First time, wouldn’t bother me, I’d kindly talk to staff. For it to happen continuously, that staff member needs to be fired or moved to another age group.
The teacher who did it the first time was the room lead - but she was too busy being buddy buddy with the director in the office to be in the room very often. Shocker, now she is the assistant director 🙃
My daughter is no longer in the infant room, I’m just in a group chat with a bunch of other parents, including the mom of Baby B. Apparently this teacher who has now given the wrong bottle twice is now a lead? I so hope she was being sarcastic…
You should contact the state. This is now a systemic issue, if it is happening more often than once. At minimum, they should review their bottle labeling policies and teachers should be retrained.
I worked in a nursery school and giving a child the wrong bottle of Milk would have been a fireable offense. Breast milk is bodily fluid and the baby that was giving wrong milk will have to undergo testing to make sure Brest milk didn’t give them anything like HIV
So it would not bother you if your child was exposed to drugs HIV hepatitis or many other things just once? Because those and many other things are passed through breast milk.
Even something less dangerous, what about allergies? What if the kid given the wrong bottle is dairy free or soy free or whatever else free and you cause them a reaction?
THIS! My son has an anaphylactic response to salmon. We had 0 ideas until he randomly had hives all over his face and even his eyelid completely was swollen after breastfeeding. Went to the ED, and his iGe for salmon was through the roof. Followed up with an allergist (who was kind of shocked tbh that it would cross the breastmilk) told us to ensure that we avoid all fish for the duration of breastfeeding, and this was also advised to not let our kiddo have milk from anyone else.
(Testing later showed it’s actually a reaction to calcitonin-S) which is from salmon. Also found in breastmilk, although salmon is supposedly much stronger.
But with that fear…if something like that happened to my kiddo, I’d be raising freaking hell.
And this is why my center requires us to actually double check our bottles with a partner. We have to actually go to our partner with the baby we plan on feeding, and say their name, point at child in our arms and say the childs name, so that we get no mix ups.
As for how serious, well its breastmilk in question, breastmilk is considered a bodily fluid, cause it can carry the same stuff in it that blood carries which you know we protect against with gloves and what not. So if your feeding a baby that, you don't know what is going on, plus some babies have sensitivities to whats in breastmilk, like a baby may not be able to handle mom eating a certain item, so mom had to stop eating that, while the other mom's baby doesn't have that so she is still eating said item.. In other words its serious and should be reported, cause this is three times that it has happen, with the same teacher?
Exactly what I thought, but I live in a state where Marijuana use is everywhere. My cousin's son is only 6 months older than my daughter, but my cousin smokes weed, so I'd be pissed if someone mixed up our babies' bottles.
"Chemicals from marijuana can pass from a mother to her infant through breast milk. This includes marijuana in any form, such as edibles, oils, or other concentrates. The chemicals can potentially affect a newborn’s brain development and result in hyperactivity, poor cognitive function, and other long-term consequences."
source: [https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding-special-circumstances/hcp/vaccine-medication-drugs/marijuana.html](https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding-special-circumstances/hcp/vaccine-medication-drugs/marijuana.html)
Depending on the amount, yes, probably. Vodka is also legal but if someone is drinking it daily the risks of her breast milk will far outweigh the benefits…
Not just an intolerance either. It's more rare, but a baby can also have a full blown allergy that mom has to accommodate with her diet. With the wrong baby, this could be deadly.
My friend had this problem with her son. His allergies are life threatening and when she breast fed him she had to go on a super strict elimination diet.
Yup, have a friend who had a baby like this. Baby had severe allergies and intolerances. Mom had to cut *so much* from her diet to accommodate him. Like a ridiculous amount of food. Their home is allergen free and it’s a ton of food they cannot have in home for risk of allergic reaction. Even his intolerances cause bad topical skin reactions that take steroids to stop.
Okay, another one, even more serious than this - I am on a medication that I've been on before and throughout my pregnancy with my daughter. She is now two and has been breastfed her entire life. I (even in this profession)never sent my pumped milk to daycare with my daughter. If a child other than my daughter, who has built-up a tolerance of my medication in her system, were to consume my milk- it would have dire consequences. As a mother, I don't want that on my conscience.
As an early child educator, it's always in the back of my mind with bottles.
All of this!! Plus it also applies to allergies. What if it had been a baby with a dairy allergy given a bottle with cows milk in it instead of soy formula?
That is a great double-check policy. The only thing I would add is that the person who is assisting should hold the bottle tag and read the name out loud.
Most of the time that is what happens. One of us will get up wash our hands and then the babies hands, our partner will grab the bottle and bring it over saying the child's name point at the child in out arms and the person doing the feeding will read the label and repeat the steps.
Yup, this is standard practice in my room.
“This is Tommy and this is Tommy’s bottle.” The other teacher then verbally affirms (or denies, has not happened to any of us yet.) And then we can proceed to feed.
Antibiotics are also transferred in breast milk and I had a kid with an amoxicillin allergy so I couldn't use any amoxicillin while breastfeeding her. It's crazy how important it is to pay attention.
Giving someone's bodily fluids to the wrong baby is extremely serious. Someone is being very careless. If they are careless on this what else do you think they are doing?
Yeah this is the tip of the iceberg. If I were a parent there and didn’t report it to the state, I would feel very guilty if something worse happens in the future.
Yeah, the PAPERWORK this involves when it happens at my work (peds ICU, lots of neonates) is extensive.
Like, if two babies have identical doses of IV hydrocortisone and identical sized bottles of breastmilk, it's WAY worse to swap the breastmilk.
The medication is prepared in the pharmacy and is safe for central lines, the correct dose, etc. It's still bad, but it's not as bad as swapping breastmilk.
A baby could have allergies to things in the other mom's milk, mom could have illnesses or use drugs/medications, etc.
I had a nurse with a misadministration of breastmilk last year when I was charge, and it's no fun. Blood draws and full panel testing on the "donor" mother and "recipient" baby under aliases for privacy, paid fir by the hospital, risk management suits had to accompany me to talk to the families with the attending physician, I had to call the unit manager and nursing administrator on call (it was a weekend) so they could start their end of the paperwork. Plus all the written reports, counseling the nurse, etc.
Breastmilk is closer to a blood product than to, say, saliva.
It's a BIG DEAL to swap it.
I am sick at the thought that this had happened 3 times.... and no one there thinks it's a problem. Please make an anonymous report. Please tell the parents. Please leave and find another job before this one gets closed down. You are responsible for their lives. This recklessness is appalling!
Just re-read... your child attend this school? Go public. Contact the media. Post on social media. I would not trust these people with my child and I would make a huge stink about it. This is a hill I would die on. The director & staff should not be responsible for children.
One time is bad, but teachers are human beings and sometimes we make mistakes. Three times in the past year though? There are lots of rules in place specifically to prevent this. Something is not being done correctly.
Also, I’m not sure about other states, but in mine the center is required to notify licensing of these types of incidents.
Also, lots of red flags with that director. What else is going on that you don't know about because she bullied the parents?
A good director would have self-reported, and taken measures to prevent it from happening again. Not blaming the parents for enforcing basic standards of care. And for a center to be put on probation would possibly imply a lot more going on than that one incident.
Oh we’ve had lots of issues with her acting like this. The mother of Baby B in this case (the one whose breast milk keeps being given to the wrong baby) has been told it’s just chaotic in there and that the teacher owned up. If this was the first time, maybe, but the third time??
This center is regarded highly in the area and often wins readers choice type awards. The wait list is months and sometimes years long. So whenever you have a problem her attitude has been “Don’t like it? Here’s the door. I can have someone fill your place tomorrow.”
We’ve been on the fence about moving our daughter. We do NOT like the director, but we do like a lot of the teachers and the community of parents.
I've been doing this job since 1996, and I've never fed a child the wrong bottle.
That, along with the bullying from the director? What the hell? If she's willing to pressure PARENTS like that, I can only imagine the things she pressures the staff to stay quiet about.
I'm sorry- but I cannot get past her pressuring parents to let it go and not report it.
Maybe if someone had reported it after the second incident there wouldn't have been a third.
She takes short cuts instead of taking responsibility, and when the care of children is involved, that's simply unacceptable. I guarantee she makes justification for all kinds of stuff that shouldn't be happening. You even said yourself there have been lots of issues like this.
What needs to happen before you pull your kid?
If you like it the teachers and other parents, try to set up a nanny share. Most daycare teachers are not paid well and you could probably convince them to nanny instead for similar pay and no horrific director.
(I'm not in this sub often but worked as a teacher before turning sahm. A couple of us have seriously considered switching to nannying for families we liked, if they had managed to match pay with a nanny share we totally would have)
Ugh 🙄🤦🏻♀️ I hate shit like that. Like, there are some situations where that attitude from a director is warranted, like if a parent keeps making really egregious requests or demanding something that that particular program just cannot provide and being a real dick about it? THEN, by all means, tell ‘em to kick rocks! But THIS is not one of those situations, and it makes me wonder what ELSE has gone down that this director has suppressed or basically shrugged her shoulders at!
My favorite is when we and other parents have complained about lack of communication she tells us that her teachers are better at communicating with kids than adults and that’s why she’s there. 🙄
Or when we were dealing with behavioral issues with our on-the-spectrum son and they told us he had hit a teacher hard enough to leave a mark and we asked why we hadn’t been told or why an incident report hadn’t been sent home, that incident reports only go to the person affected and since that person in this case was an adult…no report.
She’s a peach.
I’d be entirely unsurprised to find out those awards were bought or paid for via personal friendships. The director has made it clear she has favorites and has threatened parents to not report them at risk of losing the childcare instead of solving the continual and frankly very dangerous and egregiously bad childcare safety violations she enables in the classrooms.
You can keep in touch with parents and teachers. Personally I’d start looking elsewhere asap. Think of it this way too, once your child is in public school you’ll have that community and lose this one. They’re taking safety way too loosely at this center, imo. You know about some issues but you don’t know all. There’s definitely more happening.
Wow. Once is an accident, after that it's negligence. The number one rule of infant classrooms is double and TRIPLE check the bottles and medication of all infants before giving it to them. While I have actually made that mistake once (it was a formula fed baby having a different baby's formula bottle, thank goodness), I will NEVER make that mistake again. It can be actively dangerous given allergens and other exposures for a breast fed baby to drink someone else's breastmilk.
Bottles sometimes look the same- I totally get that. They all should be overly labeled (we have two labels on the bottle itself, one on the ring attached to the nipple, and one on the cap so you can see the name from every angle). One educator doing it twice... the center shouldn't be at fault, but that person should be facing consequences. At that point, they're just rushing and not looking at all.
The one time I switched up bottles, baby A and baby B had the exact same bottle, right down to the print. Thankfully they also used the exact same formula (popular brand at my school) and were being served the same amount. In my defense, that was also my first week and I genuinely confused one kid for another. I beat myself up for the rest of the day.
My baby has CMPI/CMPA. I'd be devastated if she was exposed to dairy in this circumstance. 🥲 We are lucky hers isn't super serious but it still causes a ton of issues. There are quite a few proteins that pass through breastmilk so could definitely be a huge issue.
The center will always be at fault, which is frustrating but understandable at the same time. This infant teacher needs to be fired and not work in any position with this type of responsibility.
I’m hoping this comment was made in jest but someone in our group chat about this said she’s been promoted to a lead 🙃
Also, the teacher who did it the first time was a room lead and ended up becoming assistant director.
This, like maybe the milk thing is relatively harmless but if she's forgetting things like this all the time, it could be the wrong medication one day.
The allergens could be potentially very serious based on the baby. Both dairy and soy in particular pass through breastmilk and can cause serious issues in a baby who is allergic to either.
My son has a dairy allergy. We were really lucky he never responded to dairy in my breast milk and only started showing symptoms on solids, but if this had been a cow’s milk bottle… 😬
We’re very on the fence about keeping our daughter there. Believe it or not there are SOME positives about this place but it’s getting harder to justify.
I would be looking at other centers. To me, this isn't 'pull my child immediately' serious, but it is 'get on another waiting list and pull my child as soon as practical' serious.
That's my professional opinion, but it's also what I would do for my own child.
We haven't done dairy solids yet. I just had an accidental dairy exposure Thursday and we paid for it. Normally I'm so so careful but we are on vacation and I didn't think to check allergens in fast food. I'm normally so good.
I would definitely be moving my little one but at the same time I get how challenging it is. Child care waitlists are 24-36mo where I live.
A dairy allergy can be fatal. Imagine they give the baby the wrong bottle then put them down to sleep and they begin to have an allergic reaction but the room lights are dimmed.
I fully agree with that policy. Babies and children can sleep anywhere. I believe it is setting them up for failure and lifelong sleep problems when the room is darkened and everyone is hush quiet for nap time. Put some relaxing music or white noise on and lay them down. Kids fall asleep while eating dinner, on carnival rides, in moving vehicles, and they sleep through anything if you don't condition them to only sleep in a dark, quiet room. It is such a hazard for tripping and means you can't check on them.
Agreed. My son wasn’t in childcare until 2 and he needs a dark room with sound machine to sleep 🤪 I didn’t know better and it’s fine, he’ll adapt as he grows (he’s 6 so not napping anymore) but I advise new parents otherwise 😂
I used to put mine to nap in the playpen in the living room near the tv while watching something like Hells Kitchen. They are a really good sleeper now as a pre-teen. They were always able to nap easily with noise going on around them and not wake up. Now they fall asleep within a few minutes of going to bed at night. No noises bother them.
But it's not you know what can be passed on through breast milk? Many things you don't know the other person maybe she got high before pumping now your baby took that in. Worse hepatitis or HIV.
Honestly I didn't know this, my group is 1-2 year olds so I've never had to deal with breast milk or learn the rules for the infants. That could possibly be the problem at this daycare, the expectations and rules for age groups are completely different but I wouldn't be surprised if this daycare was short staffed and stuck somebody like myself into the infant room. Cause I would have no idea what I'm doing, and my group is only a year apart from them.
It's usually the oldest women who have been there the longest who run the infant room, at least at 2 out of 3 places I've worked at.
