Tender Loving Care Inc.

"Aw, Mom, I feel awful! Can I stay home from school?" In the old days, mothers could indulge plaints of colds and other minor ills with plenty of chicken soup and tlc. But in an era of two-income families, few parents can afford to skip work every time Junior comes down with a real or imaginary malady. This dilemma has spawned a new type of day-care facility for children with mild illnesses. More than three dozen of these so-called sniffle centers have opened for business around the U.S., often bearing names right out of A.A. Milne, like Wheezles and Sneezles in Berkeley.

Some sniffle centers employ nurses or other medically trained personnel who know how to treat illnesses and keep them from spreading. Chicken Soup, a nonprofit center that opened in Minneapolis last October, separates children into the Sniffles Room for colds, the Popsicle Room for stomach flu and the Polka Dot Room for chicken pox.

Parents are enthusiastic about the centers. Says Barbara Segal, a sales assistant for a stock brokerage, who takes her four-year-old son Stephen to North Miami Beach's new Sniffles 'n Sneezes: "The hardest thing for a working mother is to take time off. Last time my son got sick at school, I had to take him back to the office with me."

The centers vary widely in price, but most cost far less than a private nurse, who might charge $20 an hour. California's San Juan Bautista Child Development Center, which gets financial help from United Way and the city of San Jose, has fees ranging from nothing to $20 a day, depending on the parents' income. Sniffles Medical Day Care Center in suburban Minneapolis, which serves an affluent clientele, charges $9 an hour.

Most of the facilities are open year-round, but Berkeley's Wheezles and Sneezles closes during the summer. Reason: when school is out and the weather is nice, business falls off dramatically.