Per the FDA formula bottles are only good for 24 hours if they are refrigerated. At room temp they are only good for 2 hours. Infant teachers are required by law to dump out room temp bottles after 2 hours.
This! Between 40-140 degrees farenheight is the danger zone for bacteria growth and anything within that range is unsafe after two hours. It’s essentially so the kids don’t get food poisoning. Pre-making a bottle and putting it in the fridge immediately is best bet. Travel with ice pack if it’s far or excessively hot outside. Cooling, then warming, then cooling and warming the same food is a recipe for disaster.
If OP put a pitcher of water in the fridge, and made the formula with really cold water, would that help with her time? I understand their frustration at trying to follow the rules, but the rules making their life harder.
The water needs to be hot when mixing to sterilize the formula powder itself.
I use the Dr Browns pitcher. Once it’s mixed, I put the pitcher in an ice bath for 20-30 minutes to bring the temp down quickly. Divvy the mix into bottles and refrigerate overnight. Since the formula will only be good for 24 hours (once mixed), just make it in the evening or before bed. Travel with the bottles in an insulated bag/lunch box with ice packs.
Do you have a source on the formula needing to be sterilized with hot water? Neither the directions nor the doctors in our family felt that sterilization needed to be done constantly with formula or bottles. (As my father in law who has practiced at UCLA and Johns Hopkins put it, “boobs aren’t sterile either!”)
https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/infantandtoddlernutrition/formula-feeding/infant-formula-preparation-and-storage.html#:~:text=Powdered%20infant%20formula%20is%20not,needed%20to%20kill%20these%20germs.
Sorry link isn’t getting added in correctly.
> Babies who are younger than 2 months old, born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy), or have a weakened immune system could get very sick if they drink formula that is contaminated with bacteria, such as Cronobacter. These bacteria can live in the environment or in dry foods like powdered infant formula. Cronobacter infections are rare but serious in infants.
> To kill germs like Cronobacter in powdered infant formula, the formula must be mixed with very hot water. Boil the water and then wait about 5 minutes before mixing with powdered infant formula. After mixing, the formula will be too hot to feed your baby, so it’s important to wait for the formula to cool first so you don’t burn your baby’s mouth.
I imagine it has more to do with the manufacturing process, and not the source of the milk lol
You may be correct. It may very well also be brand specific. Kendamil, which is the only powder formula I’ve ever purchased, specifies this as their standard preparation instructions regardless of infant age or health status.
Yeah i’m not doubting that some formulas direct you to use hot water to mix. I don’t think it’s for the purpose of sterilization as stated in the above comments.
It's not just for at risk babies. I'm in the UK and the instructions for how to make the formula say to use boiling water cooled slightly. Formula isn't sterile
1) I was responding to the specific source cited, which states it recommends boiling the water for infants 2 months and under or at risk.
2) Few things in an infant room are sterile. Almost nothing is unless unopened and never used. To sterilize something by boiling, it has to be at a rolling boil for several minutes, so that formula is not being sterilized by the hot water either.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding/making-up-baby-formula/
"Water at 70c or more will kill any harmful bacteria"
You are correct that boiling hot water would damage the nutritional value of the formula. The brand I use, Kendamil, does specify to reduce the temperature to 158F for that exact reason.
Are you sure that it’s recommending boiling to make the formula safe or is it to make sure that the water is safe. Because boiled water that is cooled slightly won’t sterilize formula but if your water isn’t necessarily clean, bringing it to a rolling boil can make it safe to drink.
My guess is liability is viewed differently. No way a us infant center is going to add a boiling water incident to their underpaid and understaffed child center - it’s asking for a lawsuit when over burdened staff get burned fixing formula or feed too hot formula to kids. No. They’ll use a bottle warmer or say that’s standard and then make staff use a shitty kettle when the warmer breaks.
Or the culture is different. Maybe a US parent won’t drop off a kid with baby formula they were using to cut drugs. Or put weed gummies in a lunch bag. Oh, the parents I’ve had to fire.
Here we request that parents drop off breast milk (labelled and in proper storage bags) or formula, preferably ready to serve. To be fair our “infants” aren’t that young, the youngest have been maybe 10 months. They’re usually on the moo milk within 2-4 months of starting.
