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On January 23, 2025, the Office of Childhood (OOC) received an allegation that: On March 14, 2025, an unknown child male 4 or 5-months-old, was observed asleep in a bouncer, which was placed in a bassinet. The child also had a bottle propped up with a blanket. After conducting an investigation, Compliance Inspector (CI) Michelle Honea has found this allegation to be substantiated based on the following evidence:
5 CSR 25-500.202(2)(D)., which states: "Until infants can hold a bottle comfortably, they shall be held by a caregiver during bottle feeding. Bottles shall not be propped."
On March 19, 2025, CI Honea conducted an unannounced inspection to the facility and interviewed Director Kathryn Vandelicht and teacher Hannah Hoover. Kathryn stated the day of the incident there were two teachers with nine children. She was in the kitchen prepping breakfast while teacher Hannah was watching the children. This is the first time in a long while they had a child as young as 5-months-old. The child was not asleep in the bouncer and the bouncer was not in the bassinet. The 5-month-old did have a bottle that was propped up while eating. She does know that the bottle cannot be propped up and she will not allow that to happen again. This is not a practice that she allows at the facility and will not let it happen again.
While on premises CI Honea interviewed teacher Hannah Hoover who stated that they were in the middle of doing breakfast and she was watching the children. She does understand that a child is not supposed to be in a bouncy with the bottle propped up. She has not done this before. There are no excuses, and she will not do that again.
On March 25, 2025, CI Honea conducted a phone interview with Parent A who stated the following. The main concern she had was walking in the facility and seeing a young child in the bouncer with a bottle propped up. She knows that is not allowed. She just wanted someone to check out the facility.
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