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Day Care Centers Cut Off Babies From Breast Milk
Filed under: Babies, In The News, Childcare, Breast-Feeding
A lot of day care centers don't provide overnight refrigerated storage. Credit: Getty Images
Oh, if only your baby could talk. He or she would be appalled by a report on how few establishments offer breast milk. After all, babies are supposed to get breast milk for at least a year.
Yet, BusinessWeek reports a small study by researchers in Cincinnati suggests too few day care centers, at least in that city, are set up for moms to nurse their babies.
BusinessWeek reports doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center found only 12 percent of infants enrolled in area centers received mother's milk, even though 96 percent of the center directors said they're comfortable allowing moms to nurse.
"We were surprised to find that despite the high staff comfort levels in feeding human milk, only a small percentage of infants were being fed human milk," lead researcher Kristen Copeland, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, tells BusinessWeek.
Of course, moms don't need to nurse their babies. They can pump their breast milk and refrigerate it for ... what's that? A lot of centers don't provide overnight refrigerated storage? That's a problem, Copeland says.
"We know that centers that allow pumped milk to be stored overnight make it easier for women to provide a constant supply of milk for their babies," Copeland tells BusinessWeek, "so if more centers offered overnight storage, it might increase the number of infants who are fed human milk."
According to the Ohio doctors, this is a big deal. About half the infants in the United States are in child care, and 18 percent are in centers.
Researchers called the directors of 167 day care centers, and asked them how many infants at the centers received pumped breast milk, how comfortable the centers' employees were with feeding pumped breast milk and if the center provided a refrigerator or freezer where moms could store pumped breast milk overnight.
Your odds of being able to provide your baby with breast milk increases in centers with the smallest proportion of babies receiving subsidized tuition. It also helps if the babies at the center are predominantly white.
Copeland tells BusinessWeek non-white mothers might not have the chance to pump their breast milk, especially at work.
"The findings speak to the tremendous challenges women face in being able to successfully breast-feed their babies," breast-feeding researcher Dr. Alison Stuebe, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, tells BusinessWeek.
Day care centers can help, she adds.
"For instance, there should also be a comfortable place where mothers can sit down and nurse their babies, either at lunchtime or when they come to pick them up at the end of the day," she tells BusinessWeek.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-10-2011 @ 11:17AM
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5-15-2011 @ 10:53PM
sondbr said...So what?? It's nuts to think that daycare centers are going to have to keep tabs on whose breast milk is whose, etc. If you want your baby breast fed then stay home and do it yourself! You'd think that feeding babies formula was a death sentence!? Babies were bottle fed for years and I bottled fed my kids 30+ years ago even though even then there was a huge push to breast feed. My kids turned out just fine. I was not breast fed by my mother and I'm just fine, too, at age 69!
Reply
5-15-2011 @ 10:54PM
Helen Howard said...Come now. Most moms don't live in close proximity to the day care center so they can run in at lunchtime. There simply isn't enough time to get from the work site to the center, feed the baby, and get back to work. Feeding them when they pick them up. Let them do it in the car or wait til they get home. Center is usually in closer proximity to the home. As for non-working mothers...why are their infants in daycare to begin with? This whole issue is a non-issue, really. But for working moms to pump breast milk...every center should have a refrigerator! Where do they keep snacks and lunch for toddlers? Where do they keep formula for infants?? Ridiculous scenario and I don't believe these centers are without refrigeration.
Reply
5-15-2011 @ 10:58PM
Ann said...If it's that important to mothers to provide breast milk to their babies, then either take the time off from work until all your children are in school or hire a nanny or babysitter to stay in your home and pump the milk.
Reply
5-16-2011 @ 12:02AM
Carol Dye said...I wouldn't want to rely on someone in a daycare center to make sure my baby received my milk. Jeez, doctors can't even get the surgery site right sometimes. I would be mortified if my baby got someone else's pumped breast milk. You have no idea what illnesses or diseases someone else has and once your baby drinks it, it's too late. If it's that important to breast feed your baby, stay at home. There's a trade off for everything in this life.
Reply
5-16-2011 @ 12:12AM
Debi said...I can't believe how many people are so negative about this subject. We have a day care center and if the mother wants us to feed the infant breast milk then that's what we do. If the parent wants us to breast feed before she goes to work then that's what she could do. Moms have to work these days and if we can make their day easier or reassure them we are doing what they ask we do. What is the big deal? What's the problem with all you people who are so negative. FYI I didn't breast feed my children but that was my choice and it is all about choice.