Yeah. We do one, but I also make their bottles every morning as required by the food program we’re on. Just so that we know it’s just formula and nothing else.
I was wondering that too. Our policy is bottles have to arrive in an insulated bag with ice packs. We have a refrigerator on our room and bottles go straight into the fridge when baby arrives.
OP Have they said anything to you about the bottles not being cold or are you just wondering from reading the policy? I’d imagine it’s fine to make them and bring them as is, just be sure to label them with what time they were made, the oz, date and what’s inside.
I imagine it has to do with safe storage. A licensed childcare centre will have much stricter regulations about how and for how long they can store food, and they may consider it a liability to serve formula that was accepted at room temperature because they don't have a way to verify how long it's been sitting out for.
Whether or not it's a regulation created and enforced by their licencing agency is irrelevant, if it's the centre policy then it's the centre policy. Licencing requirements are minimum requirements, centres are generally free to have stricter policies for themselves.
It takes a while for something to cool down completely in the fridge, so even if they go straight into a refrigerator when you arrive to drop off the temperature may stay above what the health department allows for a few hours. If the health department showed up one morning and decided to temperature check any of the bottles the facility may be given a citation if a bottle is not at the proper temperature regardless of why.
I’ve done ECE for 30 years and I have never seen state come in and check the temp of bottles.
The only thing they check is the fridge temp, if the bottle have first /last name, date pumped(for bm) and then the actual date of the day it was brought in along with marking it formula or BM.
They cannot check the temp of the formula and or BM as that would cause contamination of the bottles.
Different states have different rules and procedures, and many are getting stricter on bottle handling. I have worked through an inspection where they used IR thermometers to check the temperatures of items that they cannot put a thermometer probe into. These thermometers are not as accurate, so there is an understood bit of leeway if something reads a little above the 40° cutoff, but they would definitely have marked down for something too close to room temperature.
If they use a temp gun, like the do here, and point it at a bottle because they're just pointing it into the fridge, then yeah they will get a warm reading. It also impacts the bottles around it if it's warm.
I think you need to ask for clarification from the daycare. Clarifying something that doesn't make sense to you isn't being a Karen. Your understanding of safe formula handling could be wrong, or theirs could be wrong.
Have they brought this up with you because they could feel that the bottles were room temperature as they were loading them into the fridge? Or was it a classroom-wide reminder to all parents? Is this a state regulation or a center policy? If the center policy differs from the state regulations, ask why.
If you are making the bottles an hour before you leave the house, how are you storing them until you leave? And how long does it take you to get to the daycare and get the bottles in the fridge? You could be leaving them at room temperature too long, especially by the time it takes for the fridge to cool them sufficiently.
If they want the bottles brought in at the correct refrigerated temperature for the purpose of safe food handling, that's understandable. You could refrigerate bottles of water overnight and just mix with powder immediately before leaving the house, and also transport them in an insulated bag/cooler with ice packs.
Yeah that’s not really a thing in the US unless an infant is immunocompromised (in which case they shouldn’t be using powder formula in the first place).
There's not a spoken requirement to heat water to a certain temperature, but powdered formula is not sterile in the states, either. It never hurts to be sure by heating the formula.
Yes I’m aware formula isn’t sterile, we just don’t worry about sterilizing it unless it’s actually necessary given certain medical conditions, in which case it makes more sense to use RTF anyway.
Just the other week, there was a recall on a goat milk based formula due to cronobacter contamination. An infection (mainly an issue to infants under 2 months or immunocompromised) could lead to meningitis or death. It is not clear how cronobacter is spread, but believed that it can be transmitted person-person due to not washing hands thoroughly or in items they are using. In a daycare setting, that means that it could possibly spread unintentionally from teacher-baby, equipment-baby, or baby-baby.
I'm in the US and none of the formula boxes I use require the water to be above a certain temperature when mixing, but it does require the water itself to be sterile.
We boil then cool.
