During an emergency extra care must be taken to clean infant feeding items in order to avoid serious infection.
Situation: emergency (hurricane, wildfire, flood, earthquake, etc)
During an emergency:
(1) utilities may be out of surface
(2) water supplies may be contaminated
(3) environmental water sources may be contaminated by bacteria, chemicals and radioactive materials
Recommendations:
(1) Prepare a cleaning kit prior to an emergency. Only use these supplies to clean infant feeding items.
(2) Clean all feeding items after every use.
(3) Always clean with safe water.
(4) Wash your hands with soap and water or with alcohol hand sanitizer before and after food preparation.
(5) Discard nipples, pacifiers and other items after contact with floodwaters if they are hard to clean and cannot be boiled.
(6) If available use clean disposable cups and supplies.
(7) Sanitize items at least once per day by either boiling in water for at least 5 minutes or by treating with a dilute bleach solution.
(8) Do not clean infant feeding items near diapering areas.
