Salinas Valley Sprouts

Salinas Valley Sprouts lic. 274415354 has one full time and several part time openings for children 18 months to 5 years old. Play is the beginning of knowledge. At Salinas Valley Sprouts we embrace play based learning, we value time spent in nature, and we believe in strong, capable, and resilient children. We are a Reggio Emilia and Waldorf inspired daycare, we only care for 4-6 children at a time to ensure every child gets individual attention and care. Salinas Valley Spro...uts is a safe space for families of all types, including parents and children of color, LGBTQIA parents and children, immigrant parents and children, and parents and children with disabilities. If you are interested in applying, please visit www.salinasvalleysprouts.com and fill out an application or send me a message here on facebook. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Why do we bang on about the importance of the early years so much? Multiple reasons! Here's another..... bit of a long post, but some topics are harder to cond...ense.... This is all about CO-regulation (connecting with others) and SELF-regulation (connecting with yourself). The ability to self-regulate well as an adult is affected by how well we were co-regulated as a baby. Sound like mumbo jumbo? CO-regulation in this sense, refers to a parents ability to tune in and interpret what their baby's physical and emotional needs are in that moment, and to then respond in a way that connects with baby, allowing baby's overloaded immature brain to get back to a calmer state. The adult body quite literally physically regulates the baby body with closeness, touch, words and tone of voice. It's an incredibly powerful system, but sadly one that is so often robbed by ill informed and out of date books/practitioners who recommend the opposite to parents leaving parents feeling de-skilled, guilty and lacking confidence. You're designed to co-regulate. Actually we all are, even as adults. No one thrives when they have to manage the hardest parts of their life alone. Babies in distress are crying out for co-regulation. "This is too much for me right now. I need external help. If you help me now I'll be better able to help myself later on when I'm bigger." Babies who are left to cry and eventually go silent are not self-regulating. They can't. Babies are unable to meet their own physical and emotional needs. What people often don't realise is that the ability to self-regulate well as an adult starts with how your parents regulated you in infancy. SELF-regulation is your ability to interpret your own needs and specific emotions day to day and then respond to yourself with kindness and get yourself to a place of feeling internally comfortable again, even if situations remain difficult or circumstances have not changed. Effective self-regulation is what helps you manage the inevitable ups and downs of life. A lack of it is what causes people to struggle. Babies do not self-regulate yet. Toddlers do not self-regulate yet. Children do not self-regulate yet (although they are slightly more able to but only small and the amount will vary hugely child to child depending on their temperament). Immature brains need ongoing adult help to figure out what's going on and be helped to feel comfortable again. That's co-regulation in action which leads to the ability to self-regulate later. If you were not co-regulated in the ways you needed as a child you may not know how you do this as an adult. You may not be in tune with yourself. You may find it hard to pin point what's going on. You may not know how to respond to yourself kindly and with compassion when you're struggling (unless you're doing well you might just be hard on yourself all the time). You may just find emotions really awkward and uncomfortable and want to avoid feeling things where possible. You may find it hard to co-regulate with other adults due to all of the above. Babies who felt someone was really there for them and interpreted their emotions and needs well in the early years (*not early months, early YEARS!), will be better able to interpret their own needs and emotions when they're grown up. This is what the world desperately needs. Babies who were responded to in their distress with kindness and connection, will be better able to be kind to themselves as adults, even when they're feeling rubbish. This is where mental health can significantly improve in just one generation. This hard work you're doing now tuning in, it really isn't for nothing.

