Policies and Procedures

Infant Room

The following policies and procedures have been developed for the infant program to insure a safe, healthy environment for all.

Intake Conference – Families will need to set up an intake conference one week prior to beginning your infant. This intake will be with your child’s primary caregiver. At this time we will discuss all of your wishes for your child. It is also a good time to let us know your needs and your child’s likes and dislikes. We want to set up a good means of communication with you so we can ensure we are meeting your child’s.

Labels - We ask that you label all of your child’s belongings with their first and last name. This includes; pacifiers, extra clothing, diaper bags, ointments, bottles and wet wipes.

Parents Provide – Diapers, wet wipes, extra clothes, enough prepared bottles for your child’s day, jar food and cereal until your child is able to eat table foods.

Bottles – Parents will need to provide formula, breast milk and whole milk (for infants 1 year and older). All bottles will be kept refrigerated until used. Our caregivers will warm the bottles using warm tap water in a large cup. A bottle is considered expired once it has be warmed and out of the refrigerator for over one hour. If your child does not finish their bottle after 1 hour it will be dumped. We suggest you always bring one spare bottle for a back up for your child, in the event you may be late or your child may need an extra feeding.

The following are state guidelines we need to follow regarding infant bottles:

Bottles need to be prepared before coming to the center each day.

Bottles need to be labeled with the child’s first and last name.

All bottles need to have covers over the nipples to protect them from airborne illnesses.

Bottles should only contain; formula, breast milk or whole milk. We are not allowed to give children bottles containing cereal, or medication. Exceptions can only be made with a doctor’s orders.

Food – Once your child is old enough to eat solids such as infant cereal and jar foods you can send what your child needs. Infant cereal will need to be prepared, we will store it in the refrigerator and warm it prior to feeding. Baby food jars need to be unopened. Homemade food can be brought for your child if you do not use jar foods. Once your child is on solid foods we can start supplementing food from the Room For Growing menu, families just need to let us know what they want their child to have. Once a child is 1 year of age whole milk can be provided by the center for meals in a tippee cup. (Parents only need to provide whole milk when it is needed in a bottle.)

Napping – All infants are laid on their backs in their cribs when napping. We do not allow blankets, pillows or stuffed animals in cribs with young infants while sleeping. We provide a sleep sack for children as an alternative to blankets.