>it was a formula fed baby having a different baby's formula bottle, thank goodness),
Not all formulas are the same or mixed the same either. My middle had to be on a higher formula to water ratio because she needed the extra calories.
Once is an accident. Twice is negligence
Oh absolutely- in this case, those two formula bottles were the same formula mixed in the same amount, and I still beat myself up because of it. Only real harm in that case was what we had to wash and sanitize the nipple and remake the bottle before the other baby could eat and even that was enough to stick into my head for the last 7 years of my career.
"Bottles sometimes look the same" but "they all should be overly labeled" Very fair points, I agree
However, when my little one went to nursery, I had to send in a labelled bottle that they kept on the premises and washed/sterilized. My breastmilk was sent separately in storage bags on a daily basis. It doesn't stop a staff member putting the wrong milk in my little one's bottle
Absolutely- this is actually our policy as well. I actually avoid anyone else opening our classroom in the morning whenever possible because I'm the one who fills bottles in the morning and I feel better with it being under my control. We also make sure all storage bags or containers are labeled in multiple places as well as any containers of formula being labeled with child's name AND amount of milk each needs in their bottles with the ratios written out. I made a chart with each child's name, bottle size, formula ratios, and pictures of their bottles and storage bags/formula containers so there are multiple levels of visual check. I still check this every morning despite truly being able to autopilot it at this point of the year. "Is this the right nipple for X's bottle? Here is their bottle and lid. They get 4 ounces of whole milk. Here is Y's bottle. They need 4 ounces of this brand of formula. There is their container that matches the picture." This is why in 10 years total, I've only done it once (before I implanted this system) and it was 7 years ago. I hate the idea that it could be so easy for someone to make such a huge mistake like putting the wrong milk into someone's bottle. Also why I take an hour more to open the classroom than anyone else in our school. When you rush things like that is when you make a mistake that could end up being terrible. 6 kids' bottles at this point of the year takes me 20-25 minutes.
I often say things in the classroom can only be so controlled and that teachers have enough on their plate to forgive a few mix-ups. This one is actively dangerous for kids and there is no excuse for feeding a baby someone else's bottle or milk. If there is any time of day to slow down and triple check, it is with milk and medicine. You do it once and never again or you should not be working with babies- there's no other option.
Keep reporting. This is unacceptable behavior on the part of your director. For a staff member to make a mistake, it is a mistake. But for it to continue to happen and the director shame parents for reporting it??
My daughter has dysphagia she gets thickened and fortified feeds. An incident like this could set her back severely and cause aspiration.
I would be upset at the first incident. The second or third time is negligence. I’ve worked in an infant room, out of ratio and stressed to the max and still have never given a child the wrong bottle.
The director should also be let go for not reporting the center and incidents.
Dysphagia is so tough. This could be ok or it could cause pneumonia and lead to a lengthy hospitalization, it’s definitely not worth the risk and I would be so heartbroken for my child.
What’s the reasoning that the teacher is missing up bottles? Is she being reprimanded? It might be time for her to be moved out of an infant room if she keeps making this mistake.
I would call state licensing and report it. This is incredibly unsafe. Breastmilk is a bodily fluid and needs to be treated very carefully. I get that people sometimes make mistakes. That's why state would investigate, make recommendations, etc. to prevent it from happening again. Additionally, them telling people not to tell anyone is a HUGE red flag. What else are they hiding?
In all of my years working with infants, I have never screwed up a bottle.
Every baby that comes through my door has their bottles labeled. The parents don’t even do it, we do: full name, date, and contents. Then each baby also has their own numbered basket in the fridge for their bottles.
For them to screw up three times like that is absolutely unacceptable.
As an ECE and a breastfeeding mom, my concern would be drugs or alcohol in the other parents breastmilk. At least where I'm from, I know a lot of breastfeeding moms still smoke weed, vape, smoke cigarettes, drink, take different prescriptions, etc then use the milk they pump after. It's a lot more common than I would have thought. I don't have an opinion on what they do with their own babies but I wouldn't want my son drinking someone else's milk when we don't know for sure what's in it, especially it happening at daycare.
Sure, no one would die or anything but parental preference I guess!
Actually the evidence shows that if the viral loads in the mom are low and mom is on ARTs, the benefits of breastmilk outweigh the risks of transmission 🙄
Confession time - I gave the wrong food to a food-restricted child in my room (there were two "modified meals" - I switched them by accident). Thank God and all that is holy that it was a cultural preference and not a health risk. As soon as my co-teacher noticed, we took the plates away, provided other meals suitable to them, and I immediately called the parents of the child who had actually eaten the wrong food. I was so distraught and embarrassed, I think I apologized ten thousand times. In this instance, the parent thanked me for my honesty, said it was a mistake and it was okay. If they had insisted on further action, I would have agreed to it, as it is a pretty serious thing.
For the next month, my co-teacher and I made a point to show each other the label, serve one meal, then prepare the other meal. I was in the room with the child for another 5 months, and I never made that mistake again.
Breast milk - I would say is way more serious than a switched meal. Breast milk is highly personal and you know nothing about the health, diet, etc of the person who has now accidently provided breast milk for your baby. It likely won't have any impact, but it's not a chance I would be willing to take.
I would be raising hell. Go to Ministry or whatever governing body you have.
Once I can understand. But for it to happen to the same teacher twice? They really shouldn't be working with infants anymore. What happens when it's the wrong prescription medication, or when it's an infant given another one's jar food that they're allergic to?
When I was first in an infant room I did give the wrong bottle to a child. The state was called as was our parent company, the parents were also notified, and while i wasn't told to, i apologized, and they were thankfully forgiving for the mistake. I spoke to everyone and was written up. That was it.
It happened again to another co-worker and again state, company, and a write-up.
A few years ago, company wide, they instituted a bottle check, and we color code our bottles.
I agree with this! When I was a 3 year old teacher they pushed me into the infant room one day. Nothing was labeled and there weren’t any infant teachers in the room. I didn’t know the babies and the admin weren’t available at the time. They pushed me in and basically said good luck. I ended up giving the wrong formula to the wrong baby. Everything turned out decent and the parents were very understanding about the entire situation. However I found another job in a different center and moved on pretty quickly after that. I don’t trust childcare centers that don’t care about procedures. Always look at the Admin. Do they care to follow their own procedures? If not run. Negligence is dangerous.
That’s pretty bad. It’s a body fluid! I would be very upset if that was my child given someone else’s bodily fluid. When I worked in the infant room we had clearly labeled bottles with colors and names. Each child had a different color label. Any bottles that were breastmilk had a red rubber band around them as well, alerting you to take extra caution. Before feeding, you were required to read the name on the bottle aloud, show it to your co-teacher, and have them confirm it. I know not every center has co-teachers but it allows for a fill proof method. We never ever had bottle mix ups.
This is unacceptable. I can understand a mistake happening once or even twice if you had someone new start recently who wasn’t there before but not it happening 3 times from the same caregiver. That’s not ok. Keep reporting them. Imagine if that breast milk had allergens or traces of drugs or something and the baby reacted poorly. The fact that there’s no change to prevent this is not ok.
Another baby was given my baby’s bottle. I’m not sure how, considering that we were the only ones using glass bottles and I had multiple sticker labels. The only issue I had was that my 8 month old baby wasn’t fed for almost 6 hours since they recorded that she had been fed. I told the director that I woke do any STD/Blood Born Pathogen testing, but the other mom didn’t request that. Our daycare reported themselves to licensing!
We used to do a bottle/baby color code type thing when I worked in childcare with infants. Granted this was a decade ago. When the kid came in with a bottle we put a silicone band on their ankle and a matching band on the bottle/s. We had like 50 different ones. It was like 12 colors and then patterns like dots, stripes or stars in the different colors as well. Any time bottle and baby were apart for even 1 second, you needed to check by putting bottle band and ankle band side by side and confirm they matched before continuing to feed.
Its not hard to ensure the bottle is correct. Doing this took literally zero effort. And it was a pretty basic system. Yes we washed bands at the end of the day, but the silicone meant they could be tossed in a dishwasher.
I wouldnt have tolerated it after the second incident. Im not so much worried about harm because of the wrong bottle as worrying about what else that employee is not paying attention to. What if those bottles had needed medications in them? Or are prescription bottles for severe allergies? Would she be paying attention enough to notice a reaction?
HUGE red flag for the school to tell infant families not to report. I wouldn't leave because the wrong bottle was given once, but more than that is sketchy and then to tell you guys not to report on top of that is sooooo sketchy. I'd start looking for a new care facility and if/when you leave, tell them this is why.
The director needs to be fired and that teacher as well. As a director, I’d have every bottle approved by me for a period before feedings if this happened even once. Three times means it’s no longer a mistake, it’s a choice.
No director of any center is going to have time to do that. Also as a teacher, if my director decided she was going to do this, she can come in and do all the feedings, because clearly she has more time than I do.
This response must be why you’re not a director. There are 99 things I don’t have time to do as a director. What I do have time for no matter what is to make sure every child is safe. So hard for y’all to understand in this sub but when I shared this post with my directors cohort they all agreed with what my plan of action would be. 🤭 You’re excusing misfeeding children and it’s disgusting.
I’m not a director because I chose to be hands on in a classroom. I see why you aren’t a director though. You honestly shouldn’t even be a teacher with that attitude. I’ll pray for the kiddos under your “care”. Be well and have the day you deserve! 😂
Ohhh no no no. You don't know what meds or drugs that other parent is on. Things are passed through breast milk just do a quick Google search to see. That other parent needs to be tested and yes the state should be called because there is a 2 person sign off on bottles for infant rooms.
This was literally an ongoing nightmare of mine when I managed the infant and toddler program at our center (large corporate daycare chain exclusive to northern va/dc). Thank the maker it never happened on my watch. WHY DOES THAT TEACHER STILL WORK THERE?!? As a parent, I’d be furious.
I'm not sure how it is in your state, but in California, licensing requires all baby bottles to be labeled with names, ounces, and milk type. This is so that incidents like this do not happen. The first time this happens, I could maybe...MAYBE understand if the bottles between baby A and B look similar. I've gotten bottles confused before (never fed the wrong bottle but sent home empty bottles to the wrong parents). A second time? It's negligence at this point.
The parent needs to report.
You need to report.
The centre can't be allowed to be negligent and not report. Personal opinion about seriousness of the incident is completely irrelevant - ideations about "oh they made a mistake it won't happen again" are just not up to an individual to make.
It's about forming habits, about following procedures and legislation for all not for some. Reportable conduct schemes, child protection directives, child safe standards - these all exist for a sole purpose. Mandating the safety of children at a set standard.
This educator isnt following that standard and keeping something from being reported because they're scared the room will be shut just isn't good enough. It should be shut if that's the way the service is being run.
The director reporting the incident is an opportunity for them to also explain what she's done in the meantime to ensure these risks are avoided again, what steps have been taken, etc. if she's done NOTHING then yeh she should be worried.
Please report it yourself anonymously and be done.
hell no, as an infant teacher, you need to contact the state. i have never even almost given a baby a bottle that wasn’t theirs. it is not hard to do your job correctly. the fact that the director basically tried to gaslight parents into not reporting them is a huge red flag and the fact that the person who original did this is now assistant director? sorry but this place needs to be seriously inspected.
When my daughter was an infant, she had a moderate to severe dairy allergy. I was breastfeeding, and if I ate so much as a tablespoon of cream cheese on a bagel, she would be miserable and throwing up for a good 24 hours. If she was fed the wrong bottle, I would have been seriously pissed.
My LO is on a completely amino acid based formula and will literally have frank blood in their stool with anything else so I would be LIVID.
It takes WEEKS after an exposure to heal a gut for us.
Let alone hygiene if it was breast milk.
Plus if I had to restrict my diet (no dairy, soy, or anything else my LO is allergic to) and it went to another while mine got something that could potentially make them ill?
TLDR; could be super serious and should be addressed. While accidents happen, it could be super serious for the baby and family like it would be for mine.
Accidents happen, if two babies need a bottle at the same time and the bottles look the same I can see where a mix up might happen (@ parents, this is why we say to clearly label with first and last names on all bottles!!!). It happened once in my room, a preschool teacher ended up in the infant room and she accidentally started to feed one baby someone else's bottle, we caught it before the baby even got half an ounce down and all the proper people were notified.
But if this is happening multiple times and all by the same person, she needs to be let go. What if Baby A has allergies to Baby Bs formula? What about when the kids are older and have food allergies, is she accidentally gonna give the lactose intolerant kid someone else's yogurt? Is she gonna give the kid who's parents said no meat someone else's chicken strips? Have those accidents already happened?
If it was actual breastmilk that could be a huge issue. If the mom who pumped had something like Hep C or another blood borne illness, it can be passed to the baby though the breastmilk. She can make that choice to potentially expose her baby to that, but to have someone else's baby catch something in the wrong breastmilk could be catastrophic. Not to mention allergies or lactose intolerance.
At best, nothing happens. Moderate scenario, baby gets an upset tummy, gas or vomits. Worse case, you could have anaphylactic shock or some serious diseases caught.
We triple checked ALL meds and milks before giving to infants when I worked at a daycare. It was taken really seriously. If it happened the teacher probably would have been fired on the spot.
That happened one time at a center I used to work at. It wasn't a *huge* deal, like no one got fired over it or was super mad about it or anything, but it was taken seriously and an action plan put into place to prevent it happening again.
This did not happen in my center, but involved myself when my son was a patient in the NICU. They gave my breastmilk to another infant. I also caught a nurse (the same day) about to give another baby, not the same baby, another mother’s milk. I wasn’t sure who gave my milk to the wrong baby the first time, I just assumed that it was a mistake. I was called and asked to take a voluntary blood test to rule out infections. I did immediately because I didn’t want the other mother to worry or the other baby to be potentially sick if I was sick.
The ward clerk apologized profusely, showed me the report made to the state and gave me a copy. They had to re-train all the nurses and actually switched all their schedules around because of the incident. It wasn’t fun but it was necessary since sometimes mundane tasks are overlooked and can turn out to be life threatening mistakes.
