BREASTFEEDING RESOURCES
Breastfeeding resources are important to have on hand for parents, as well as to educate your staff. Here are tips on handling expressed milk as well as resources for parents.
How to Handle and Store Expressed Milk:
- Follow food safety guidelines.
- Expressed milk, infant formula and baby food should never be heated in a microwave.
- Freshly expressed milk can sit safely at room temperature for up to eight hours, but should be stored in the refrigerator or freezer as soon as possible.
- Label all containers (child’s name, date).
- Organize containers. Group by child, with the newest milk in back.
Breastfeeding Resources:
- Equity and Breastfeeding
Texas Breastfeeding Coalition: The Texas Breastfeeding Coalition helps improve breastfeeding rates, ensure that all state and local laws and policies protect breastfeeding, and much more. Child care centers are encouraged to follow the 10-Steps to Breastfeeding Friendly Child Care Centers. The Texas Breastfeeding Coalition also helps people who want to establish a breastfeeding coalition in their community or state.
Breastfeeding Practices and Policies (Center for Disease Control and Prevention): Supportive breastfeeding strategies improve the initiation and duration of breastfeeding. These strategies may include addressing hospital practices, supportive workplace accommodations, and building supportive community environments.
Enhancing Health Equity in Breastfeeding Opportunities and Outcomes (Association of State and Territorial Health Officials): This issue brief outlines how health equity and social determinants create inequities in access to breastfeeding support; illustrates how social determinants of health impact breastfeeding rates; and describes how health equity efforts identify and address barriers to breastfeeding.
Lactation Accommodation for Child Care Providers (California Department of Health): An intention to work full-time is associated with lower rates of breastfeeding initiation and shorter duration. As mothers are often concerned about milk production, it is advisable to have supportive childcare environments. Such environments may include staff educated on supporting the breastfed dyad and surroundings that reduces the mother’s stress.
Reducing Disparities in Breastfeeding Through Peer and Professional Lactation Support (National Association of County and City Health Officials): Through the Breastfeeding Project, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) supports community-level implementations of peer and professional breastfeeding support programs, practices, and services designed to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration.
- Handouts
WIC Breastfeeding Support Resources: Find resources you can download, print, and share with moms to help them learn about breastfeeding, start breastfeeding, overcome common challenges, and thrive with breastfeeding. Includes support materials for dads, grandparents, and friends.
Taking Steps to Healthy Success — Breastfeeding Support: This handout contains a list of tools and information about breastfeeding support. Resources include toolkits and trainings.
- Initiatives & Trainings
Florida Breastfeeding Friendly Child Care Facility Education: The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition, developed a live webinar and online training module (available in English and Spanish) to assist all child care facilities with creating and maintaining an environment that promotes and normalizes breastfeeding.
Healthy Kids, Healthy Future—Support Breastfeeding: This learning module from PennState and Better Kid Care will help ECE providers understand best practices for and benefits of supporting breastfeeding mothers in ECE settings, discover strategies and ideas to create a private room for mothers to use to breastfeed or pump, and learn about resources available.
Kansas Breastfeeding Friendly Childcare Provider Education: The Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition developed trainings for childcare providers that weave together information about breastfeeding and state licensing regulations that pertain to breast milk.
Taking Steps to Healthy Success — Breastfeeding Support: Better Kid Care, through PennState Extension, provides a list of tools and information about breastfeeding support. Resources include off-the-shelf toolkits and guides, videos and trainings, printable and family resources, and self-assessment tools.