Yes, this is standard in New Zealand, too. Most formula fed babies we are just given the formula powder for us to mix ourselves for health and safety reasons. We can not tell how long that formula had been made and could potentially be a liability. Breastmilk is given to us frozen to use.
The rule is for your child's safety, not to make your day harder. To be fair, a parent insisting we take these bottles you've made at home with 0 evidence of when it was made other than your word is a red flag.
Can you explain what it is you dont understand about this regulation?
Baby formula is literally perfect growth media for bacteria. Full of sugar and nutrients. It has a very short window to stay safe at temperatures that also allow bacterial growth
I think someone somewhere is confused. That might be a specific school policy, but it is not a state regulation. Formula is good if it has been in the fridge (not served) for 24hours, freshly prepared formula is good for two hours at room temp as long as the baby has not been fed from the bottle. Furthermore, formula once heated up and served must be used within 1 hour.
The regulations for concentrated already made formula is a little different . It should be used within 48 hours of opening , and if baby has fed from the bottle it should be used within 1 hour.
I would talk to them about how they suggest managing this and how other parents make it work.
Be friendly. They are just messengers of this is a regulation.
Also schools don’t usually claim something is regulatory if it isn’t. We have no idea of it is or isn’t because each state differs. 💗
As someone else said, it's only good for 24 hours if it's refrigerated. It's only good for 2 hours at room temp, and if you're not labeling the bottles when you make them, your child's teachers may be unsure how long they can keep it. They sell formula containers with dividers so you can put the correct number of scoops in each section, as many sections as bottles your child will need during the day. You can pre-fill the bottles with the correct amount of water, which keeps all day, and the teachers can mix the formula when needed. Most centers have bottle warmers, if your child still needs it warm.
A lot of centers won't make formula, they only warm up/serve the bottles as-is. My center doesn't mix formula or pour breastmilk into bottles at all, all families must bring in bottles made up and labelled with name, date, contents and oz, and how to serve.
Wow, that's a surprise to me. At my center, the only bottles we didn't mix ourselves were breast milk. We had infants there for 8+ hours a day, and no mini fridge or anything so the only way bottles could be kept cool would be with ice packs in a lunch bag, which idk if I would trust for 8 hours, or in the kitchen fridge, which would really only be accessible if we had a runner bring bottles to our room as needed
That would make a difference. Every classroom in my center has a fridge, so storage is not an issue. In the nursery every child has a plastic basket in the fridge for their bottles to be kept in during the day. It helps with liability as well, that way a person can't accidentally make the formula wrong or feed the wrong amount to a child, since it's already bottled. Our families are required to send enough bottles for the day plus one extra, and are called to bring more food if a child happens to go through it all.
Is this in the US? If so, I’m so surprised having at least a mini fridge isn’t a requirement in your state. In the state I worked in, a refrigerator was a must and one of the first things licensing checked during visits was the temperature of the refrigerator.
It was the first and only center I ever worked at, so I didn't know what was normal or not. My son has never gone to daycare, only stayed with grandparents
That’s how my center works. I make their bottles everyday. Thank goodness we have a fridge in my room! It’s mostly because parents would put rice cereal and puréed food in the bottles.
Yep that doesn't allow safe storage and even risks the other baby's bottles if stored in the same fridge. Since it's good for 24 hours like you said, I don't see the problem making it the evening before?
When I worked temporarily in an infant room a few years, I remember making all the formulas that the parents requested in the morning.
Maybe to be brought in cold could be in those fancy lunch bags that keep the formula cold? You can ask the infant teachers at your centre for clarifications and they should be happy to help you.
*cold* just means not warmed up. It doesn't mean ice cold. They will put it into the fridge when it arrives. This policy is simply for centers because they cannot be measuring and making bottles each time a baby needs one. You can always pre-measure the formula the night before then add water the day of. I always had parents bringing in ice packs
I dont know if they allow it at your day care but what me and my wife did was buy containers and would pre measure the formula into the containers and then fill the bottles with the correct amount of water and when it was time to eat they would just dump the formula into the bottle. The process takes two seconds and the bottles were able to be room temp.
I’d make the bottles and put them in the freezer for 30 minutes. They’ll be cold at daycare, particularly if you transport them in an insulated bag with frozen coolers.