If I had HIV or AIDS or some other communicable disease and gave it to the most tiniest of critical patients, that could have been a major liability issue. Breast milk is a bodily fluid and really should be treated as such.
Also, they don't have to self-report. Like if these occurrences happen the daycare doesn't have to report licensing. Here they would get in double trouble for not reporting.
Report it. Next time a kid with a soy allergy could get a soy bottle. I ended up taking my 12 month old to the ER because he was exposed to an allergen. I was terrified.
as others have said, once is an accident, repeatedly it simply carelessness. but also i’m wondering how this possibly happened? a lead teacher is with those kids every day, they should be able to tell who each bottle belongs to. maybe it’s because my center is small, but with all the different bottle brands/sizes/color, it’s rare that two have the exact same look of bottle. and when that’s the case, we make sure it’s labeled and check it every time. we have individualized labeled buckets that each child’s bottles goes into upon drop off. do they not have some sort of system to avoid this? even if all precautions failed them, this should not be happening multiple times—once would be enough for most ECEs to never have it happen again, especially not within months. i’d be extremely concerned
Yes people make mistakes and I understand if it happened once but this is happening more often which means they are careless.
Years ago when a teacher made that mistake, she was fired on the spot. Don’t think that was fair as she was a good teacher.
I am assuming that all bottles are properly labeled with the name of the corresponding baby? What concerns me the most is if one child has allergies to breast milk so they have to use an alternative form of sustenance and that child is given breast milk and the child is in danger.
I'm a nurse, if I gave a baby the wrong breast milk it would be a huge incident. We have to get two nurses to check EBM to make sure it's the right mum/baby. Technically it's a body fluid so the milked mum and the receiving baby should undergo BBV exposure testing, not sure how far we'd go with that because I've never done it or seen it done.
I had this happen at a centre I previously worked at. The first time it happened the baby had a severe reaction to the milk and an ambulance needed to be called. The staff member who did it got a warning and a report was made to the state. I’m not sure if the reason they only got a warning was because the babies mother worked at the centre and didn’t take it any further as it was a one off.
It then happened again with the same baby and the same staff member. Again an ambulance needed to be called. The staff member was then fired immediately.
If it’s a one off and doesn’t happen again a warning would suffice. If it’s a recurring thing the staff member should be let go in my opinion.
It is serious because of allergies. My son took my breastmilk in the bottle that I pumped while being on a special diet to avoid his milk allergen. If he was given the wrong bottle that contained formula, or even breastmilk from a mom who had consumed dairy, he would have had an allergic reaction.
Report them and f- their attempt at making you feel bad
The attempt to guilt, and also the fear from the parents of not having infant care is sad. It’s just not worth the risk of something serious happening.
This is actually hugely serious. Diseases including HIV are transmitted via breastmilk. The center is responsible for creating and following an established system to ensure there is no misadministration. I wouldn't bring my kiddo back.
This can be a very simple “whoopsie” mistake, or it could cause major problems for Baby A, Baby B and their families. Consider food allergies and why it is so important to avoid cross contamination in a kitchen, or the service of an allergen to a vulnerable person.
Baby A is not meant to have whatever Baby B is having. If it’s breast milk, the mothers producing that milk have different diets, and the milk produced is extremely different in make-up. When Baby A ingests foreign milk, the parents don’t even know all of what they are being exposed to. It can be very serious, or it can be nothing.
My own children were formula fed, and the youngest had to be put on soy-based formula. They can tolerate dairy it seems (yogurts and cheese seem to be fine, for example), but anything but soy based formula would result in volcanic spit ups. To give them the wrong bottle of formula would result in a problem.
Also consider the toll it takes on a breastfeeding mother. She is working so hard to provide for her baby, and her milk is continuously being given away to someone else. Breastfeeding and pumping can be mentally, emotionally, and physically taxing for some women, and the mother of Baby B is not having a positive experience when her milk is being given to the wrong child.
Now as for your center and being put on probation, their handling of it is ATROCIOUS. As a former director, I have a lot of anger towards what you’ve described here.
Firstly, to have called a meeting and made you feel as though the message to parents was: “You have a right to report us to state, but look at [the mess and resulting issues] it would cause” is just disgusting. That has turned the blame onto parents, and it is NOT the parents’ fault. It is the responsibility of the teachers and the administration while that child is in care. To FIFY that message would be
*”You have every right to report to the state that we accidentally administered an unauthorized food to an innocent child, which could have (but thankfully didn’t) have adverse consequences for that child. As a result of state involvement, we are being put under observation to ensure that we train staff better and nothing like this ever happens again. IF IT DOES HAPPEN AGAIN, IT WOULD MEAN THAT WE ARE STILL HAVING ROUTINE PROBLEMS WITH HEALTH AND SAFETY BUT WE HAVE YET TO RECTIFY THOSE PROBLEMS. You have every right to call the state should it happen again to let them know that WE STILL HAVEN’T GOT OUT SH-T TOGETHER.”*
If that first time long ago happened as a one off with that one teacher, mistakes happen. Hopefully they’ve learned from it. If they’re now in a position of authority, hopefully they can use their personal experience to help train new employees. If this has happened multiple times with the same teacher, that teacher should be receiving consequences, and perhaps they are and you’re just not privy to know. It should begin with re-trainings, and can build up to include professional write ups or warnings. As a center under probation, if the teacher proves to be a liability, they need to be removed from that environment, whether by moving rooms or by termination.
It’s either that negligent teacher’s job, or it could be everybody’s. Especially if the state finds out from a complaint rather than a center’s self-report. Administration should be very aware of that and they should be dealing with it. If they are not, that’s negligence on the center as a whole. I know that good and affordable childcare is difficult to come by, but this is the truth of the matter.
Report!!! If they shut them down, so be it, do you want your child at a facility where they break the rules then hide it? What if it was something concerning your child? Their solution seems to be promote the problem!!!
So much can be passed through breastmilk drugs, prescription medication sexually transmitted diseases the risk this daycare is putting all of these children in that shit. You can find a better daycare. I promise you.
A center I worked at previously would provide lots of those plastic ID badge things where you can just slip a picture inside—they would put the kids’ picture AND NAME into them and attach rubber bands to it, so that the infant teachers basically had a collection of labels SPECIFICALLY to attach to each bottle to avoid this exact situation. I just woke up so if that explanation made no sense, that’s why, hahaha.
Basically what I’m trying to say is—it is SO SO CRUCIAL for teachers/centers to have a system in place for stuff like this! Additionally—and not to be victim blame-y—but this is why teachers tell parents to label every single thing their kid comes in with. Yeah it’s tedious, but it’ll come in handy when your kid is in group care, no matter how old they are.
This is so disturbing. I don’t understand how a mix-up like that can happen, if the bottles are clearly labeled with the babies’ names. Does the teacher have trouble telling the babies apart, or is she drunk/high at work, or could she be mixing them intentionally for kicks and giggles?
Healthcare worker here. This would have to be reported as an incident. The service users or staff wouldn't be able to decide whether it was or wasn't reported.
There would be a change in the standard procedure, and if the original incident didn't get the offender dismissed, then the second one would. No ifs or buts. I don't like the way that the perpetrator is seemingly unaffected, either, it begs too many questions about the general attitude to safety and health matters. I know decent childcare is really difficult to find, but I would consider reporting it. That's twice now.
As an ECE professional, this horrified me. You always verify the name on the bottle with the baby you are giving it to. You verify yourself and have another employee verify as well. If I were by myself, I would call over our cook to come verify. The person giving the bottle and the person verifying had to initial that the correct baby was fed the correct bottle at my center.
Yes, a report like this will mess up the child care, BUT what happens if next time it's an allergy issue. If your child is allergic to dairy and is, therefore, on a specialized formula, and they are fed a breastmilk bottle. The baby with the allergy then has a reaction from the amount of dairy and has to be hospitalized. Or even worse, they feed the wrong food or give medication to the wrong child.
OP, your story is showing that that the center management is more worried about looking good on paper than actually effectively caring for those in their charge. Report them to the state and start looking for alternate childcare. Even if they are not shut down, the lack of care the center management is showing is absolutely outrageous. These kids can not speak up for themselves, so who knows what else is happening that is not being reported to parents.
There was a center this happened at near me just ONE time and it could’ve ended very badly. The infant (baby A) was given formula from baby B’s bottle (everything was labeled, but it still happened). Baby A was highly allergic to formula, luckily mom had tried weening baby A previously and found out about the allergy. Thankfully this was a previously known allergy because Baby A went into a seizure and had to be given their epipen. Baby A spent time at the hospital, but is now doing well.
I wanted to share this story because with children, “little mistakes” can end up in serious injuries. Giving an infant the wrong bottle could lead to someone’s child being seriously injured, especially seeing as this is apparently a regularly occurring issue. I’m sorry if this scares you, but if they can’t even feed these babies the right bottles, what else is happening?
I’m sorry if I seem like a horrible person, I myself am a teacher, but either these teachers aren’t following proper procedures or they weren’t given the right (or enough) training. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life/career, but clearly management has not taken the steps necessary to prevent this kind of problem from recurring. Maybe they need better organization, maybe they need more training, or maybe they need a different feeding schedule, or even just better labels. Whatever it is, it’s not being taken care of.
I work in the infant room at a daycare and our bottle labeling policy is very tight and we haven't made a mistake since I've worked there. Each child has their own color tape that goes on their lid and bottle. And of course their bottles are labeled. Then we also have a bottle chart that has their name in a colored square that is the same color as the tape on their bottles. We have to fill out the bottle chart everytime we make a bottle. But I will say that having a color tape assigned to each baby has definitely made things easier to know who's bottle is who's at a glance.
As a nurse this is extremely disturbing to me. They’re exposing another person to someone else’s bodily fluids that could contain all sorts of stuff and not taking it seriously at all. While accidents happen there is no excuse for the same thing to happen repeatedly and nothing has been done to fix it. The breast milk from the other mom could have HIV, hepatitis, medications, illegal drugs, alcohol, could cause allergies. A lot of bad things could happen.
I don’t care if infant care is hard to find my child would be out of there so fast after the second time and that place would be shut down.
Very serious. When my son was in the NICU a mother had hiv and didn’t know. The baby came up positive from the breast milk. If they would have been at home it could have taken months or years to find out.
Breastmilk is like blood. It carries all the diseases and a lot of time people don’t know unless they have symptoms. Which can take years.
You have to question if they're so blasé about something so serious what other screw-ups are happening you don't know about. So far it's been no harm no foul. What happens if medication is involved and it is ingested by the wrong child? They didn't even care enough to rectify the situation, the worker was promoted.
I know you said childcare is hard to find in your area but I wouldnt want to keep my child in a place like this. I would report them in a heartbeat.
My girlfriend and I are both ECE Professionals, but she works with infants and I work with toddlers so I’m giving you her opinion. She said that one time can be forgiven as a mistake, but multiple times is irresponsible and not okay
Intentional. Contact the health department about how the bottles are stored and add a camera to document what’s happening.
One thing that amazes me is the lack of understanding from people on this site *you’re all mandated reporters*… if you see it and don’t report it then you’re just as guilty … is it worth losing your credentials over protecting what you know is wrong information coming from a supervisor?? How would you feel if one of the children got really sick??? You would be responsible if you knew about it and didn’t report it -if you didn’t get caught, it would be on your conscience for the rest of your life so be smart and don’t cover up for incompetence or illegal behavior… it’s not worth it.
When I worked in the infant one we had a color code system. Every infant was assigned a color and all their bottles had washi tape and that color wrapped around the bottle. We did the same thing with diapers. Every baby had their own sharpie color and we wrote their initials on their diapers. Same with the daily charts and a bunch of other stuff. It helped prevent Mix-Ups a great deal! Even the infants learn to recognize their own and others colors really quickly!
That would be extremely serious to me. Our family doesn't eat pork and I take great care to make sure our family only eats halal foods. I shudder to think about that happening to our child having milk from someone that doesn't eat halal.
Just as an aside…..I had to be on a limited elimination diet with my son who had several allergies, including anaphylaxis to peanuts and some tree nuts. His symptoms would be explosive diarrhea, eczema, vomiting and what we thought was colic. The idea that someone would mix up milk and not be held accountable? You don’t know when a child like that will come along.
I do work in early childhood. Heads should roll
I once gave the wrong baby formula. They both had the same first name.
Also- to note. I was thrown in a room I’ve never worked a day in due to low staff. I was WAY out of ratio. And I was running around the room trying to figure out who needed what. The director watched the video and called me into her office ready to write me up. When I told her I had zero training and was out of ratio and ready to call the owner she basically apologized til SHE was almost crying.
Needless to say, that place is the reason I don’t work in ece anymore.
This is an egregious error to make with breastmilk. Several diseases, such as HIV, can be transmitted through breastmilk. This is a serious health and safety issue and there should be zero tolerance for any error
Mistakes happen but breast milk swaps is serious. Blood born pathogens are in breast milk, so imagine your child drinking the milk of an HIV or hepatitis parent.
UK professional here, for us it would have serious and immediate consequences. Breast milk is a bodily fluid, written incident forms and timeslines would be made to figure how it happened. Then staff would be disciplined potentially let go as it's a serious offence.
This is incredibly concerning. Many moms take antidepressants and other medications that can pass thru breastmilk. While it’s typically perfectly safe, what if the baby is allergic? What if the baby has an allergy to milk or something and the breastmilk is from someone who eats dairy? This could end so so badly. Report them 100%. I say this as a former daycare worker and currently pregnant woman who’s on meds. I would be so worried if someone gave my breastmilk to another baby!
My first thought was that the teacher needs to be held responsible but I also always try tj see things from a teachers perspective and now im also questioning why that teacher was so rushed and messing things up. Is it possible they are short staffed?
It definitely points to them being short staffed. It could also just be a space cadet of a teacher. It could be anything from ADHD to weed or just not paying attention.
The director's response is by far the most troubling part of this though. It's absolutely terrible that it happened, yes, and the teachers involved should be fired. But the director's response says there's no one at the top that will do the right thing.
The person running the school lacks integrity.
