Center offers care option when kids are sick

Can you recall someone taking care of you on a day when you were home sick? The smell of steaming-hot chicken noodle soup was almost enough to wash away the sickness. The taste of it: even better.

Chicken Soup, LLC, an innovative child care facility at 3553 University Ave., embodies the qualities of the soup for which it is named. The facility, which is affiliated with UW–Madison’s Office of Family and Childcare Resources, offers services to take care of children who are mildly ill or have a regular child care provider who is unavailable.

“Andrew, my five-year-old, calls it ‘Chicken Noodle Soup,’” says Paula Gates, student parent and program assistant for the Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate. “If my son has a fever, he can’t go to daycare and he can’t go to school. But he can go to Chicken Soup.”

Chicken Soup offers care for mildly ill children, along with programs for healthy children that are similar to those offered by other care facilities.

The facility has a room that accommodates up to four mildly ill children and features a separate airflow system for infection and germ control. Additionally, the center is staffed with a nurse and offers a lower child-to-caregiver ratio, so that mildly ill children can get undivided attention.

Rigel Nebel, a UW–Madison senior who works at the center, says she enjoys the atmosphere at Chicken Soup. “I think it’s a smaller and nicer business, because you know everyone who is going to be working with your kids,” she says.

During the day, the center focuses on activities for children ages six weeks to 12 years, including art projects that can span several age groups.  For student parents who must attend nighttime classes, labs or exams, Chicken Soup offers activities that appeal to older children, such as movie and popcorn nights.

“Coming here is fun, but it’s the extra stuff we do that the kids are really enthusiastic about,” says Becky Ketarkus, who opened the center with Jessica Pindillis in fall 2006. Both are nurses at the UW Children’s Hospital.
Although the center is open to the public, eligible student, faculty and staff parents may receive a sliding-scale discount at Chicken Soup through the Kids-Kare program administered by the Office of Childcare and Family Resources. Funding support for Kids-Kare is provided by Woman in Philanthropy at the UW Foundation.

“Kids-Kare has made it really helpful, since I don’t have to pay full price,” Gates says. “Child care costs are phenomenal.”

Chicken Soup’s owners are opening a second center, Little Chicks Early Learning Academy, 601 N. Whitney Way, for healthy infants and toddlers ages six weeks to three years. “Infant care, in particular, is one of the highest unmet needs of the campus and community,” says Ketarkus. “This facility will really help with that need.” An open house will be held at the new facility from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3.

Parents who need child care at the last minute or know ahead of time that their child care provider will be unavailable are asked to contact Chicken Soup at (608) 233-7373.