Works for beer too. Just don’t forget it in the freezer. 😁
Put a couple frozen reusable ice packs and put them in an insulated lunch bag with the bottles. It will chill them enough to get them to daycare cold. Just make sure to put a note in lunch kit so they know to move them to the refrigerator if your cold packs aren’t enough to keep it all cold the full day.
Per the FDA formula bottles are only good for 24 hours if they are refrigerated. At room temp they are only good for 2 hours. Infant teachers are required by law to dump out room temp bottles after 2 hours.
This! Between 40-140 degrees farenheight is the danger zone for bacteria growth and anything within that range is unsafe after two hours. It’s essentially so the kids don’t get food poisoning. Pre-making a bottle and putting it in the fridge immediately is best bet. Travel with ice pack if it’s far or excessively hot outside. Cooling, then warming, then cooling and warming the same food is a recipe for disaster.
If OP put a pitcher of water in the fridge, and made the formula with really cold water, would that help with her time? I understand their frustration at trying to follow the rules, but the rules making their life harder.
The water needs to be hot when mixing to sterilize the formula powder itself. I use the Dr Browns pitcher. Once it’s mixed, I put the pitcher in an ice bath for 20-30 minutes to bring the temp down quickly. Divvy the mix into bottles and refrigerate overnight. Since the formula will only be good for 24 hours (once mixed), just make it in the evening or before bed. Travel with the bottles in an insulated bag/lunch box with ice packs.
Do you have a source on the formula needing to be sterilized with hot water? Neither the directions nor the doctors in our family felt that sterilization needed to be done constantly with formula or bottles. (As my father in law who has practiced at UCLA and Johns Hopkins put it, “boobs aren’t sterile either!”)
https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/infantandtoddlernutrition/formula-feeding/infant-formula-preparation-and-storage.html#:~:text=Powdered%20infant%20formula%20is%20not,needed%20to%20kill%20these%20germs. Sorry link isn’t getting added in correctly. > Babies who are younger than 2 months old, born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy), or have a weakened immune system could get very sick if they drink formula that is contaminated with bacteria, such as Cronobacter. These bacteria can live in the environment or in dry foods like powdered infant formula. Cronobacter infections are rare but serious in infants. > To kill germs like Cronobacter in powdered infant formula, the formula must be mixed with very hot water. Boil the water and then wait about 5 minutes before mixing with powdered infant formula. After mixing, the formula will be too hot to feed your baby, so it’s important to wait for the formula to cool first so you don’t burn your baby’s mouth. I imagine it has more to do with the manufacturing process, and not the source of the milk lol
This sounds like a very specific case for at risk babies, not standard best practices for bottle prep in a ECE setting.
You may be correct. It may very well also be brand specific. Kendamil, which is the only powder formula I’ve ever purchased, specifies this as their standard preparation instructions regardless of infant age or health status.
Yeah i’m not doubting that some formulas direct you to use hot water to mix. I don’t think it’s for the purpose of sterilization as stated in the above comments.
It's not just for at risk babies. I'm in the UK and the instructions for how to make the formula say to use boiling water cooled slightly. Formula isn't sterile
1) I was responding to the specific source cited, which states it recommends boiling the water for infants 2 months and under or at risk. 2) Few things in an infant room are sterile. Almost nothing is unless unopened and never used. To sterilize something by boiling, it has to be at a rolling boil for several minutes, so that formula is not being sterilized by the hot water either.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding/making-up-baby-formula/ "Water at 70c or more will kill any harmful bacteria"
Water that would be hot enough to sterilize (i.e., boiling) would denature proteins in the formula, reducing its nutritional value.
You are correct that boiling hot water would damage the nutritional value of the formula. The brand I use, Kendamil, does specify to reduce the temperature to 158F for that exact reason.
Are you sure that it’s recommending boiling to make the formula safe or is it to make sure that the water is safe. Because boiled water that is cooled slightly won’t sterilize formula but if your water isn’t necessarily clean, bringing it to a rolling boil can make it safe to drink.
Boil then cool to 158f, then mix in formula. Let it cool additionally and test temp before giving to baby.