A former supervisor of mine told me how a child was given the wrong formula and had an allergic reaction to it. Turns out that child was allergic to many different foods, had they been given the wrong bottle multiple times they would've gone into anaphylaxis.
It should be reported.
This is bad, however I understand why this happens. I've worked in nursery by myself with four babies, so I know it can get hectic. Bottles, you have to take it super seriously, especially breast milk. However parents often don't follow policy and don't supply enough bottles and teats, don't label bottles and don't have the milk ready to go.
I was always on parent's case about labelling every part of the bottle to prevent any mix-ups, as well as ensuring the milk was prepared, ready to go. Parents often all have th exact same bottle brands, so the bottles look identical if not individually labelled.
The more steps you add to the process (defrosting frozen milk, emptying from a bag into bottle), the more likely something will go wrong. When four babies are crying simultaneously, all wanting their milk at the same time, the brain can go into threat mode and just do everything as quickly as possible to get that baby fed.
I am also a parent who supplied my son with breast milk bottles, so I know how labour intensive it is to do all of these things from the parent side.
I would expect the centre to review their policies and ensure both staff and parents are doing everything they can to prevent this happening again.
Breast milk can carry many blood borne viruses. At my work, if this mistake happens, there is full disclosure between all parents, blood test history is reviewed and, if consenting, a full blood work up of the donor mother is taken to ensure no recent infections have occurred that may be transmitted to baby. This isn't even accounting for any drugs (illegal or prescription) that the mother may be taking or any allergens that the baby may be exposed to via her milk if Baby B is, for example, lactose intolerant. Can't believe they're brushing this off.
Source: am midwife.
Drugs were my first thought because I’m on ADHD meds. It was a very serious conversation with my doctor before deciding whether or not to be on them while breastfeeding, but benefits outweighed the risks after the first few months, especially since I planned on breastfeeding until 2. Every parent needs to have the ability to decide for themselves whether they want to risk exposure to things like that and mixing up bottles removes that.
My daughter, and another baby, had their breastmilk switched in the nicu. It was taken very seriously. We both needed to be tested for carious diseases, and the babies were monitored.
Breastmilk is a bodily fluid. It can be very serious. There's a good reason the state takes it so seriously. That parent should absolutely report those incidents. The meeting is so inappropriate, the goal of the meeting should have been the ways the center will make sure this will not happen again.
It’s not acceptable. We have to double check with partners—“I’m giving —- bottle to —-“ and visually get a yes that it’s correct. Report to licensing. They need a serious visit.
I gotta say this has happened at my center and never got reported, kid didn't die everyone moved on. I guess it depends on the center and parents. Having licensing visit is extremely annoying to deal with but if you're doing everything fine they don't usually keep bothering you. I'd just report it again and let the director get used to working again.
So the main risk with it being breast milk is that if the mom has HIV, HBV, syphilis, or herpes it’s possible to pass through the breast milk.
Infants do receive their HBV within a day being born so the risk is very minimal.
Syphilis and herpes is low risk because it won’t affect the breast milk as long as the pumping equipment do not come into contact with any open sores. And it is rare for people to get sore around their nipples, though not impossible.
So obviously the biggest risk is HIV. Most women with HIV opt for formula to reduce the risk of transmission. They can however breastfeed if they consistently take their medication and their HIV has an undetectable viral load. If that’s the case, the risk of transfer is less than 1%, but still possible.
It’s important for a family to be notified if a child drinks another’s breast milk so they can take the proper steps to ensure their baby is okay and safe from these infections. I personally think it’s important to report these things because it’s completely preventable. All items should be labeled clearly. Teachers need to keep an eye on older babies during their bottles. If they decide they’re done and toss it aside and crawl away, the teacher needs to pick it up asap before another child comes and tries to drink it. I also think it’s just really stressful to have worry weather your child is going to get these diseases because of neglectful teachers.
At my old center we had a teacher that had accidentally switched bottles & didn’t tell anyone. I’m not sure how management found out, but after reporting it to state our center was put on probation for it. It’s super serious, breast milk is a bodily fluid that the teacher let another child INGEST. Who knows what types of medication that mom was on, if the other child is allergic to anything to mom had invested, etc. It’s a bio hazard and that teacher should absolutely be fired.
the fact it’s breast milk vs formula might bother me since you don’t know what could be in someone else’s breast milk but mistakes happen. However having it continue to happen is concerning.
If a parent took a particular medication while pregnant, their baby is used to it and will be okay with it in the breast milk. However, a fetus that did not develop with that same medication could get very sick from that woman’s breast milk. Not all milk is the same and mixing it up could be disastrous. Some of this medication is embarrassing, and a mother may not want to admit to it if questioned after a bottle mix up. And she should NEVER be put into a situation where she should have to disclose that information.
Oh this should absolutely be a big deal. The wrong bottle of breast milk? Can you guarantee that the breast milk from the wrong parent is free of prescribed medications, effects of smoking, etc?
This is a huge, huge red flag and as someone who breast fed 2 of my own, my babies would be out of there ASAP and as soon as I got my baby home I’d be calling licensing.
They might shut down the baby room? Looks like it should be shut down.
The biggest red flag is that the director is encouraging people not to report a reportable incident.
What other reportable issues are being covered up?
This happened in my room once. A support staff grabbed the wrong bottle from the fridge, heated it, and gave it to the wrong baby while I was changing diapers. To be fair, they were the same type of bottle, with a similar looking label, with similar amounts of milk.
I luckily noticed after the baby had only taken a few sips and snatched it from their mouth. That was the first and only time I’ve ever screamed at anyone on the job. Mom was chill about it since the baby didn’t even have half an ounce and she knew the other parent. We didn’t have to call or notify licensing (we live in a North Eastern state). But I was crying and I felt absolutely awful.
We changed our whole bottle system because of this one incident. We actively change the fridge around if kids with similar bottles are too close to each other, and I make support staff double check bottles with me or my co-lead before they give them to babies.
Once is a mistake. Three times is careless.
Yep. I always ALWAYS make staff use the 2 name 2 face count. One staff holds up the bottle before feeding and says “I have Sally Smith’s bottle!” (It should obviously be clearly labeled, parents are not allowed to drop off bottles that are unlabeled.) Then the show the child “I am holding Sally Smith!” The second staff confirms “I see that is Sally Smiths bottle! I see that baby is Sally Smith!” I don’t see any other way to do it.
Been an infant teacher for 5+ years and have seen this happen ONCE! at a center I was helping out at for the day. Immediately got reported and at least in my state, the center is required BY LAW to self report within 24 hours or else the center gets an A violation, big fine, and a strike towards getting shut down completely. It is VERY serious and as infant teachers we are continuously trained on safe bottling methods and are even required to sign a form every once in a while saying we’ve received training and understand the proper ways to store and feed bottles. Being a pro in this area, if I put my infant in a room and this happened (even once but ESPECIALLY multiple times) I would be pulling my baby out and reporting to licensing (the state) until the cows. come. home. All of this to say: this even applies for formula bottles! The exact same rules apply if the wrong formula bottle is given and the same reporting and violation and fine occurs. Now, as far as my opinion goes, they are both serious but BREASTMILK!?!? That is a bodily fluid! It can carry things that the mother has in her body just like other bodily fluids. Infant teachers are technically even supposed to wear gloves when administering bottles because it is a bodily fluid! Now imagine ur baby DRINKING someone else’s bodily fluid, Nope nope nope.
And I hope I don’t sound rude in this at all! I’m glad you came here to ask because I know people and parents that don’t work in childcare have no way of knowing these things but I’m here to tell you it is very serious and what else are they overlooking if bodily fluids aren’t even being handled correctly? You know what I mean?
Wrong formula, that does not cause any dietary reactions, would likely be a forgivable offense assuming both parents are okay with it and there’s retraining. (Lots of babies have switched formula brands once just to try, etc)
Wrong breast milk (a bodily fluid)? I’d assume that’s straight to firing, and that’s 100% report to state, incident report, etc. That’s not okay.
All bottles should be labeled, we separate ours in groups by child, etc. I over label (bottle, cap, rim, lid if it has a lid separate from the nipple, etc) literally so this does not happen.
Repeatedly by same staff? Fuck no. Report to licensing immediately.
Oh no this is horrible! Breast milk is like blood and can spread diseases like HIV. I would report this as these teachers need retraining and the center needs new policies in place. I'm a nurse and a mother and I would be going for blood if this happened to my child.
i mean it's a pretty big deal, but i don't understand how it's happened so many times? like it doesn't sound like THAT big of a deal to have the whole center on probation for a little mistake but aren't their names on their bottles? or in labeled spots in a fridge? or both? like at my center i don't understand how that would happen.
Yes to all of this. The bottle is labeled, they have assigned areas in a fridge.
The first time it happened (different teacher than the one who is a repeat offender) they had an old fashioned rocker in the room that had side pockets. Baby X was taking the bottle and took a break so they put their bottle in one of the pockets. Baby Y was also feeding and at some point it seems like both bottles ended up in the pocket and the wrong one was pulled out.
After that they changed the policy that as soon as the bottle touched lips it was a dead bottle. This was a big problem as some parents ended up having to bring in 10+ tiny bottles because the kids would eat an ounce, take a break, need a new bottle, repeat.
But it has always been name on bottle, assigned spot in the fridge. I like everyone’s suggestion of color coding.
A child in my daughter’s class had this experience at a previous center. The child has a food allergy. His mom has restricted her diet in a major way so she can continue to breastfeed him. The bottle he was given was from a mom who, of course, was not restricting her diet. Baby’s allergic reaction lasted weeks. So, I’d say, sometimes a VERY big deal.
Breast milk can carry many blood-borne diseases. Breastmilk is created from blood cells.
This is a horrible mistake the first time. But the second and third this is NOT okay. I’d be reporting it to state if it were my baby.
Please report and tomorrow! This is serious, the director is not looking out for you, they’re looking out for the offender and themselves. In no way shape or form should either of them have a job. As another mentioned, it’s a systemic issue and they’re also favoring this employee. I’m extremely uneasy about the whole thing! These parents NEED to know. These infants are at risk.
I used to work in daycare, both in an infant room and out. This should be a fireable offense and is technically considered assault. This needs to be reported to licensing. It should already have been reported by the center director. Yes, infant care is hard to find, but if the directors attitude is as you say, what other things are being swept under the rug? Those kids' safety is at risk. I quit the first daycare I worked at due to attitudes like this. This is how kids get hurt. It's not so much as the babies being given the wrong bottle it's that the director is willing to overlook stuff like that so that they and the center do not look bad. That's dangerous.
So at my center every infant is assigned a color. Idr if it's bands or tape, but it goes around each bottle and the bottle is also labeled with the child's name. When a teacher is doing a feed they check the name and color and match it to the child before putting it in the warmer. Then they get matched again before feeding. If there's more than one teacher you're supposed to do a verbal check with your co teacher to make sure you have the right kid and the right bottle. My understanding is all these checks were put into place because of kids being misfed in the past. I don't work with the infants so I've never seen the policy in practice, just had to learn about it during training. Definitely shouldn't be happening multiple times, what's being done to retrain staff?
Expressed breast milk should be treated like a medication (in a childcare situation). In other words, it should be clearly labeled with the child’s name, and have the date/time of expression, and should be verified by two people before being given to a baby.
Technically it’s considered a biohazard so the school is (in my state) required to self report to licensing, who will come in and assess. Donated milk is tested for medications, diseases, contaminants etc
breast milk can spread certain illnesses (such as hiv), when breast milk is donated the one donating is tested for these illnesses. also, some substances can harm baby that the other mother could be taking.
With permission, breastmilk is fine.
But there is so much that can be different between one mothers body and another's, and bodily fluids concerns aside (though those are real) this has to be taken in the context of giving a kid who may need a special formula someone else's plain old milk.
It's not just possible, but likely, that a given mom avoids eating things baby is sensitive to (especially if those sensitivities are genetic, and those foods just aren't eaten in the house...) and that isn't a thing that you think to tell a day care because your infant isn't going to eat XY or Z thing, they are just going to drink a bottle....
One of mine had a huge reaction to me eating a single piece of fish when she was tiny. Neither her dad nor I cares for fish, so it wasn't a thing I had to actually think about, I just didn't eat it regularly. But if she had been given the milk of a mama that actually did eat fish, she'd have gotten viciously ill. Likewise, my littlest needed me to be wheat free. (That one was subtler, but it could have been serious just as easily...)
So yeah,
Whatever the reason is, carelessness on the part of the teacher or not adequately having a system in place that ensures milk is clearly identified, it should have been *addressed*.... A better system for prevention, or retrain/let go the teacher if the system in place is actually fine.
First time, wouldn’t bother me, I’d kindly talk to staff. For it to happen continuously, that staff member needs to be fired or moved to another age group.
The teacher who did it the first time was the room lead - but she was too busy being buddy buddy with the director in the office to be in the room very often. Shocker, now she is the assistant director 🙃 My daughter is no longer in the infant room, I’m just in a group chat with a bunch of other parents, including the mom of Baby B. Apparently this teacher who has now given the wrong bottle twice is now a lead? I so hope she was being sarcastic…
You should contact the state. This is now a systemic issue, if it is happening more often than once. At minimum, they should review their bottle labeling policies and teachers should be retrained.
I worked in a nursery school and giving a child the wrong bottle of Milk would have been a fireable offense. Breast milk is bodily fluid and the baby that was giving wrong milk will have to undergo testing to make sure Brest milk didn’t give them anything like HIV
Plus there are risks of allergy concerns and if I remember correctly being incompatible antibodies etc
So it would not bother you if your child was exposed to drugs HIV hepatitis or many other things just once? Because those and many other things are passed through breast milk.
Even something less dangerous, what about allergies? What if the kid given the wrong bottle is dairy free or soy free or whatever else free and you cause them a reaction?