Reply
5-16-2011 @ 7:47AM
CJ said...I am an infant room teacher at a small daycare. Most of our parents are state-subsidized and most of them have to work. We welcome breast milk. There is a small refrigerator in the infant room for snacks, formula and milk, and any breastfeeding mothers can bring their milk. So far, in five years, we have only had four mothers interested. One worked nearby and nursed on her breaks. The others brought in a supply. Sometimes enough for one day, sometimes smaller frozen packages that we could store and thaw when necessary. These mothers are different races and vastly different income levels. I don't think daycare's are the ones forcing babies onto formula. The mother could easily pump and supply us, and those who are serious do so.
Reply
5-16-2011 @ 12:53AM
teresa said...life is full of choices and trade-offs. breastmilk is best no doubt when the mom can provide it and being at least a part time stay home mom is best, and I along with many other mothers I know made it work so that we were home with our babies. If mothers started demanding that day care centers give the baby the mother's milk and did their end of the deal, then day care centers would have give their customers what they expect. Many people these days have babies and don't seem to think about what kind of quality time they'll be able to give a baby. those first years are SO important for bonding.
Reply
5-16-2011 @ 2:21AM
Laura said...I find it disturbing many people have commented that mothers need to stay home if they want to breastfeed their babies. That is just insane! With how much daycare cost they better be able to assit me in breast feeding my kid! "Staying home" is just not a good option for many moms out there, especially single ones. Even if you are not single many families rely on two incomes and it should not be hard for people to know that two incomes are needed in todays world. Especially with this economy its silly for people to say "oh just quit your job."
It is so important for a baby to be breastfeed and if a mother wants to have this option and shes paying a daycare center to watch her baby they should be more than willing to assit you in this. Frankly when I have a baby and the center is not willing to assit I will take my money else where.
Reply
5-16-2011 @ 1:56PM
momstaronstar said...What's the big deal? I am a mother of five, and grandmother of five. All ten of these children were bottle fed. They are healthy, intelligent, and well educated. This should be a personal preferance, and not some "outrageous" situation, in which these do gooders try to intimidate the mothers, and make them feel like some sort of low life if they do not breast feed. I think the whole movement is a crock.
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5-16-2011 @ 4:52AM
robin said...I work in the infant room in a day care and we have plenty of babies that get breast milk.. The mom's pump it and put it in bottles in a cooler or lunch box. Each child has their own cubbies and everything is labled with the child's name. No problems here
Reply
5-16-2011 @ 5:00AM
Kyle said...This may sound harsh; but no one is going to care, or care for, your child like you do; regardless how much you pay them. If you have to work, you have to work, but if you’re choosing between the child and making the Lexus payment, then you’re making a choice. Honestly at the end of life, I've never heard of a parent looking into a child’s eyes, and saying, I wish I had worked more hours. Day care centers make their profit, by maximizing what they charge you, and then paying the least they can for help. So you do NOT always get what you pay for, sometimes you get what they pay for. Sure there are some good ones, But unless your there all the time how do you know yours is, you may think yours is, but remember their job depends on making you think they are good, not on being good. (This from a stay at home dad, that would love to be making 6 figures; but decided to tighten his belt instead).
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5-16-2011 @ 7:06AM
Torrence said...The sign of the times....DAY CARE CENTERS. There were no such places when I was a kid. WHY? Because mothers thought their kids were more important that a JOB. Women today have this idea they can do everything a man can do, are you kidding me. I'll give you an example. I'm 74 years old and when I was 69 I won the SENIORS MASTERS BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP in our area averaging over 230 for 16 games bowled at four different different lanes moving across lanes. No 69 year old female could ever do that. You ladies ought to do the most important JOB for a woman, and that is bringing up the children you bore instead of letting someone else to it for money while you make yours. Think about it. The biggest reason our kids are so messed up is because mom's job is more important than they are.
Reply
6-02-2011 @ 9:51PM
AnnaRain said...torrance--you are an ass. "what 69 year old female can do that?" wow. what 69 year old woman would want to do that? She is too busy doing important things. But if there was one that wanted to they could. Male sexist pigs like you have kept women down for too long. Why don't you have nasty things to say about all the men that wont support their kids? I guess that is the woman's fault as well. I did it all the way it was "supposed" to be. The first man I ever had sex with was my husband. I always followed the rules. But guess what? He was a wife beater and a drug dealer (not something he did before we got married) So I left and had to work. He wasn't supporting his child so I had to. It wasn't a choice. Well it was, I could have stayed home and gone on welfare. I chose to go to work. I also chose to go to school. So I did all three. I would have loved to just have been a stay at home mom. But I had to pay the bills and I chose school (3.6 GPA) so I could get a better job and give my daughter a better life. Let's see a sexist male do all of that. I'll bet that you couldn't have done it--you were too busy bowling. But I am sure you will say that I should have stayed and let the SOB beat the both of us because us woman aren't anything but the property of the husband. If you are married I feel very sorry for your wife. She must be a very unhappy woman.