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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Bottles in Pack and Plays
Essentialrose1 02:20 PM 04-20-2016
Hi everyone! We just expanded our preschool of 40 years & opened an infant/toddler room.
We have 2 one year olds in pack and plays & the rest are over 20 months & on mats. We don't give anyone a bottle or sippy to get to sleep. But we have a 13 month old that is still on formula. She gets one bottle in the morning before anyone gets there so it's easy to sit with her in the rocker & give it to her. Her second bottle is after nap & she often sits on the carpet & drinks it. Today the toddlers were wild so the teacher gave it to her in the pack n play to avoid them trying to take it from her. Mom wasn't happy. I'm happy to respect her wishes but I wanted some feedback from other daycare people. I think she expects us to continue hand feeding her the bottle but that's not always possible at 13 months in a classroom full of toddlers. Shes not in an infant room anymore. Thanks in advance.
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Cat Herder 02:26 PM 04-20-2016
After 12 months I serve all meals at the table. I would give her formula to her, in a sippy, during snack.

No bottles in toddler rooms.

Tell mom it is standard policy.
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finsup 02:29 PM 04-20-2016
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
After 12 months I serve all meals at the table. I would give her formula to her, in a sippy, during snack.

No bottles in toddler rooms.

Tell mom it is standard policy.

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Essentialrose1 02:30 PM 04-20-2016
I agree thank you. But what are your thoughts about the incident with the bottle in the pack n play. Which doesn't happen daily. But I had left for the day & I'm sure I'll walk into a note in the morning from unhappy mom (she's been finding tons of frustrating things to pick on - this time I addressed it by telling my teacher not to do it again but I wondered if its ever done in other daycares to help with my conversation with mom)
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Thriftylady 02:37 PM 04-20-2016
Well I don't allow bottles after 12 months without a doctors script. Even formula should be given from a cup. But many states have rules on bottles. When I was in Kansas, a bottle in a PNP would have been a HUGE violation. And many states require that children with a bottle be held during feeding. I don't blame mom, I would be upset too. But mom needs to take the bottle, unless there is a medical reason for it.
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Cat Herder 02:48 PM 04-20-2016
Like Thrifty, it would be a safety violation here.

I would apologize profusely and tell Mom what action plan has been put in place to correct the situation.

The employee would receive a warning and retraining.
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Essentialrose1 02:50 PM 04-20-2016
Thank you I appreciate your input. Ugh how frustrating.
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Unregistered 02:50 PM 04-20-2016
We are required to hold babies when they are having a bottle. No bottle in a pack n play. And she wouldn't be using a bottle at 2 anyway. Or sleeping in a pack n play for that matter. I would have her nappig on a mat and drinking out of a cup (Sippy or regular) at 2 years old. If she is addicted to the bottle like a pacifier, it might be hard. I guess in that case, I'd only do water in the bottle and then transition it to water in a sippy. Then she wouldn't just be chugging calories out if compulsive sucking or be damaging teeth falling asleep with milk teeth... :/
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JackandJill 03:06 PM 04-20-2016
Here it would be against regs, babies who can't feed themselves have to be held and no bottles in pack and play.

Good luck with the whole situation!
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Essentialrose1 03:13 PM 04-20-2016
Once again thank you. The kid is 13 months not 2. She's still on formula & a bottle coz she's giving mom a hard time with solids. We are still spoon feeding her baby food. & doing it without a problem to make mom happy. But know that if we were allowed to give her more exposure she'd probably progress. I will take your advice no bottles in pack n plays. I understand why my staff did it. Since she crawls around with her bottle & if she puts it down some other kid will take it. I'll see if mom can accept us trying to put it in her sippy cup. At first she was hesitant.
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Thriftylady 03:18 PM 04-20-2016
Originally Posted by Essentialrose1:
Once again thank you. The kid is 13 months not 2. She's still on formula & a bottle coz she's giving mom a hard time with solids. We are still spoon feeding her baby food. & doing it without a problem to make mom happy. But know that if we were allowed to give her more exposure she'd probably progress. I will take your advice no bottles in pack n plays. I understand why my staff did it. Since she crawls around with her bottle & if she puts it down some other kid will take it. I'll see if mom can accept us trying to put it in her sippy cup. At first she was hesitant.
I would check your regulations and see if there is anything saying children with bottles have to be held. If so, you could use that when talking to mom. I had to just make a policy on the 12 months, no bottles thing. I just couldn't keep giving every parent "special". If they want to call the shots, I tell them they need a nanny.
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LysesKids 03:27 PM 04-20-2016
Originally Posted by Essentialrose1:
Once again thank you. The kid is 13 months not 2. She's still on formula & a bottle coz she's giving mom a hard time with solids. We are still spoon feeding her baby food. & doing it without a problem to make mom happy. But know that if we were allowed to give her more exposure she'd probably progress. I will take your advice no bottles in pack n plays. I understand why my staff did it. Since she crawls around with her bottle & if she puts it down some other kid will take it. I'll see if mom can accept us trying to put it in her sippy cup. At first she was hesitant.
I'm pretty sure that the Food program wouldn't be happy about the baby food unless there is a Dr's note and the bottle - not happening in a PnP... here in TN, once they sit up & can pick up finger foods we legally have to let them try (yep it's in the reg's) - all my older kids sit at the table to eat

