CDC provides funding, training, and technical assistance to a variety of organizations to carry out obesity prevention efforts for the ECE setting. The ECE settings include child care facilities. State ECE systems can promote standards that address nutrition, infant feeding, physical activity, and screen time. Caring for Our Children, (CFOC) is a collection of national standards that represent the best practices, based on evidence, expertise, and experience, for quality health and safety policies and practices for today’s early care and education settings. Breastfeeding recommendations for ECE centers are contained within these standards (http://nrckids.org/CFOC). In collaboration with the National Center for Early Childhood Health and Wellness (NCECHW), the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education (NRC) updates CFOC Standards. The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 provides federal funding to states for child care subsidies for low-income families with children under age 13, as well as flexibility to pair state and federal funds to improve the quality of child care available to families within existing state and local systems. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the Department of Health and Human Services administers the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF).
Advocacy opportunity: Request that CCDF, ACF, and NRC add the provision of IBCLC services to their guidelines. The IBCLC can provide education and training to child care centers and staff, serve as a referral source for families using child care facilities, and advise state agencies on how the IBCLC can contribute to improved health outcomes of infants and young children in child care settings.