Cathy Stanworth meets a mum who is starting out as a childminder with an emphasis on health.

Rebecca Walsh with daughters Paige and Stevie

Organic veg and other food has become a mainstay of supermarkets as well as specialist stores.

Now Shropshire mum Rebecca Walsh, who runs her own organic baby clothing business, is branching out into organic childcare.

Rebecca will be offering healthy organic food and the youngsters will be encouraged to help harvest the family’s home-grown fruit and vegetables during the summer months. 

Rebecca, who lives with her husband Steve and their two toddler daughters, Paige and Stevie in Telford, plans to source most of the food locally. 

She already sells organic bamboo and Natura Pura baby clothes, bath and skin care products, bedding and even bamboo nappies through a website, www.my-organicbaby.co.uk 

After giving up an additional business to care for her two little girls and having finished doing up her property last year, Rebecca felt the time was right to expand into organic childminding. She has been accepted by Ofsted and will be caring for under fives. 

She has a specially planned routine for the children, including attending local playgroups three times a week, and they will have use of a dedicated playroom, separate eating and craft area, open plan living area and outdoor play area and also their own cots in a sleeping area fitted with organic baby bedding. 

As well as a super healthy organic menu, they’ll also be able to enjoy trips out. So why has Rebecca decided to go ‘all organic’ with her childminding? She said: “I’ve decided that rather than just offer a normal childminding service, I’m going to carry on the theme of my-organicbaby.co.uk” 

“I would like to hopefully get the children involved with helping pick our own strawberries and raspberries to encourage them to know about healthy eating and showing them what we are picking is going into what we are making.” 

She spent most of her free evenings over two months last year training. She is now a paediatric-trained first aider and has taken child protection training and the Telford & Wrekin Council childminder training.

“I’m also booked to do a food hygiene course, which you don’t have to do that but I feel it’s important and registered my kitchen with Environmental Health.” 

She’s also booked in Early Years Foundation training, stages one, two and three. Rebecca said: “In fact I think I’m booked on about 12 courses next year, and then you can train and get a degree.” 

The remaining courses including fire safety and fire prevention, among others. 

Rebecca is a strong believer in childminding at home now, rather than using nurseries. She said: “For me, I wasn’t really keen on nurseries. Paige went in from three months to nine months and I just felt she needed more one-to-one attention and so I moved her to a childminder.”