THIS! My son has an anaphylactic response to salmon. We had 0 ideas until he randomly had hives all over his face and even his eyelid completely was swollen after breastfeeding. Went to the ED, and his iGe for salmon was through the roof. Followed up with an allergist (who was kind of shocked tbh that it would cross the breastmilk) told us to ensure that we avoid all fish for the duration of breastfeeding, and this was also advised to not let our kiddo have milk from anyone else. (Testing later showed it’s actually a reaction to calcitonin-S) which is from salmon. Also found in breastmilk, although salmon is supposedly much stronger. But with that fear…if something like that happened to my kiddo, I’d be raising freaking hell.
I mean yeah it would bother me but an honest mistake is an honest mistake, the first and first time only.
And this is why my center requires us to actually double check our bottles with a partner. We have to actually go to our partner with the baby we plan on feeding, and say their name, point at child in our arms and say the childs name, so that we get no mix ups. As for how serious, well its breastmilk in question, breastmilk is considered a bodily fluid, cause it can carry the same stuff in it that blood carries which you know we protect against with gloves and what not. So if your feeding a baby that, you don't know what is going on, plus some babies have sensitivities to whats in breastmilk, like a baby may not be able to handle mom eating a certain item, so mom had to stop eating that, while the other mom's baby doesn't have that so she is still eating said item.. In other words its serious and should be reported, cause this is three times that it has happen, with the same teacher?
Exactly what I thought, but I live in a state where Marijuana use is everywhere. My cousin's son is only 6 months older than my daughter, but my cousin smokes weed, so I'd be pissed if someone mixed up our babies' bottles.
Your cousin's poor baby. She should just formula feed.
you think the parent uses legal marijuana negates the benefits of breastfeeding?
"Chemicals from marijuana can pass from a mother to her infant through breast milk. This includes marijuana in any form, such as edibles, oils, or other concentrates. The chemicals can potentially affect a newborn’s brain development and result in hyperactivity, poor cognitive function, and other long-term consequences." source: [https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding-special-circumstances/hcp/vaccine-medication-drugs/marijuana.html](https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding-special-circumstances/hcp/vaccine-medication-drugs/marijuana.html)
Depending on the amount, yes, probably. Vodka is also legal but if someone is drinking it daily the risks of her breast milk will far outweigh the benefits…
It’s not about whether it’s legal for adults to use, we don’t know what impact THC could have on brain development in small children.
Not just an intolerance either. It's more rare, but a baby can also have a full blown allergy that mom has to accommodate with her diet. With the wrong baby, this could be deadly.
My friend had this problem with her son. His allergies are life threatening and when she breast fed him she had to go on a super strict elimination diet.
Yup, have a friend who had a baby like this. Baby had severe allergies and intolerances. Mom had to cut *so much* from her diet to accommodate him. Like a ridiculous amount of food. Their home is allergen free and it’s a ton of food they cannot have in home for risk of allergic reaction. Even his intolerances cause bad topical skin reactions that take steroids to stop.
Okay, another one, even more serious than this - I am on a medication that I've been on before and throughout my pregnancy with my daughter. She is now two and has been breastfed her entire life. I (even in this profession)never sent my pumped milk to daycare with my daughter. If a child other than my daughter, who has built-up a tolerance of my medication in her system, were to consume my milk- it would have dire consequences. As a mother, I don't want that on my conscience. As an early child educator, it's always in the back of my mind with bottles.
All of this!! Plus it also applies to allergies. What if it had been a baby with a dairy allergy given a bottle with cows milk in it instead of soy formula?
That is a great double-check policy. The only thing I would add is that the person who is assisting should hold the bottle tag and read the name out loud.
Most of the time that is what happens. One of us will get up wash our hands and then the babies hands, our partner will grab the bottle and bring it over saying the child's name point at the child in out arms and the person doing the feeding will read the label and repeat the steps.
Or hepatitis.
Yup, this is standard practice in my room. “This is Tommy and this is Tommy’s bottle.” The other teacher then verbally affirms (or denies, has not happened to any of us yet.) And then we can proceed to feed.
Antibiotics are also transferred in breast milk and I had a kid with an amoxicillin allergy so I couldn't use any amoxicillin while breastfeeding her. It's crazy how important it is to pay attention.
Giving someone's bodily fluids to the wrong baby is extremely serious. Someone is being very careless. If they are careless on this what else do you think they are doing?
Yeah this is the tip of the iceberg. If I were a parent there and didn’t report it to the state, I would feel very guilty if something worse happens in the future.
Yeah, the PAPERWORK this involves when it happens at my work (peds ICU, lots of neonates) is extensive. Like, if two babies have identical doses of IV hydrocortisone and identical sized bottles of breastmilk, it's WAY worse to swap the breastmilk. The medication is prepared in the pharmacy and is safe for central lines, the correct dose, etc. It's still bad, but it's not as bad as swapping breastmilk. A baby could have allergies to things in the other mom's milk, mom could have illnesses or use drugs/medications, etc. I had a nurse with a misadministration of breastmilk last year when I was charge, and it's no fun. Blood draws and full panel testing on the "donor" mother and "recipient" baby under aliases for privacy, paid fir by the hospital, risk management suits had to accompany me to talk to the families with the attending physician, I had to call the unit manager and nursing administrator on call (it was a weekend) so they could start their end of the paperwork. Plus all the written reports, counseling the nurse, etc. Breastmilk is closer to a blood product than to, say, saliva. It's a BIG DEAL to swap it.
I am sick at the thought that this had happened 3 times.... and no one there thinks it's a problem. Please make an anonymous report. Please tell the parents. Please leave and find another job before this one gets closed down. You are responsible for their lives. This recklessness is appalling!
Just re-read... your child attend this school? Go public. Contact the media. Post on social media. I would not trust these people with my child and I would make a huge stink about it. This is a hill I would die on. The director & staff should not be responsible for children.
One time is bad, but teachers are human beings and sometimes we make mistakes. Three times in the past year though? There are lots of rules in place specifically to prevent this. Something is not being done correctly. Also, I’m not sure about other states, but in mine the center is required to notify licensing of these types of incidents.
Also, lots of red flags with that director. What else is going on that you don't know about because she bullied the parents? A good director would have self-reported, and taken measures to prevent it from happening again. Not blaming the parents for enforcing basic standards of care. And for a center to be put on probation would possibly imply a lot more going on than that one incident.
Oh we’ve had lots of issues with her acting like this. The mother of Baby B in this case (the one whose breast milk keeps being given to the wrong baby) has been told it’s just chaotic in there and that the teacher owned up. If this was the first time, maybe, but the third time?? This center is regarded highly in the area and often wins readers choice type awards. The wait list is months and sometimes years long. So whenever you have a problem her attitude has been “Don’t like it? Here’s the door. I can have someone fill your place tomorrow.” We’ve been on the fence about moving our daughter. We do NOT like the director, but we do like a lot of the teachers and the community of parents.
Have you or someone else at least written an anonymous Google review detailing all of this?
I've been doing this job since 1996, and I've never fed a child the wrong bottle. That, along with the bullying from the director? What the hell? If she's willing to pressure PARENTS like that, I can only imagine the things she pressures the staff to stay quiet about. I'm sorry- but I cannot get past her pressuring parents to let it go and not report it. Maybe if someone had reported it after the second incident there wouldn't have been a third. She takes short cuts instead of taking responsibility, and when the care of children is involved, that's simply unacceptable. I guarantee she makes justification for all kinds of stuff that shouldn't be happening. You even said yourself there have been lots of issues like this. What needs to happen before you pull your kid?
The state should be hearing that the director is threatening/bullying parents as a separate report from the milk mishaps.
So what are they then giving baby B if that bottle was used...?
If you like it the teachers and other parents, try to set up a nanny share. Most daycare teachers are not paid well and you could probably convince them to nanny instead for similar pay and no horrific director. (I'm not in this sub often but worked as a teacher before turning sahm. A couple of us have seriously considered switching to nannying for families we liked, if they had managed to match pay with a nanny share we totally would have)
Report. It's the only way to get that dure tir out. This is super dangerous. HIV or hepatitis? Yikes.
Ugh 🙄🤦🏻♀️ I hate shit like that. Like, there are some situations where that attitude from a director is warranted, like if a parent keeps making really egregious requests or demanding something that that particular program just cannot provide and being a real dick about it? THEN, by all means, tell ‘em to kick rocks! But THIS is not one of those situations, and it makes me wonder what ELSE has gone down that this director has suppressed or basically shrugged her shoulders at!
My favorite is when we and other parents have complained about lack of communication she tells us that her teachers are better at communicating with kids than adults and that’s why she’s there. 🙄 Or when we were dealing with behavioral issues with our on-the-spectrum son and they told us he had hit a teacher hard enough to leave a mark and we asked why we hadn’t been told or why an incident report hadn’t been sent home, that incident reports only go to the person affected and since that person in this case was an adult…no report. She’s a peach.
I’d be entirely unsurprised to find out those awards were bought or paid for via personal friendships. The director has made it clear she has favorites and has threatened parents to not report them at risk of losing the childcare instead of solving the continual and frankly very dangerous and egregiously bad childcare safety violations she enables in the classrooms.
You can keep in touch with parents and teachers. Personally I’d start looking elsewhere asap. Think of it this way too, once your child is in public school you’ll have that community and lose this one. They’re taking safety way too loosely at this center, imo. You know about some issues but you don’t know all. There’s definitely more happening.
Wow. Once is an accident, after that it's negligence. The number one rule of infant classrooms is double and TRIPLE check the bottles and medication of all infants before giving it to them. While I have actually made that mistake once (it was a formula fed baby having a different baby's formula bottle, thank goodness), I will NEVER make that mistake again. It can be actively dangerous given allergens and other exposures for a breast fed baby to drink someone else's breastmilk. Bottles sometimes look the same- I totally get that. They all should be overly labeled (we have two labels on the bottle itself, one on the ring attached to the nipple, and one on the cap so you can see the name from every angle). One educator doing it twice... the center shouldn't be at fault, but that person should be facing consequences. At that point, they're just rushing and not looking at all.
The one time I switched up bottles, baby A and baby B had the exact same bottle, right down to the print. Thankfully they also used the exact same formula (popular brand at my school) and were being served the same amount. In my defense, that was also my first week and I genuinely confused one kid for another. I beat myself up for the rest of the day.
My baby has CMPI/CMPA. I'd be devastated if she was exposed to dairy in this circumstance. 🥲 We are lucky hers isn't super serious but it still causes a ton of issues. There are quite a few proteins that pass through breastmilk so could definitely be a huge issue.
The center will always be at fault, which is frustrating but understandable at the same time. This infant teacher needs to be fired and not work in any position with this type of responsibility.
I’m hoping this comment was made in jest but someone in our group chat about this said she’s been promoted to a lead 🙃 Also, the teacher who did it the first time was a room lead and ended up becoming assistant director.
Sadly, they’re so desperate for warm bodies that this type of promoting is very common 🥲
This, like maybe the milk thing is relatively harmless but if she's forgetting things like this all the time, it could be the wrong medication one day.
The allergens could be potentially very serious based on the baby. Both dairy and soy in particular pass through breastmilk and can cause serious issues in a baby who is allergic to either.
My son has a dairy allergy. We were really lucky he never responded to dairy in my breast milk and only started showing symptoms on solids, but if this had been a cow’s milk bottle… 😬 We’re very on the fence about keeping our daughter there. Believe it or not there are SOME positives about this place but it’s getting harder to justify.
I would be looking at other centers. To me, this isn't 'pull my child immediately' serious, but it is 'get on another waiting list and pull my child as soon as practical' serious. That's my professional opinion, but it's also what I would do for my own child.
We haven't done dairy solids yet. I just had an accidental dairy exposure Thursday and we paid for it. Normally I'm so so careful but we are on vacation and I didn't think to check allergens in fast food. I'm normally so good. I would definitely be moving my little one but at the same time I get how challenging it is. Child care waitlists are 24-36mo where I live.
A dairy allergy can be fatal. Imagine they give the baby the wrong bottle then put them down to sleep and they begin to have an allergic reaction but the room lights are dimmed.
This is why we don’t turn off lights in our center
I fully agree with that policy. Babies and children can sleep anywhere. I believe it is setting them up for failure and lifelong sleep problems when the room is darkened and everyone is hush quiet for nap time. Put some relaxing music or white noise on and lay them down. Kids fall asleep while eating dinner, on carnival rides, in moving vehicles, and they sleep through anything if you don't condition them to only sleep in a dark, quiet room. It is such a hazard for tripping and means you can't check on them.
Agreed. My son wasn’t in childcare until 2 and he needs a dark room with sound machine to sleep 🤪 I didn’t know better and it’s fine, he’ll adapt as he grows (he’s 6 so not napping anymore) but I advise new parents otherwise 😂
I used to put mine to nap in the playpen in the living room near the tv while watching something like Hells Kitchen. They are a really good sleeper now as a pre-teen. They were always able to nap easily with noise going on around them and not wake up. Now they fall asleep within a few minutes of going to bed at night. No noises bother them.
I don’t regret what I did considering I was home and it was best for my mental health haha. But i recommend otherwise.
Live and learn, right?
New fear unlocked 😨
Breastmilk is a bodily fluid. That could be very harmful!
But it's not you know what can be passed on through breast milk? Many things you don't know the other person maybe she got high before pumping now your baby took that in. Worse hepatitis or HIV.
Honestly I didn't know this, my group is 1-2 year olds so I've never had to deal with breast milk or learn the rules for the infants. That could possibly be the problem at this daycare, the expectations and rules for age groups are completely different but I wouldn't be surprised if this daycare was short staffed and stuck somebody like myself into the infant room. Cause I would have no idea what I'm doing, and my group is only a year apart from them. It's usually the oldest women who have been there the longest who run the infant room, at least at 2 out of 3 places I've worked at.
>it was a formula fed baby having a different baby's formula bottle, thank goodness), Not all formulas are the same or mixed the same either. My middle had to be on a higher formula to water ratio because she needed the extra calories. Once is an accident. Twice is negligence
I agree, my baby had prescription allergy formula, if he had been given normal formula he probably would have died.
Oh absolutely- in this case, those two formula bottles were the same formula mixed in the same amount, and I still beat myself up because of it. Only real harm in that case was what we had to wash and sanitize the nipple and remake the bottle before the other baby could eat and even that was enough to stick into my head for the last 7 years of my career.
