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Deborah Stenseng had an unusual way of comforting infants in her home day care. When they got fussy or wouldn't take a bottle, the Duluth woman opened her shirt and had them suckle on her breast, even though she wasn't lactating or breast-feeding children of her own. Worse, Stenseng deceived some parents about the practice and defied others who asked her not to do it with their children, regulators later concluded. Eventually, a complaint reached St. Louis County authorities, who shut down Stenseng's day care in January and revoked her license in April. "Serious personal boundaries ... were crossed," licensing officials concluded. Though extreme, Stenseng's case reflects an inherent problem in licensed family child care -- a problem that may be linked to a recent increase in child care deaths in Minnesota. Operating with minimal training, spotty inspections and inconsistent rule enforcement from one county to another, home-based providers can engage in practices that range from inappropriate to dangerous as they care single-handedly for as many as a dozen children. Minnesota has some of the leanest training requirements in the nation for in-home child care, according to a Star Tribune review of licensing data. Providers don't need high school diplomas or child development expertise to get licensed. Inspections are required only every two years, and one watchdog group estimates that Minnesota's ratio of inspectors to providers is among the nation's lowest. | 