BTW, I do infants/toddlers under 21 months only; Sippy cups by 12 months & everyone of my littles over 8 months does some finger food. My oldest in care (13 months) is trying to figure out how to use a spoon lol. I also transition to mats at 12 months
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Essentialrose1 03:44 PM 04-20-2016
Thanks for the input. We are still trying to figure out how we want to handle all the things that come with infants & toddlers. Making accommodations is nice but gets out of hand. Mom actually cried when I told her that I'm trying to get her daughter to hold a spoon & that she refused. She cried that they don't do it at home so basically acted like I abused her but trying to get her to grab it. WE taught her how to actually HOLD her bottle when she started with us as 11 months. They never even had her try. She wouldn't grip it at all & she's totally capable. We got her to do it in 3 days (still held her in our laps at the time). I might have to follow some of these advices & enforce a policy.
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Thriftylady 04:14 PM 04-20-2016
Originally Posted by Essentialrose1:
Thanks for the input. We are still trying to figure out how we want to handle all the things that come with infants & toddlers. Making accommodations is nice but gets out of hand. Mom actually cried when I told her that I'm trying to get her daughter to hold a spoon & that she refused. She cried that they don't do it at home so basically acted like I abused her but trying to get her to grab it. WE taught her how to actually HOLD her bottle when she started with us as 11 months. They never even had her try. She wouldn't grip it at all & she's totally capable. We got her to do it in 3 days (still held her in our laps at the time). I might have to follow some of these advices & enforce a policy.
Sounds like mom wants to keep little one a baby. That is detrimental to the child's development and I would tell mom that. It will cause little one big problems in school and with daycare, because providers don't want to deal with that.
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LysesKids 05:16 PM 04-20-2016
Originally Posted by Thriftylady:
Sounds like mom wants to keep little one a baby. That is detrimental to the child's development and I would tell mom that. It will cause little one big problems in school and with daycare, because providers don't want to deal with that.
This issue is part of why a family got a termination notice back in Feb this year; I'm sorry, but 15 month old kids don't get 8 oz MILK bottles every 3 hrs here... I was giving 4 oz water & milk in a sippy & little miss refused every time... mom complained to me because "that's not how we do it at home. She still gets bottles filled with whole milk"

The child started as an infant, then was pulled @ first birthday due to family medical problems (parent, not baby)... 3 months later she comes back way worse (and chunkier) than when she left; she was using a sippy last October - it lasted one month before I said not happening
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Silly Songs 09:02 PM 04-20-2016
It sounds like you are in a center ? In Texas, bottles in cribs are a huge violation. It's bad for the child, as is keeping them
on a bottle past 1. It ruins their teeth! I think maybe someone should go over the licensing requirements as well as giving all the people who are with babies and toddlers info sheets about development and safety standards.
For those saying she should be on a mat or cot, some places get too many children in one room at once, and the younger ones in that room have to sleep in a crib and the older ones sleep on the mats. One of my old centers did this in the toddler room. They had children from 11 mos to 17 mos, so if there weren't enough cots, youngest ones in the room napped in cribs until an older child " moved up" to the next room. Even if they were over a year, they couldn't have blankets etc in the crib.
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Tags:bottle no more, bottle to cup, food - age appropriate, regulations, safe sleep, sippy cup training, toddler food
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