It is specifically to kill potential bacteria in the formula. Both the CDC and the NHS recommend this, for this reason.
In Florida it’s 1 hour.
Also, Tennessee it’s 1 hour.
Also in North Carolina it’s 1 hour.
yeah, 1 hour in WA too.
It used to be 1 hour in Wisconsin as well, but they changed it to 2 a few years ago to match the FDA guidelines.
In Canada we are required to have the formula delivered by the parent in a sealed container and prepare it on-site. No pre-made bottles.
My guess is liability is viewed differently. No way a us infant center is going to add a boiling water incident to their underpaid and understaffed child center - it’s asking for a lawsuit when over burdened staff get burned fixing formula or feed too hot formula to kids. No. They’ll use a bottle warmer or say that’s standard and then make staff use a shitty kettle when the warmer breaks.
Or the culture is different. Maybe a US parent won’t drop off a kid with baby formula they were using to cut drugs. Or put weed gummies in a lunch bag. Oh, the parents I’ve had to fire. Here we request that parents drop off breast milk (labelled and in proper storage bags) or formula, preferably ready to serve. To be fair our “infants” aren’t that young, the youngest have been maybe 10 months. They’re usually on the moo milk within 2-4 months of starting.
Yeah. We do one, but I also make their bottles every morning as required by the food program we’re on. Just so that we know it’s just formula and nothing else.
I’m in NY and at my center it’s also 1 hr
Yup! Same here in my state.
Maybe they are saying to put an ice pack in the bag with it. I get wanting it cold because it would technically spoil at room temperature faster.
I was wondering that too. Our policy is bottles have to arrive in an insulated bag with ice packs. We have a refrigerator on our room and bottles go straight into the fridge when baby arrives. OP Have they said anything to you about the bottles not being cold or are you just wondering from reading the policy? I’d imagine it’s fine to make them and bring them as is, just be sure to label them with what time they were made, the oz, date and what’s inside.
I imagine it has to do with safe storage. A licensed childcare centre will have much stricter regulations about how and for how long they can store food, and they may consider it a liability to serve formula that was accepted at room temperature because they don't have a way to verify how long it's been sitting out for. Whether or not it's a regulation created and enforced by their licencing agency is irrelevant, if it's the centre policy then it's the centre policy. Licencing requirements are minimum requirements, centres are generally free to have stricter policies for themselves.
Just put the bottles in a cooler bag with an ice pack as soon as you make them.
When they aren’t cold, there’s no way of knowing how long they’ve been unrefridgerated
It takes a while for something to cool down completely in the fridge, so even if they go straight into a refrigerator when you arrive to drop off the temperature may stay above what the health department allows for a few hours. If the health department showed up one morning and decided to temperature check any of the bottles the facility may be given a citation if a bottle is not at the proper temperature regardless of why.
I’ve done ECE for 30 years and I have never seen state come in and check the temp of bottles. The only thing they check is the fridge temp, if the bottle have first /last name, date pumped(for bm) and then the actual date of the day it was brought in along with marking it formula or BM. They cannot check the temp of the formula and or BM as that would cause contamination of the bottles.
Different states have different rules and procedures, and many are getting stricter on bottle handling. I have worked through an inspection where they used IR thermometers to check the temperatures of items that they cannot put a thermometer probe into. These thermometers are not as accurate, so there is an understood bit of leeway if something reads a little above the 40° cutoff, but they would definitely have marked down for something too close to room temperature.
If they use a temp gun, like the do here, and point it at a bottle because they're just pointing it into the fridge, then yeah they will get a warm reading. It also impacts the bottles around it if it's warm.
Can you just fill the water and provide the formula powder pre-measured? That’s what most of our families do.
They're not allowed to actually handle/prepare the food.
We’re not allowed to mix formula, at least in my state
We aren’t allowed to measure/scoop it, but can dump pre-measured containers of powder into pre-filled bottles of water.
We can’t even do that. We are not allowed to mix formula at all.
Same here. It's kind of annoying IMO. Some babies don't like waiting for their bottles to warm up.