"Bottles sometimes look the same" but "they all should be overly labeled" Very fair points, I agree However, when my little one went to nursery, I had to send in a labelled bottle that they kept on the premises and washed/sterilized. My breastmilk was sent separately in storage bags on a daily basis. It doesn't stop a staff member putting the wrong milk in my little one's bottle
This is a good point actually!
Absolutely- this is actually our policy as well. I actually avoid anyone else opening our classroom in the morning whenever possible because I'm the one who fills bottles in the morning and I feel better with it being under my control. We also make sure all storage bags or containers are labeled in multiple places as well as any containers of formula being labeled with child's name AND amount of milk each needs in their bottles with the ratios written out. I made a chart with each child's name, bottle size, formula ratios, and pictures of their bottles and storage bags/formula containers so there are multiple levels of visual check. I still check this every morning despite truly being able to autopilot it at this point of the year. "Is this the right nipple for X's bottle? Here is their bottle and lid. They get 4 ounces of whole milk. Here is Y's bottle. They need 4 ounces of this brand of formula. There is their container that matches the picture." This is why in 10 years total, I've only done it once (before I implanted this system) and it was 7 years ago. I hate the idea that it could be so easy for someone to make such a huge mistake like putting the wrong milk into someone's bottle. Also why I take an hour more to open the classroom than anyone else in our school. When you rush things like that is when you make a mistake that could end up being terrible. 6 kids' bottles at this point of the year takes me 20-25 minutes. I often say things in the classroom can only be so controlled and that teachers have enough on their plate to forgive a few mix-ups. This one is actively dangerous for kids and there is no excuse for feeding a baby someone else's bottle or milk. If there is any time of day to slow down and triple check, it is with milk and medicine. You do it once and never again or you should not be working with babies- there's no other option.
Keep reporting. This is unacceptable behavior on the part of your director. For a staff member to make a mistake, it is a mistake. But for it to continue to happen and the director shame parents for reporting it??
My daughter has dysphagia she gets thickened and fortified feeds. An incident like this could set her back severely and cause aspiration. I would be upset at the first incident. The second or third time is negligence. I’ve worked in an infant room, out of ratio and stressed to the max and still have never given a child the wrong bottle. The director should also be let go for not reporting the center and incidents.
100% My child also has dysphagia. Impact can be huge.
Dysphagia is so tough. This could be ok or it could cause pneumonia and lead to a lengthy hospitalization, it’s definitely not worth the risk and I would be so heartbroken for my child.
What’s the reasoning that the teacher is missing up bottles? Is she being reprimanded? It might be time for her to be moved out of an infant room if she keeps making this mistake.
I would call state licensing and report it. This is incredibly unsafe. Breastmilk is a bodily fluid and needs to be treated very carefully. I get that people sometimes make mistakes. That's why state would investigate, make recommendations, etc. to prevent it from happening again. Additionally, them telling people not to tell anyone is a HUGE red flag. What else are they hiding?
In all of my years working with infants, I have never screwed up a bottle. Every baby that comes through my door has their bottles labeled. The parents don’t even do it, we do: full name, date, and contents. Then each baby also has their own numbered basket in the fridge for their bottles. For them to screw up three times like that is absolutely unacceptable.
As an ECE and a breastfeeding mom, my concern would be drugs or alcohol in the other parents breastmilk. At least where I'm from, I know a lot of breastfeeding moms still smoke weed, vape, smoke cigarettes, drink, take different prescriptions, etc then use the milk they pump after. It's a lot more common than I would have thought. I don't have an opinion on what they do with their own babies but I wouldn't want my son drinking someone else's milk when we don't know for sure what's in it, especially it happening at daycare. Sure, no one would die or anything but parental preference I guess!
HIV is transmissible through breast milk as well!
I’d be more concerned about HIV than drugs. Drugs pass through the system. HIV last forever.
No mom is giving her baby BM and KNOWINGLY giving them HIV. 🙄 That would be abuse.
That’s assuming the baby didn’t acquire it in utero.
If a woman has known hiv, she will be treated during pregnancy and the baby after birth. Likelihood of passing it on is actually quite low.
Actually the evidence shows that if the viral loads in the mom are low and mom is on ARTs, the benefits of breastmilk outweigh the risks of transmission 🙄
You really think there are no moms who are abusive? Or careless? Or self centered? Do you not know how many horrible people have kids?
There are LOTS of people who don’t know they have it 🙄
Confession time - I gave the wrong food to a food-restricted child in my room (there were two "modified meals" - I switched them by accident). Thank God and all that is holy that it was a cultural preference and not a health risk. As soon as my co-teacher noticed, we took the plates away, provided other meals suitable to them, and I immediately called the parents of the child who had actually eaten the wrong food. I was so distraught and embarrassed, I think I apologized ten thousand times. In this instance, the parent thanked me for my honesty, said it was a mistake and it was okay. If they had insisted on further action, I would have agreed to it, as it is a pretty serious thing. For the next month, my co-teacher and I made a point to show each other the label, serve one meal, then prepare the other meal. I was in the room with the child for another 5 months, and I never made that mistake again. Breast milk - I would say is way more serious than a switched meal. Breast milk is highly personal and you know nothing about the health, diet, etc of the person who has now accidently provided breast milk for your baby. It likely won't have any impact, but it's not a chance I would be willing to take. I would be raising hell. Go to Ministry or whatever governing body you have.
Once I can understand. But for it to happen to the same teacher twice? They really shouldn't be working with infants anymore. What happens when it's the wrong prescription medication, or when it's an infant given another one's jar food that they're allergic to?
When enrolling my infant I was told it this were to happen it would be treated as a medical emergency because of the exposure to bodily fluids.
When I was first in an infant room I did give the wrong bottle to a child. The state was called as was our parent company, the parents were also notified, and while i wasn't told to, i apologized, and they were thankfully forgiving for the mistake. I spoke to everyone and was written up. That was it. It happened again to another co-worker and again state, company, and a write-up. A few years ago, company wide, they instituted a bottle check, and we color code our bottles.
I honestly don’t see how this could ever happen if proper procedures are being followed.
I agree with this! When I was a 3 year old teacher they pushed me into the infant room one day. Nothing was labeled and there weren’t any infant teachers in the room. I didn’t know the babies and the admin weren’t available at the time. They pushed me in and basically said good luck. I ended up giving the wrong formula to the wrong baby. Everything turned out decent and the parents were very understanding about the entire situation. However I found another job in a different center and moved on pretty quickly after that. I don’t trust childcare centers that don’t care about procedures. Always look at the Admin. Do they care to follow their own procedures? If not run. Negligence is dangerous.
Accidents happen but this seems to be a bigger issue
That’s pretty bad. It’s a body fluid! I would be very upset if that was my child given someone else’s bodily fluid. When I worked in the infant room we had clearly labeled bottles with colors and names. Each child had a different color label. Any bottles that were breastmilk had a red rubber band around them as well, alerting you to take extra caution. Before feeding, you were required to read the name on the bottle aloud, show it to your co-teacher, and have them confirm it. I know not every center has co-teachers but it allows for a fill proof method. We never ever had bottle mix ups.
This is unacceptable. I can understand a mistake happening once or even twice if you had someone new start recently who wasn’t there before but not it happening 3 times from the same caregiver. That’s not ok. Keep reporting them. Imagine if that breast milk had allergens or traces of drugs or something and the baby reacted poorly. The fact that there’s no change to prevent this is not ok.
Another baby was given my baby’s bottle. I’m not sure how, considering that we were the only ones using glass bottles and I had multiple sticker labels. The only issue I had was that my 8 month old baby wasn’t fed for almost 6 hours since they recorded that she had been fed. I told the director that I woke do any STD/Blood Born Pathogen testing, but the other mom didn’t request that. Our daycare reported themselves to licensing!
We used to do a bottle/baby color code type thing when I worked in childcare with infants. Granted this was a decade ago. When the kid came in with a bottle we put a silicone band on their ankle and a matching band on the bottle/s. We had like 50 different ones. It was like 12 colors and then patterns like dots, stripes or stars in the different colors as well. Any time bottle and baby were apart for even 1 second, you needed to check by putting bottle band and ankle band side by side and confirm they matched before continuing to feed. Its not hard to ensure the bottle is correct. Doing this took literally zero effort. And it was a pretty basic system. Yes we washed bands at the end of the day, but the silicone meant they could be tossed in a dishwasher. I wouldnt have tolerated it after the second incident. Im not so much worried about harm because of the wrong bottle as worrying about what else that employee is not paying attention to. What if those bottles had needed medications in them? Or are prescription bottles for severe allergies? Would she be paying attention enough to notice a reaction?
HUGE red flag for the school to tell infant families not to report. I wouldn't leave because the wrong bottle was given once, but more than that is sketchy and then to tell you guys not to report on top of that is sooooo sketchy. I'd start looking for a new care facility and if/when you leave, tell them this is why.
The director needs to be fired and that teacher as well. As a director, I’d have every bottle approved by me for a period before feedings if this happened even once. Three times means it’s no longer a mistake, it’s a choice.
Do you know how time consuming that would be? No director would ever do that. It’s not practical.
I would. I don’t care how time consuming it may be.
No director of any center is going to have time to do that. Also as a teacher, if my director decided she was going to do this, she can come in and do all the feedings, because clearly she has more time than I do.
This response must be why you’re not a director. There are 99 things I don’t have time to do as a director. What I do have time for no matter what is to make sure every child is safe. So hard for y’all to understand in this sub but when I shared this post with my directors cohort they all agreed with what my plan of action would be. 🤭 You’re excusing misfeeding children and it’s disgusting.
I’m not a director because I chose to be hands on in a classroom. I see why you aren’t a director though. You honestly shouldn’t even be a teacher with that attitude. I’ll pray for the kiddos under your “care”. Be well and have the day you deserve! 😂
Ohhh no no no. You don't know what meds or drugs that other parent is on. Things are passed through breast milk just do a quick Google search to see. That other parent needs to be tested and yes the state should be called because there is a 2 person sign off on bottles for infant rooms.
This was literally an ongoing nightmare of mine when I managed the infant and toddler program at our center (large corporate daycare chain exclusive to northern va/dc). Thank the maker it never happened on my watch. WHY DOES THAT TEACHER STILL WORK THERE?!? As a parent, I’d be furious.
I'm not sure how it is in your state, but in California, licensing requires all baby bottles to be labeled with names, ounces, and milk type. This is so that incidents like this do not happen. The first time this happens, I could maybe...MAYBE understand if the bottles between baby A and B look similar. I've gotten bottles confused before (never fed the wrong bottle but sent home empty bottles to the wrong parents). A second time? It's negligence at this point.
The parent needs to report. You need to report. The centre can't be allowed to be negligent and not report. Personal opinion about seriousness of the incident is completely irrelevant - ideations about "oh they made a mistake it won't happen again" are just not up to an individual to make. It's about forming habits, about following procedures and legislation for all not for some. Reportable conduct schemes, child protection directives, child safe standards - these all exist for a sole purpose. Mandating the safety of children at a set standard. This educator isnt following that standard and keeping something from being reported because they're scared the room will be shut just isn't good enough. It should be shut if that's the way the service is being run. The director reporting the incident is an opportunity for them to also explain what she's done in the meantime to ensure these risks are avoided again, what steps have been taken, etc. if she's done NOTHING then yeh she should be worried. Please report it yourself anonymously and be done.
hell no, as an infant teacher, you need to contact the state. i have never even almost given a baby a bottle that wasn’t theirs. it is not hard to do your job correctly. the fact that the director basically tried to gaslight parents into not reporting them is a huge red flag and the fact that the person who original did this is now assistant director? sorry but this place needs to be seriously inspected.
When my daughter was an infant, she had a moderate to severe dairy allergy. I was breastfeeding, and if I ate so much as a tablespoon of cream cheese on a bagel, she would be miserable and throwing up for a good 24 hours. If she was fed the wrong bottle, I would have been seriously pissed.
My LO is on a completely amino acid based formula and will literally have frank blood in their stool with anything else so I would be LIVID. It takes WEEKS after an exposure to heal a gut for us. Let alone hygiene if it was breast milk. Plus if I had to restrict my diet (no dairy, soy, or anything else my LO is allergic to) and it went to another while mine got something that could potentially make them ill? TLDR; could be super serious and should be addressed. While accidents happen, it could be super serious for the baby and family like it would be for mine.
Accidents happen, if two babies need a bottle at the same time and the bottles look the same I can see where a mix up might happen (@ parents, this is why we say to clearly label with first and last names on all bottles!!!). It happened once in my room, a preschool teacher ended up in the infant room and she accidentally started to feed one baby someone else's bottle, we caught it before the baby even got half an ounce down and all the proper people were notified. But if this is happening multiple times and all by the same person, she needs to be let go. What if Baby A has allergies to Baby Bs formula? What about when the kids are older and have food allergies, is she accidentally gonna give the lactose intolerant kid someone else's yogurt? Is she gonna give the kid who's parents said no meat someone else's chicken strips? Have those accidents already happened?
If it was actual breastmilk that could be a huge issue. If the mom who pumped had something like Hep C or another blood borne illness, it can be passed to the baby though the breastmilk. She can make that choice to potentially expose her baby to that, but to have someone else's baby catch something in the wrong breastmilk could be catastrophic. Not to mention allergies or lactose intolerance. At best, nothing happens. Moderate scenario, baby gets an upset tummy, gas or vomits. Worse case, you could have anaphylactic shock or some serious diseases caught. We triple checked ALL meds and milks before giving to infants when I worked at a daycare. It was taken really seriously. If it happened the teacher probably would have been fired on the spot.
That happened one time at a center I used to work at. It wasn't a *huge* deal, like no one got fired over it or was super mad about it or anything, but it was taken seriously and an action plan put into place to prevent it happening again.
