ATLANTA — There are plenty of signs that FIO 360 isn’t the typical day-care center, but perhaps most telling are the blue slippers visitors wear to keep out chemicals they might track in on their shoes.
Then there’s the custom- made organic mattresses free of formaldehyde and other chemicals, imported organic wool rugs, organic wooden toys and hormone-free meals made by an in-house chef with organic foods.
The center’s owners bill themselves as the nation’s first “eco-early care” center. Although there’s no way to know whether they merit the title, it’s clear they have gone to great lengths in the name of going green.
The Atlanta center has no PVC plastic products, only natural and organic toys, radiant-heated floors and environmentally friendly cleaning products. Kids here open the day with an affirmation, take yoga lessons and recycling classes, eat meals like red pepper quiche and then round out the afternoon with a massage to help them sleep.
It may seem like a bit much for a group of infants and toddlers, but founder Crissy Klaus says the day-care center’s offerings are more than perks.
“They’re necessities,” she says. “Can you be too safe when it comes to your children?”
Parents’ growing concerns about the environment and their children’s health mean a lot of day-care centers are going green.
The Oregon Environmental Council put together an Eco- Healthy Childcare program encouraging centers to take measures like buying only nontoxic art supplies, restricting aerosol sprays and chlorine bleach, and no wall-to-wall carpeting. The program has so far endorsed more than 230 day-care centers, most of them in Oregon.
“It’s a growing trend among day-care centers — and what parents are asking for,” said Sara Leverette, the program’s director.
It’s an expensive premise. Monthly costs at FIO 360 range between $1,529 for preschoolers and $1,708 for infants. Klaus says her business charges about $35 more a week than other high-end child-care centers in Atlanta.
A half-dozen families have signed up since FIO opened a few weeks ago, some parents saying they were attracted by the building’s cleanliness without the use of harsh-smelling bleach cleansers.