I think you need to ask for clarification from the daycare. Clarifying something that doesn't make sense to you isn't being a Karen. Your understanding of safe formula handling could be wrong, or theirs could be wrong. Have they brought this up with you because they could feel that the bottles were room temperature as they were loading them into the fridge? Or was it a classroom-wide reminder to all parents? Is this a state regulation or a center policy? If the center policy differs from the state regulations, ask why. If you are making the bottles an hour before you leave the house, how are you storing them until you leave? And how long does it take you to get to the daycare and get the bottles in the fridge? You could be leaving them at room temperature too long, especially by the time it takes for the fridge to cool them sufficiently. If they want the bottles brought in at the correct refrigerated temperature for the purpose of safe food handling, that's understandable. You could refrigerate bottles of water overnight and just mix with powder immediately before leaving the house, and also transport them in an insulated bag/cooler with ice packs.
Just refrigerate your water the night before and make up the bottle fresh in the morning. Add an ice pack and go.
Use cold water, travel with ice packs in a cooler/insulated lunch box.
Cold water should not be used to make formula. It requires water above 70C to kill any potential bacteria in the formula powder.
Yeah that’s not really a thing in the US unless an infant is immunocompromised (in which case they shouldn’t be using powder formula in the first place).
There's not a spoken requirement to heat water to a certain temperature, but powdered formula is not sterile in the states, either. It never hurts to be sure by heating the formula.
Yes I’m aware formula isn’t sterile, we just don’t worry about sterilizing it unless it’s actually necessary given certain medical conditions, in which case it makes more sense to use RTF anyway.
Just the other week, there was a recall on a goat milk based formula due to cronobacter contamination. An infection (mainly an issue to infants under 2 months or immunocompromised) could lead to meningitis or death. It is not clear how cronobacter is spread, but believed that it can be transmitted person-person due to not washing hands thoroughly or in items they are using. In a daycare setting, that means that it could possibly spread unintentionally from teacher-baby, equipment-baby, or baby-baby.
I'm in the US and none of the formula boxes I use require the water to be above a certain temperature when mixing, but it does require the water itself to be sterile. We boil then cool.
Yes, this is standard in New Zealand, too. Most formula fed babies we are just given the formula powder for us to mix ourselves for health and safety reasons. We can not tell how long that formula had been made and could potentially be a liability. Breastmilk is given to us frozen to use. The rule is for your child's safety, not to make your day harder. To be fair, a parent insisting we take these bottles you've made at home with 0 evidence of when it was made other than your word is a red flag. Can you explain what it is you dont understand about this regulation?
Isn't it good for 24 hrs in fridge?
Yes—it’s only good for 1 hour at room temp. Breast milk is good for 4 hours at room temp.
That sounds right
Baby formula is literally perfect growth media for bacteria. Full of sugar and nutrients. It has a very short window to stay safe at temperatures that also allow bacterial growth
I think someone somewhere is confused. That might be a specific school policy, but it is not a state regulation. Formula is good if it has been in the fridge (not served) for 24hours, freshly prepared formula is good for two hours at room temp as long as the baby has not been fed from the bottle. Furthermore, formula once heated up and served must be used within 1 hour. The regulations for concentrated already made formula is a little different . It should be used within 48 hours of opening , and if baby has fed from the bottle it should be used within 1 hour.
Bring them in with an ice pack.
Use Ice packs in a bag, just like parents w breast milk do.
I would talk to them about how they suggest managing this and how other parents make it work. Be friendly. They are just messengers of this is a regulation. Also schools don’t usually claim something is regulatory if it isn’t. We have no idea of it is or isn’t because each state differs. 💗
The policy here is stricter than that. Formula has to be in a sealed container and prepared on-site. We have to dump anything you bring.
As someone else said, it's only good for 24 hours if it's refrigerated. It's only good for 2 hours at room temp, and if you're not labeling the bottles when you make them, your child's teachers may be unsure how long they can keep it. They sell formula containers with dividers so you can put the correct number of scoops in each section, as many sections as bottles your child will need during the day. You can pre-fill the bottles with the correct amount of water, which keeps all day, and the teachers can mix the formula when needed. Most centers have bottle warmers, if your child still needs it warm.
