The Big Apple wants to take a bite out of the amount of juice daycares are serving youngsters, but one critic says it's too much government involvement.
Under new guidelines from the New York City Board of Health, daycares cannot serve any juice to children who are under the age of two years; those two and older can only get four ounces a day of 100-percent juice. The new rules are aimed at cutting childhood obesity. The old rules allowed six ounces of juice a day, and children as young as eight months old could be served juice.
Julie Gunlock, a mother and senior fellow for the Independent Women's Forum, thinks this is too much government involvement.
"They are so in the minutiae of how these facilities are run that they are going to shave off two ounces of juice," she exclaims. "They already are requiring these daycare facilities to be licensed and the workers to be licensed, and I'm sure there are also some ongoing training requirements – and yet that's not enough. We have to then manage that they're only giving children four ounces of juice a day!"'
MyFoxNY reports the new rules also cut the amount of educational TV viewing for children from 60 minutes a day to 30. Children under two years of age aren't allowed any TV viewing.
Gunlock has mentioned to OneNewsNow in past interviews on efforts to combat obesity is that Americans are a sedentary society. Does she feel the TV viewing regulation is a good move?
"I actually personally limit my children's juice consumption. I limit my child's television [viewing]. I make sure they go outside. And we all know kids have good days and bad days. Sometimes, my kids might watch more than an hour of television," she responds. "I know these are daycare facilities and we need to set some standards and that's fine – but again, these [rules] are really getting into the minutiae."
The rules in question don't apply to home-based daycare facilities, which are regulated by the state.