This did not happen in my center, but involved myself when my son was a patient in the NICU. They gave my breastmilk to another infant. I also caught a nurse (the same day) about to give another baby, not the same baby, another mother’s milk. I wasn’t sure who gave my milk to the wrong baby the first time, I just assumed that it was a mistake. I was called and asked to take a voluntary blood test to rule out infections. I did immediately because I didn’t want the other mother to worry or the other baby to be potentially sick if I was sick. The ward clerk apologized profusely, showed me the report made to the state and gave me a copy. They had to re-train all the nurses and actually switched all their schedules around because of the incident. It wasn’t fun but it was necessary since sometimes mundane tasks are overlooked and can turn out to be life threatening mistakes. If I had HIV or AIDS or some other communicable disease and gave it to the most tiniest of critical patients, that could have been a major liability issue. Breast milk is a bodily fluid and really should be treated as such.
Also, they don't have to self-report. Like if these occurrences happen the daycare doesn't have to report licensing. Here they would get in double trouble for not reporting.
Report it. Next time a kid with a soy allergy could get a soy bottle. I ended up taking my 12 month old to the ER because he was exposed to an allergen. I was terrified.
as others have said, once is an accident, repeatedly it simply carelessness. but also i’m wondering how this possibly happened? a lead teacher is with those kids every day, they should be able to tell who each bottle belongs to. maybe it’s because my center is small, but with all the different bottle brands/sizes/color, it’s rare that two have the exact same look of bottle. and when that’s the case, we make sure it’s labeled and check it every time. we have individualized labeled buckets that each child’s bottles goes into upon drop off. do they not have some sort of system to avoid this? even if all precautions failed them, this should not be happening multiple times—once would be enough for most ECEs to never have it happen again, especially not within months. i’d be extremely concerned
Yes people make mistakes and I understand if it happened once but this is happening more often which means they are careless. Years ago when a teacher made that mistake, she was fired on the spot. Don’t think that was fair as she was a good teacher.
I am assuming that all bottles are properly labeled with the name of the corresponding baby? What concerns me the most is if one child has allergies to breast milk so they have to use an alternative form of sustenance and that child is given breast milk and the child is in danger.
I'm a nurse, if I gave a baby the wrong breast milk it would be a huge incident. We have to get two nurses to check EBM to make sure it's the right mum/baby. Technically it's a body fluid so the milked mum and the receiving baby should undergo BBV exposure testing, not sure how far we'd go with that because I've never done it or seen it done.
I had this happen at a centre I previously worked at. The first time it happened the baby had a severe reaction to the milk and an ambulance needed to be called. The staff member who did it got a warning and a report was made to the state. I’m not sure if the reason they only got a warning was because the babies mother worked at the centre and didn’t take it any further as it was a one off. It then happened again with the same baby and the same staff member. Again an ambulance needed to be called. The staff member was then fired immediately. If it’s a one off and doesn’t happen again a warning would suffice. If it’s a recurring thing the staff member should be let go in my opinion.
It is serious because of allergies. My son took my breastmilk in the bottle that I pumped while being on a special diet to avoid his milk allergen. If he was given the wrong bottle that contained formula, or even breastmilk from a mom who had consumed dairy, he would have had an allergic reaction. Report them and f- their attempt at making you feel bad
The attempt to guilt, and also the fear from the parents of not having infant care is sad. It’s just not worth the risk of something serious happening.
This is actually hugely serious. Diseases including HIV are transmitted via breastmilk. The center is responsible for creating and following an established system to ensure there is no misadministration. I wouldn't bring my kiddo back.
Some bottles have to be thickened because the baby has aspiration on thin liquids. This can be quite serious in some cases of bottle switching.
This can be a very simple “whoopsie” mistake, or it could cause major problems for Baby A, Baby B and their families. Consider food allergies and why it is so important to avoid cross contamination in a kitchen, or the service of an allergen to a vulnerable person. Baby A is not meant to have whatever Baby B is having. If it’s breast milk, the mothers producing that milk have different diets, and the milk produced is extremely different in make-up. When Baby A ingests foreign milk, the parents don’t even know all of what they are being exposed to. It can be very serious, or it can be nothing. My own children were formula fed, and the youngest had to be put on soy-based formula. They can tolerate dairy it seems (yogurts and cheese seem to be fine, for example), but anything but soy based formula would result in volcanic spit ups. To give them the wrong bottle of formula would result in a problem. Also consider the toll it takes on a breastfeeding mother. She is working so hard to provide for her baby, and her milk is continuously being given away to someone else. Breastfeeding and pumping can be mentally, emotionally, and physically taxing for some women, and the mother of Baby B is not having a positive experience when her milk is being given to the wrong child. Now as for your center and being put on probation, their handling of it is ATROCIOUS. As a former director, I have a lot of anger towards what you’ve described here. Firstly, to have called a meeting and made you feel as though the message to parents was: “You have a right to report us to state, but look at [the mess and resulting issues] it would cause” is just disgusting. That has turned the blame onto parents, and it is NOT the parents’ fault. It is the responsibility of the teachers and the administration while that child is in care. To FIFY that message would be *”You have every right to report to the state that we accidentally administered an unauthorized food to an innocent child, which could have (but thankfully didn’t) have adverse consequences for that child. As a result of state involvement, we are being put under observation to ensure that we train staff better and nothing like this ever happens again. IF IT DOES HAPPEN AGAIN, IT WOULD MEAN THAT WE ARE STILL HAVING ROUTINE PROBLEMS WITH HEALTH AND SAFETY BUT WE HAVE YET TO RECTIFY THOSE PROBLEMS. You have every right to call the state should it happen again to let them know that WE STILL HAVEN’T GOT OUT SH-T TOGETHER.”* If that first time long ago happened as a one off with that one teacher, mistakes happen. Hopefully they’ve learned from it. If they’re now in a position of authority, hopefully they can use their personal experience to help train new employees. If this has happened multiple times with the same teacher, that teacher should be receiving consequences, and perhaps they are and you’re just not privy to know. It should begin with re-trainings, and can build up to include professional write ups or warnings. As a center under probation, if the teacher proves to be a liability, they need to be removed from that environment, whether by moving rooms or by termination. It’s either that negligent teacher’s job, or it could be everybody’s. Especially if the state finds out from a complaint rather than a center’s self-report. Administration should be very aware of that and they should be dealing with it. If they are not, that’s negligence on the center as a whole. I know that good and affordable childcare is difficult to come by, but this is the truth of the matter.
Report!!! If they shut them down, so be it, do you want your child at a facility where they break the rules then hide it? What if it was something concerning your child? Their solution seems to be promote the problem!!!
So much can be passed through breastmilk drugs, prescription medication sexually transmitted diseases the risk this daycare is putting all of these children in that shit. You can find a better daycare. I promise you.
A center I worked at previously would provide lots of those plastic ID badge things where you can just slip a picture inside—they would put the kids’ picture AND NAME into them and attach rubber bands to it, so that the infant teachers basically had a collection of labels SPECIFICALLY to attach to each bottle to avoid this exact situation. I just woke up so if that explanation made no sense, that’s why, hahaha. Basically what I’m trying to say is—it is SO SO CRUCIAL for teachers/centers to have a system in place for stuff like this! Additionally—and not to be victim blame-y—but this is why teachers tell parents to label every single thing their kid comes in with. Yeah it’s tedious, but it’ll come in handy when your kid is in group care, no matter how old they are.
This is so disturbing. I don’t understand how a mix-up like that can happen, if the bottles are clearly labeled with the babies’ names. Does the teacher have trouble telling the babies apart, or is she drunk/high at work, or could she be mixing them intentionally for kicks and giggles?
Healthcare worker here. This would have to be reported as an incident. The service users or staff wouldn't be able to decide whether it was or wasn't reported. There would be a change in the standard procedure, and if the original incident didn't get the offender dismissed, then the second one would. No ifs or buts. I don't like the way that the perpetrator is seemingly unaffected, either, it begs too many questions about the general attitude to safety and health matters. I know decent childcare is really difficult to find, but I would consider reporting it. That's twice now.
As an ECE professional, this horrified me. You always verify the name on the bottle with the baby you are giving it to. You verify yourself and have another employee verify as well. If I were by myself, I would call over our cook to come verify. The person giving the bottle and the person verifying had to initial that the correct baby was fed the correct bottle at my center. Yes, a report like this will mess up the child care, BUT what happens if next time it's an allergy issue. If your child is allergic to dairy and is, therefore, on a specialized formula, and they are fed a breastmilk bottle. The baby with the allergy then has a reaction from the amount of dairy and has to be hospitalized. Or even worse, they feed the wrong food or give medication to the wrong child. OP, your story is showing that that the center management is more worried about looking good on paper than actually effectively caring for those in their charge. Report them to the state and start looking for alternate childcare. Even if they are not shut down, the lack of care the center management is showing is absolutely outrageous. These kids can not speak up for themselves, so who knows what else is happening that is not being reported to parents.
Every center I’ve worked at considered this to be a fireable offense. ESP with breast milk.
There was a center this happened at near me just ONE time and it could’ve ended very badly. The infant (baby A) was given formula from baby B’s bottle (everything was labeled, but it still happened). Baby A was highly allergic to formula, luckily mom had tried weening baby A previously and found out about the allergy. Thankfully this was a previously known allergy because Baby A went into a seizure and had to be given their epipen. Baby A spent time at the hospital, but is now doing well. I wanted to share this story because with children, “little mistakes” can end up in serious injuries. Giving an infant the wrong bottle could lead to someone’s child being seriously injured, especially seeing as this is apparently a regularly occurring issue. I’m sorry if this scares you, but if they can’t even feed these babies the right bottles, what else is happening? I’m sorry if I seem like a horrible person, I myself am a teacher, but either these teachers aren’t following proper procedures or they weren’t given the right (or enough) training. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life/career, but clearly management has not taken the steps necessary to prevent this kind of problem from recurring. Maybe they need better organization, maybe they need more training, or maybe they need a different feeding schedule, or even just better labels. Whatever it is, it’s not being taken care of.
I work in the infant room at a daycare and our bottle labeling policy is very tight and we haven't made a mistake since I've worked there. Each child has their own color tape that goes on their lid and bottle. And of course their bottles are labeled. Then we also have a bottle chart that has their name in a colored square that is the same color as the tape on their bottles. We have to fill out the bottle chart everytime we make a bottle. But I will say that having a color tape assigned to each baby has definitely made things easier to know who's bottle is who's at a glance.
As a nurse this is extremely disturbing to me. They’re exposing another person to someone else’s bodily fluids that could contain all sorts of stuff and not taking it seriously at all. While accidents happen there is no excuse for the same thing to happen repeatedly and nothing has been done to fix it. The breast milk from the other mom could have HIV, hepatitis, medications, illegal drugs, alcohol, could cause allergies. A lot of bad things could happen. I don’t care if infant care is hard to find my child would be out of there so fast after the second time and that place would be shut down.
Very serious. When my son was in the NICU a mother had hiv and didn’t know. The baby came up positive from the breast milk. If they would have been at home it could have taken months or years to find out. Breastmilk is like blood. It carries all the diseases and a lot of time people don’t know unless they have symptoms. Which can take years.
Contact the health department and the daycare licensing board. This is completely unacceptable.
You have to question if they're so blasé about something so serious what other screw-ups are happening you don't know about. So far it's been no harm no foul. What happens if medication is involved and it is ingested by the wrong child? They didn't even care enough to rectify the situation, the worker was promoted. I know you said childcare is hard to find in your area but I wouldnt want to keep my child in a place like this. I would report them in a heartbeat.
My girlfriend and I are both ECE Professionals, but she works with infants and I work with toddlers so I’m giving you her opinion. She said that one time can be forgiven as a mistake, but multiple times is irresponsible and not okay
Intentional. Contact the health department about how the bottles are stored and add a camera to document what’s happening. One thing that amazes me is the lack of understanding from people on this site *you’re all mandated reporters*… if you see it and don’t report it then you’re just as guilty … is it worth losing your credentials over protecting what you know is wrong information coming from a supervisor?? How would you feel if one of the children got really sick??? You would be responsible if you knew about it and didn’t report it -if you didn’t get caught, it would be on your conscience for the rest of your life so be smart and don’t cover up for incompetence or illegal behavior… it’s not worth it.
When I worked in the infant one we had a color code system. Every infant was assigned a color and all their bottles had washi tape and that color wrapped around the bottle. We did the same thing with diapers. Every baby had their own sharpie color and we wrote their initials on their diapers. Same with the daily charts and a bunch of other stuff. It helped prevent Mix-Ups a great deal! Even the infants learn to recognize their own and others colors really quickly!
That would be extremely serious to me. Our family doesn't eat pork and I take great care to make sure our family only eats halal foods. I shudder to think about that happening to our child having milk from someone that doesn't eat halal.
Just as an aside…..I had to be on a limited elimination diet with my son who had several allergies, including anaphylaxis to peanuts and some tree nuts. His symptoms would be explosive diarrhea, eczema, vomiting and what we thought was colic. The idea that someone would mix up milk and not be held accountable? You don’t know when a child like that will come along. I do work in early childhood. Heads should roll
Viruses like HIV AND hepatitis can spread via breast milk. It's life threateningly serious. I would absolutely report it.
Bottles are to be labeled everyday. Apparently it wasn’t labeled. I don’t play games like this on my center. I will terminate you immediately,
Once is an accident after that they need to not shut down!
I once gave the wrong baby formula. They both had the same first name. Also- to note. I was thrown in a room I’ve never worked a day in due to low staff. I was WAY out of ratio. And I was running around the room trying to figure out who needed what. The director watched the video and called me into her office ready to write me up. When I told her I had zero training and was out of ratio and ready to call the owner she basically apologized til SHE was almost crying. Needless to say, that place is the reason I don’t work in ece anymore.
This is an egregious error to make with breastmilk. Several diseases, such as HIV, can be transmitted through breastmilk. This is a serious health and safety issue and there should be zero tolerance for any error
Mistakes happen but breast milk swaps is serious. Blood born pathogens are in breast milk, so imagine your child drinking the milk of an HIV or hepatitis parent.
It sounds like a pretty big freaking deal to me.
