Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care Designation Program

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FIND Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care in your Neighborhood!

View NC BFCCD Sites in a full screen map and locate a breastfeeding-friendly child care center near you.

Background

The NC Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care Designation (NC BFCCD) is administered at the NC Division of Public Health (DPH). The NC BFCCD recognizes licensed child care facilities statewide that promote, protect, and support breastfeeding.  A rating system has been developed in which one gold-starred building block is awarded for achieving each of the five standards for breastfeeding-friendly child care. The five standards of the NC BFCCD include: 1) written policy; 2) community connections; 3) professional development; 4) environment; and 5) curriculum.  The NC BFCCD integrates the Ten Steps to Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care from the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute  (CGBI) at UNC-Chapel Hill into the five standards. 

10 Steps

1. Make a commitment to the importance of breastfeeding, especially exclusive breastfeeding, and share this commitment with fellow staff.
2. Train all staff in the skills to support and promote optimal infant and young child feeding.
3. Inform women and families about the importance of breastfeeding.
4. Provide learning and play opportunities that normalize breastfeeding for children.
5. Ensure that all families we serve are able to properly store and label milk for child care facility use.
6. Provide a breastfeeding-friendly environment.
7. Support breastfeeding employees.
8. Ensure that each infant has a feeding plan that supports best feeding practices.
9. Contact and coordinate with local skilled breastfeeding support and actively refer.
10. Continue updates and learning about the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding.

Benefits

By participating in this voluntary program your child care can benefit:

• Children - Being breastfeeding-friendly may lead to better daily attendance, healthier children, higher parent satisfaction, and more public recognition.
• Mothers - Breastfed children have less risk of asthma, diabetes (type 2), ear infections, eczema, gastrointestinal infections (diarrhea/vomiting), inflammatory bowel disease, lower respiratory infections, obesity, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
• Child care - Breastfeeding lowers mom’s risk of breast cancer, diabetes (type 2), high blood pressure, and ovarian cancer. Breastfeeding may lower maternal cardiovascular risk factors, lessen absenteeism from work or school, and reduce postpartum depression. Breastfeeding enhances the mother-child bond, speeds recovery from childbirth, and can increase family resources.
• Everyone - Breastfeeding-friendly child care helps everyone by improving breastfeeding rates, leading to healthier people in North Carolina. Breastfeeding is safe for the environment and lowers health care costs. Breastfeeding remains the safest and best infant and child feeding option in natural disasters, during which clean water, hygienic conditions and power sources are unreliable.

Application

• Interested in learning more about the NC BFCCD? View our ultimate one-sheet (PDF, 4.1 MB)!
• ALERT! Exciting news! The application for the NC BFCCD has been revised! The newly revised 3-page application may be submitted effective January 15, 2019. The previous application will continue to be accepted through the April 15, 2019 for both first-time applicants as well as those applying to increase their designation level; although, all are encouraged to transition to and utilize the revised application when applying.
• Download the Revised Application (PDF, 267 KB)
• Previous Application (PDF, 1.12 MB); Note: This application document will be accepted through April 15, 2019.
• Previous Breastfeeding-Friendly Application Online Resource List (PDF, 280 KB)

The deadline for the next application review is July 15, 2019.

We welcome your questions, comments and suggestions about the program. Please email or call us at 919.707.5800.

FAQs

• Who can apply? Licensed childcare facilities and family day care homes in North Carolina are welcome to apply.
• Are there fees associated with applying or maintaining the designation? There are no fees associated with the designation.
• Is a site visit required as part of the application process?  No site visits are required.
• Does the designation ever expire? Yes. After three years the designation expires, at which time child care facilities may reapply.

Resources

• American Academy of Pediatrics - Breastfeeding Resources and Policy
• Breastfed Babies Welcome Here - NEW Resources for operators of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (released November 2018)
• Breastfeeding and Child Care Programs: Meeting Best Practices, Providing Great Service
• Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill
• Go NAP SACC Self-Assessment Instrument for Breastfeeding and Infant Feeding in the Child Care Setting
• Guide for Parents in Search of Breastfeeding-Friendly Child Care (PDF, 137 KB) - This guide provides questions to pose before or during your tour of the program, as well as specific items to look for while on tour. These questions may help to ensure you find a child care program which is a good fit for you and your family.
• La Leche League International
• Let’s Move Childcare, Infant Feeding
• Medications and More During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding - Ask the Experts!
• NC DHHS/DPH Environmental Health Section, Child Care Sanitation Rules
• NC DHHS/DPH Nutrition Services Branch, Help Me Be Healthy Birth to Six Months
• North Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition
• Resources from the American Academy of Pediatrics for Parents and Families on Breastfeeding, Responsive Feeding, and Complementary Food Introduction
• The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, Breastfeeding Promotion and Support in WIC
• US DHHS, WomensHealth.gov, Breastfeeding
• USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, Feeding Infants: A Guide for Use in the Child Nutrition Programs
• Zipmilk.org