Read the whole thing... worth it! This passage really hit me as important for parents to know: What Chapman (inventor or the Rock’n’Play) didn’t know was that her pediatrician’s advice was medically wrong. Since 1994 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines have recommended that babies sleep alone on their backs on a firm, flat surface that is free from soft bedding and restraints. The Rock ’n Play Sleeper is not flat, its sidewalls and head support are made of so...ft bedding, and it has a restraint harness. Further, pediatric gastroenterologists have known since before the 1990s that placing babies on an incline does not ease their reflux, says Jenifer Lightdale, M.D., past chair of the AAP’s task force on Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. Sleeping on an incline may even worsen the problem, she says. So what happened? Dozens of babies died, and this is a problem in so many facets of childbearing and rearing, we just go off our doctor’s advice and we blindly trust industry. On average, the medical advice given in the office is 15-20 YEARS behind what the scientific community has published. It actually has a name, The Practice Gap. This is true in our local hospitals, OBs, and so many local pediatric groups. We actually were fired by our pediatrician in 2015 for declining a recommendation that was outdated (give a baby with a normal cold antibiotics JUST IN CASE it turns into an ear or respiratory infection). They treated us like criminals. Of course, always talk to your doctor, but if you want the most up to date information, don’t simply trust your doctor. Local doctors are still recommending incorrect (as in, not evidence based and/or not aligned with national safety/medical orgs) car seat usage, incorrect introduction of solids, incorrect vaccine schedules, incorrect breastfeeding information, incorrect care for intact penises, incorrect information regarding oral ties... on and on... Are doctors awful people? No, they are busy and they aren’t reading medical journals in their spare time. They are also human and don’t like to admit they’ve been doing something wrong, so even if they hear of new evidence, surveys show more that 60% won’t change how they practice. Look for the science, ask what studies your doctor (pediatrician, OB, any doctor) they are referencing when making suggestions, write it down, look at the studies. Find a parent educator or birth/postpartum doula that is an Evidence Based Birth instructor, they are trained monthly in the most recent studies as they come out. As questions in diverse groups like these and consider what is shared as apart of your researching. I hope someday we don’t have to be so vigilant, but right now we must. Oh PS, I totally used this product for my kids, no judgement if you did too, we were all misled. I expect similar stories on Dock-a-tots and similar products years from now.

We have been having the best time watching these little feather babies grow!

Hello! Salinas Valley Sprouts has an infant (under 2y) opening for only Mondays. We also have toddler and preschool (2-5y) openings for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays! Message me if you'd like to attend our tour this Friday!

Salinas Valley Sprouts is expecting! We have 15 freshly hatched chicks along with 15 hatching eggs arriving later this week. I sold off all our chickie supplies a few years ago though... anyone have the basics that they’d like to sell? Feeders, waterers, lamps.

We will be offering tours tomorrow at 10am if you are interested in visiting! Message me for details!

This Latch On may be our last. I’ve breastfed all 5 of my children... it has never been easy. Truth be told I’m not even sure Lyla will latch on Saturday, but it will be a celebration regardless! I have PCOS, Hashimotos, and take blood pressure medication, all lower my supply. I nurse, I pump, we gratefully accept and feed donor milk. EVERY DROP COUNTS! Breastfeeding is not all or nothing! I pump for 20 minutes several times a day for literal drops. I am proud of every bit! I hope you come celebrate every drop with me on Saturday at Monterey Birth & Wellness Center, 10AM and join breast/chest feeding parents around the world in the official Global Latch at 10:30AM! RSVP: https://m.facebook.com/events/monterey-birth-wellness-center/big-global-latch-on-monterey-fair/701813050254572/

IT'S HERE!!! Evidence Based Birth just launched their article on the evidence for routine male infant circumcision! This article was a year in the making, parents deserve objective, unbiased information about circumcision and here it is!

We are making white peach and vanilla jam today!

Play is the beginning of knowledge. At Salinas Valley Sprouts we embrace play based learning, we value time spent in nature, and we believe in strong, capable, and resilient children. We are a Reggio Emilia and Waldorf inspired daycare, we only care for 4-6 children at a time to ensure every child gets individual attention and care. We have 2 openings for children 20 months and older. One is full time, the other is for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. If you are interested in applying, please visit www.salinasvalleysprouts.com and fill out an application.