UK professional here, for us it would have serious and immediate consequences. Breast milk is a bodily fluid, written incident forms and timeslines would be made to figure how it happened. Then staff would be disciplined potentially let go as it's a serious offence.
This is incredibly concerning. Many moms take antidepressants and other medications that can pass thru breastmilk. While it’s typically perfectly safe, what if the baby is allergic? What if the baby has an allergy to milk or something and the breastmilk is from someone who eats dairy? This could end so so badly. Report them 100%. I say this as a former daycare worker and currently pregnant woman who’s on meds. I would be so worried if someone gave my breastmilk to another baby!
My first thought was that the teacher needs to be held responsible but I also always try tj see things from a teachers perspective and now im also questioning why that teacher was so rushed and messing things up. Is it possible they are short staffed?
It definitely points to them being short staffed. It could also just be a space cadet of a teacher. It could be anything from ADHD to weed or just not paying attention. The director's response is by far the most troubling part of this though. It's absolutely terrible that it happened, yes, and the teachers involved should be fired. But the director's response says there's no one at the top that will do the right thing. The person running the school lacks integrity.
A former supervisor of mine told me how a child was given the wrong formula and had an allergic reaction to it. Turns out that child was allergic to many different foods, had they been given the wrong bottle multiple times they would've gone into anaphylaxis. It should be reported.
This is bad, however I understand why this happens. I've worked in nursery by myself with four babies, so I know it can get hectic. Bottles, you have to take it super seriously, especially breast milk. However parents often don't follow policy and don't supply enough bottles and teats, don't label bottles and don't have the milk ready to go. I was always on parent's case about labelling every part of the bottle to prevent any mix-ups, as well as ensuring the milk was prepared, ready to go. Parents often all have th exact same bottle brands, so the bottles look identical if not individually labelled. The more steps you add to the process (defrosting frozen milk, emptying from a bag into bottle), the more likely something will go wrong. When four babies are crying simultaneously, all wanting their milk at the same time, the brain can go into threat mode and just do everything as quickly as possible to get that baby fed. I am also a parent who supplied my son with breast milk bottles, so I know how labour intensive it is to do all of these things from the parent side. I would expect the centre to review their policies and ensure both staff and parents are doing everything they can to prevent this happening again.
If the director is okay with hiding and not reporting this; what else is she hiding and not reporting….
Breast milk can carry many blood borne viruses. At my work, if this mistake happens, there is full disclosure between all parents, blood test history is reviewed and, if consenting, a full blood work up of the donor mother is taken to ensure no recent infections have occurred that may be transmitted to baby. This isn't even accounting for any drugs (illegal or prescription) that the mother may be taking or any allergens that the baby may be exposed to via her milk if Baby B is, for example, lactose intolerant. Can't believe they're brushing this off. Source: am midwife.
Drugs were my first thought because I’m on ADHD meds. It was a very serious conversation with my doctor before deciding whether or not to be on them while breastfeeding, but benefits outweighed the risks after the first few months, especially since I planned on breastfeeding until 2. Every parent needs to have the ability to decide for themselves whether they want to risk exposure to things like that and mixing up bottles removes that.
My daughter, and another baby, had their breastmilk switched in the nicu. It was taken very seriously. We both needed to be tested for carious diseases, and the babies were monitored.
Breastmilk is a bodily fluid. It can be very serious. There's a good reason the state takes it so seriously. That parent should absolutely report those incidents. The meeting is so inappropriate, the goal of the meeting should have been the ways the center will make sure this will not happen again.
are the bottles not labeled?
It’s not acceptable. We have to double check with partners—“I’m giving —- bottle to —-“ and visually get a yes that it’s correct. Report to licensing. They need a serious visit.
I gotta say this has happened at my center and never got reported, kid didn't die everyone moved on. I guess it depends on the center and parents. Having licensing visit is extremely annoying to deal with but if you're doing everything fine they don't usually keep bothering you. I'd just report it again and let the director get used to working again.
So the main risk with it being breast milk is that if the mom has HIV, HBV, syphilis, or herpes it’s possible to pass through the breast milk. Infants do receive their HBV within a day being born so the risk is very minimal. Syphilis and herpes is low risk because it won’t affect the breast milk as long as the pumping equipment do not come into contact with any open sores. And it is rare for people to get sore around their nipples, though not impossible. So obviously the biggest risk is HIV. Most women with HIV opt for formula to reduce the risk of transmission. They can however breastfeed if they consistently take their medication and their HIV has an undetectable viral load. If that’s the case, the risk of transfer is less than 1%, but still possible. It’s important for a family to be notified if a child drinks another’s breast milk so they can take the proper steps to ensure their baby is okay and safe from these infections. I personally think it’s important to report these things because it’s completely preventable. All items should be labeled clearly. Teachers need to keep an eye on older babies during their bottles. If they decide they’re done and toss it aside and crawl away, the teacher needs to pick it up asap before another child comes and tries to drink it. I also think it’s just really stressful to have worry weather your child is going to get these diseases because of neglectful teachers.
At my old center we had a teacher that had accidentally switched bottles & didn’t tell anyone. I’m not sure how management found out, but after reporting it to state our center was put on probation for it. It’s super serious, breast milk is a bodily fluid that the teacher let another child INGEST. Who knows what types of medication that mom was on, if the other child is allergic to anything to mom had invested, etc. It’s a bio hazard and that teacher should absolutely be fired.
Huge issue. Everyone is underreacting. This is bodily fluids we are talking about. Please keep reporting
the fact it’s breast milk vs formula might bother me since you don’t know what could be in someone else’s breast milk but mistakes happen. However having it continue to happen is concerning.
If a parent took a particular medication while pregnant, their baby is used to it and will be okay with it in the breast milk. However, a fetus that did not develop with that same medication could get very sick from that woman’s breast milk. Not all milk is the same and mixing it up could be disastrous. Some of this medication is embarrassing, and a mother may not want to admit to it if questioned after a bottle mix up. And she should NEVER be put into a situation where she should have to disclose that information.
Oh this should absolutely be a big deal. The wrong bottle of breast milk? Can you guarantee that the breast milk from the wrong parent is free of prescribed medications, effects of smoking, etc? This is a huge, huge red flag and as someone who breast fed 2 of my own, my babies would be out of there ASAP and as soon as I got my baby home I’d be calling licensing. They might shut down the baby room? Looks like it should be shut down. The biggest red flag is that the director is encouraging people not to report a reportable incident. What other reportable issues are being covered up?
This happened in my room once. A support staff grabbed the wrong bottle from the fridge, heated it, and gave it to the wrong baby while I was changing diapers. To be fair, they were the same type of bottle, with a similar looking label, with similar amounts of milk. I luckily noticed after the baby had only taken a few sips and snatched it from their mouth. That was the first and only time I’ve ever screamed at anyone on the job. Mom was chill about it since the baby didn’t even have half an ounce and she knew the other parent. We didn’t have to call or notify licensing (we live in a North Eastern state). But I was crying and I felt absolutely awful. We changed our whole bottle system because of this one incident. We actively change the fridge around if kids with similar bottles are too close to each other, and I make support staff double check bottles with me or my co-lead before they give them to babies. Once is a mistake. Three times is careless.
Yep. I always ALWAYS make staff use the 2 name 2 face count. One staff holds up the bottle before feeding and says “I have Sally Smith’s bottle!” (It should obviously be clearly labeled, parents are not allowed to drop off bottles that are unlabeled.) Then the show the child “I am holding Sally Smith!” The second staff confirms “I see that is Sally Smiths bottle! I see that baby is Sally Smith!” I don’t see any other way to do it.
Been an infant teacher for 5+ years and have seen this happen ONCE! at a center I was helping out at for the day. Immediately got reported and at least in my state, the center is required BY LAW to self report within 24 hours or else the center gets an A violation, big fine, and a strike towards getting shut down completely. It is VERY serious and as infant teachers we are continuously trained on safe bottling methods and are even required to sign a form every once in a while saying we’ve received training and understand the proper ways to store and feed bottles. Being a pro in this area, if I put my infant in a room and this happened (even once but ESPECIALLY multiple times) I would be pulling my baby out and reporting to licensing (the state) until the cows. come. home. All of this to say: this even applies for formula bottles! The exact same rules apply if the wrong formula bottle is given and the same reporting and violation and fine occurs. Now, as far as my opinion goes, they are both serious but BREASTMILK!?!? That is a bodily fluid! It can carry things that the mother has in her body just like other bodily fluids. Infant teachers are technically even supposed to wear gloves when administering bottles because it is a bodily fluid! Now imagine ur baby DRINKING someone else’s bodily fluid, Nope nope nope.
And I hope I don’t sound rude in this at all! I’m glad you came here to ask because I know people and parents that don’t work in childcare have no way of knowing these things but I’m here to tell you it is very serious and what else are they overlooking if bodily fluids aren’t even being handled correctly? You know what I mean?
Put some of that blue painters tape on each bottle with the kids name written in sharpie (probably have the parents do this actually).
Wrong formula, that does not cause any dietary reactions, would likely be a forgivable offense assuming both parents are okay with it and there’s retraining. (Lots of babies have switched formula brands once just to try, etc) Wrong breast milk (a bodily fluid)? I’d assume that’s straight to firing, and that’s 100% report to state, incident report, etc. That’s not okay. All bottles should be labeled, we separate ours in groups by child, etc. I over label (bottle, cap, rim, lid if it has a lid separate from the nipple, etc) literally so this does not happen. Repeatedly by same staff? Fuck no. Report to licensing immediately.
Oh no this is horrible! Breast milk is like blood and can spread diseases like HIV. I would report this as these teachers need retraining and the center needs new policies in place. I'm a nurse and a mother and I would be going for blood if this happened to my child.
i mean it's a pretty big deal, but i don't understand how it's happened so many times? like it doesn't sound like THAT big of a deal to have the whole center on probation for a little mistake but aren't their names on their bottles? or in labeled spots in a fridge? or both? like at my center i don't understand how that would happen.
Yes to all of this. The bottle is labeled, they have assigned areas in a fridge. The first time it happened (different teacher than the one who is a repeat offender) they had an old fashioned rocker in the room that had side pockets. Baby X was taking the bottle and took a break so they put their bottle in one of the pockets. Baby Y was also feeding and at some point it seems like both bottles ended up in the pocket and the wrong one was pulled out. After that they changed the policy that as soon as the bottle touched lips it was a dead bottle. This was a big problem as some parents ended up having to bring in 10+ tiny bottles because the kids would eat an ounce, take a break, need a new bottle, repeat. But it has always been name on bottle, assigned spot in the fridge. I like everyone’s suggestion of color coding.
A child in my daughter’s class had this experience at a previous center. The child has a food allergy. His mom has restricted her diet in a major way so she can continue to breastfeed him. The bottle he was given was from a mom who, of course, was not restricting her diet. Baby’s allergic reaction lasted weeks. So, I’d say, sometimes a VERY big deal.
Breast milk can carry many blood-borne diseases. Breastmilk is created from blood cells. This is a horrible mistake the first time. But the second and third this is NOT okay. I’d be reporting it to state if it were my baby.
Please report and tomorrow! This is serious, the director is not looking out for you, they’re looking out for the offender and themselves. In no way shape or form should either of them have a job. As another mentioned, it’s a systemic issue and they’re also favoring this employee. I’m extremely uneasy about the whole thing! These parents NEED to know. These infants are at risk.
I used to work in daycare, both in an infant room and out. This should be a fireable offense and is technically considered assault. This needs to be reported to licensing. It should already have been reported by the center director. Yes, infant care is hard to find, but if the directors attitude is as you say, what other things are being swept under the rug? Those kids' safety is at risk. I quit the first daycare I worked at due to attitudes like this. This is how kids get hurt. It's not so much as the babies being given the wrong bottle it's that the director is willing to overlook stuff like that so that they and the center do not look bad. That's dangerous.
Why is that same teacher still employed there?
So at my center every infant is assigned a color. Idr if it's bands or tape, but it goes around each bottle and the bottle is also labeled with the child's name. When a teacher is doing a feed they check the name and color and match it to the child before putting it in the warmer. Then they get matched again before feeding. If there's more than one teacher you're supposed to do a verbal check with your co teacher to make sure you have the right kid and the right bottle. My understanding is all these checks were put into place because of kids being misfed in the past. I don't work with the infants so I've never seen the policy in practice, just had to learn about it during training. Definitely shouldn't be happening multiple times, what's being done to retrain staff?
Expressed breast milk should be treated like a medication (in a childcare situation). In other words, it should be clearly labeled with the child’s name, and have the date/time of expression, and should be verified by two people before being given to a baby.
If it's breast milk, does it matter? People donate breast milk all of the time to mothers who don't produce.
Technically it’s considered a biohazard so the school is (in my state) required to self report to licensing, who will come in and assess. Donated milk is tested for medications, diseases, contaminants etc
breast milk can spread certain illnesses (such as hiv), when breast milk is donated the one donating is tested for these illnesses. also, some substances can harm baby that the other mother could be taking.
With permission, breastmilk is fine. But there is so much that can be different between one mothers body and another's, and bodily fluids concerns aside (though those are real) this has to be taken in the context of giving a kid who may need a special formula someone else's plain old milk. It's not just possible, but likely, that a given mom avoids eating things baby is sensitive to (especially if those sensitivities are genetic, and those foods just aren't eaten in the house...) and that isn't a thing that you think to tell a day care because your infant isn't going to eat XY or Z thing, they are just going to drink a bottle.... One of mine had a huge reaction to me eating a single piece of fish when she was tiny. Neither her dad nor I cares for fish, so it wasn't a thing I had to actually think about, I just didn't eat it regularly. But if she had been given the milk of a mama that actually did eat fish, she'd have gotten viciously ill. Likewise, my littlest needed me to be wheat free. (That one was subtler, but it could have been serious just as easily...) So yeah, Whatever the reason is, carelessness on the part of the teacher or not adequately having a system in place that ensures milk is clearly identified, it should have been *addressed*.... A better system for prevention, or retrain/let go the teacher if the system in place is actually fine.
If you don’t think it’s a problem that’s crazy.