Last night I had the opportunity to present a segment of the Childcare worker certification course for the State of Florida, in my area of South Florida. My section covered Health and Safety practices which included SIDS, infant feeding, and hazards. My audience was 12 women already working in a childcare center , but needing the primary certification.
All of the women reported that "more than half" of the mothers that bring their babies in to the center bring pre-filled formula bottles mixed with cereal. All reported bottle-propping as being encouraged by the mothers, and not one worker had ever seen a bottle of EBM.  
I started to feel as though my talk on breastfeeding-friendly childcare was completely pointless as only 1 of the workers had ever even breastfed her own children, and she was actually a bit hostile about it! My point being that none of the childcare workers had good breastfeeding experiences of their own, nor see a pumping mom in their day to day work with infants.
I gave them all a handout on the dangers of bottle-propping, a Medela sheet on proper storage of EBM, and a GREAT fact sheet from Child and Family Canada on promoting breastfeeding in a childcare setting. ( Handout #57, available on line with free to copy permission).  
Although my intent was to work the EBM feedings in with the other topics and relate EBM feeding vs formula to the sections on SIDS and feeding, it was so foreign to these ladies that I ended up leading a 1 hour discussion  just on breastfeeding. 
Thanks for the suggestions I received before the class. I hope to be invited back as the facilitator seemed to enjoy the spirited class discussions and chance for learning about this topic.



Mirine Dye, CCE, CLE
www.keysmama.org

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