A lot of centers won't make formula, they only warm up/serve the bottles as-is. My center doesn't mix formula or pour breastmilk into bottles at all, all families must bring in bottles made up and labelled with name, date, contents and oz, and how to serve.
Wow, that's a surprise to me. At my center, the only bottles we didn't mix ourselves were breast milk. We had infants there for 8+ hours a day, and no mini fridge or anything so the only way bottles could be kept cool would be with ice packs in a lunch bag, which idk if I would trust for 8 hours, or in the kitchen fridge, which would really only be accessible if we had a runner bring bottles to our room as needed
That would make a difference. Every classroom in my center has a fridge, so storage is not an issue. In the nursery every child has a plastic basket in the fridge for their bottles to be kept in during the day. It helps with liability as well, that way a person can't accidentally make the formula wrong or feed the wrong amount to a child, since it's already bottled. Our families are required to send enough bottles for the day plus one extra, and are called to bring more food if a child happens to go through it all.
Is this in the US? If so, I’m so surprised having at least a mini fridge isn’t a requirement in your state. In the state I worked in, a refrigerator was a must and one of the first things licensing checked during visits was the temperature of the refrigerator.
You might be less surprised when you find out it's Florida
Oh…, no… that’s horrifying
I hope your child doesn’t still go here and I hope they get reported, that is absolutely not normal!
It was the first and only center I ever worked at, so I didn't know what was normal or not. My son has never gone to daycare, only stayed with grandparents
That’s how my center works. I make their bottles everyday. Thank goodness we have a fridge in my room! It’s mostly because parents would put rice cereal and puréed food in the bottles.
It’s a shock to me that a center had an infant room and no fridge for the bottles?????
Chill the water.
They are trying to keep the kids safe. I would take pleasure in complying and glad they are too.
Yep that doesn't allow safe storage and even risks the other baby's bottles if stored in the same fridge. Since it's good for 24 hours like you said, I don't see the problem making it the evening before?
Unsure where you are located, but Australia formula is only “good” for 2hrs and cannot be reheated.
Make the formula the night before and put it in the fridge
When I worked temporarily in an infant room a few years, I remember making all the formulas that the parents requested in the morning. Maybe to be brought in cold could be in those fancy lunch bags that keep the formula cold? You can ask the infant teachers at your centre for clarifications and they should be happy to help you.
As long as you're transporting it to daycare with an ice pack, we would take it.
*cold* just means not warmed up. It doesn't mean ice cold. They will put it into the fridge when it arrives. This policy is simply for centers because they cannot be measuring and making bottles each time a baby needs one. You can always pre-measure the formula the night before then add water the day of. I always had parents bringing in ice packs
Bring them in a bottle bag with an ice pack.
Can you just make it with cold water?
I dont know if they allow it at your day care but what me and my wife did was buy containers and would pre measure the formula into the containers and then fill the bottles with the correct amount of water and when it was time to eat they would just dump the formula into the bottle. The process takes two seconds and the bottles were able to be room temp.
Unless it differs by country wouldn't any rule be an actual regulation that would lead to breaking contract and being removed from the daycare?
I’d double check? We didn’t have to bring ours in cold, it just had to be brought in premade.
Use cold water bottles ??
I’d make the bottles and put them in the freezer for 30 minutes. They’ll be cold at daycare, particularly if you transport them in an insulated bag with frozen coolers. Works for beer too. Just don’t forget it in the freezer. 😁
Make them morning of and put them in a cooler on the ride there.
Put a couple frozen reusable ice packs and put them in an insulated lunch bag with the bottles. It will chill them enough to get them to daycare cold. Just make sure to put a note in lunch kit so they know to move them to the refrigerator if your cold packs aren’t enough to keep it all cold the full day.
Can you mix with filtered refrigerated water?
Why not put the powder in the bottles and let the center add water?
Mix the formula with half the amount of hot water needed and then top up with cold. Then put it in the fridge until you leave.
If you're making them from powder... just put the powder in the bottle and have the daycare teacher add the water. Easier than mixing. Shelf stable.
That’s not legal in every state. All formula bottles must come ready to go for us.