and C. The presence of Giardia lamblia, Entamoeba coli, Endolimax nana and hookworm was observed. A significant association was found between food consumption outside home and daycare center and the presence of intestinal parasites. Conclusions: For children of this daycare center, intestinal infection due to pathogens does not seem to have contributed to the occurrence of diarrhea or other intestinal symptoms. The observed differences may be due to the wide diversity of geographical, social and economic characteristics and the climate of Brazil, all of which have been reported as critical factors in the modulation of the frequency of different enteropathogens.