The City Kids Day Care Center in Ohio is imposing an extra $50 per week charge to serve breastmilk. Jennifer, at the Lactivist, researched the state regulations, and there is no basis in them for a charge like this.
Here is the text of the e-mail I sent to City Kids owner, Patricia Elam:
Charging to serve breastmilk is a ridiculous and discriminatory policy. Women get the message that "breastmilk is best" over and over during pregnancy from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Federal Government, and even formula commercials. The extra effort involved in providing breastmilk is on the part of the mom, not the center provider. The mother provides you with milk that does not need to be mixed or measured. If the CDC and the Ohio Department of Health do not consider breastmilk a bio hazard, neither should you. If one compares the Ohio regulations for handling breastmilk and formula, there is less work involved with breastmilk. Breastmilk has many benefits for the baby and therefore, your center, such as reducing illness. You should be encouraging mothers to provide breastmilk. Childcare centers need to support working moms by serving breastmilk without charging extra fees that make it prohibitively expensive.
Join the fight to remove the fees for breastmilk at City Kids Day Care. You can send an email to Patricia Elam at citykidsdaycar@aol.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment