This quick guide covers two things: what goes into a sanitation kit (the bill of materials), and how to audit donated kits before you distribute them.
What’s in a SAFE Infant Feeding Sanitation Kit?
- Sturdy plastic tote with well-fitting lid (6 qt shoebox size)
- Bleach — small bottles [1.43 qt / 46 oz or smaller]; regular, fragrance-free, additive-free, not splash-less
- Liquid dish soap (6—“12 oz.), preferably unscented
- Baby bottle brush w/ attached nipple cleaner
- About 15 small disposable cups (3 oz size), in a sandwich-size sealable bag. Paper cups preferred.
- 2 syringes, 5 mL (or 10 mL), if available (can use 1 syringe if supply is short)
- Information booklet
- Bleach instruction label — apply to top
- Branding label — apply to side
Optional items
- Pump/bottle wipes
- Microwave sterilization bag
Note for teams outside the original project: the information booklet and the branding label are produced by the distributing organization. Substitute your own booklet and your own [YOUR ORGANIZATION] branding label.
What the kit teaches: sanitizing with bleach
This is the instruction the kit exists to deliver. It must appear on the bleach instruction label and in the information booklet, and both must match this exactly.
Follow the CDC’s guidance for cleaning infant feeding items during an emergency:
- Wash items with soap and safe water first.
- Put the items in a wash basin and fill with safe water.
- Add 1 teaspoon of bleach per ½ gallon (8 cups) of water.
- Soak for 2 minutes.
- Remove items carefully.
- Air dry. Do NOT rinse.
CDC notes that any bleach remaining on feeding items after sanitizing breaks down quickly as it dries and will not hurt the baby. Sanitizing is recommended at least once daily for extra protection, and is especially important if the baby is younger than two months, was born prematurely, or has a weakened immune system.
Source: CDC, How to Clean Infant Feeding Items During Emergencies
Why the 5 mL syringe is in the kit
5 mL is one teaspoon. The syringe is not a spare part — it is the measuring device for the bleach, and it delivers exactly one CDC dose per half gallon of water. Teams that substitute a different syringe size should make sure families can still measure a teaspoon accurately.
If there is no syringe: the bottle cap method
In the field, responders sometimes measured by filling the cap of the bleach bottle and adding it to a shoebox-size bin of water. That approximates the correct ratio, which is why it worked — a 6-quart bin holds about 1.5 gallons, calling for roughly 3 teaspoons.
If you are going to teach the cap method, measure the cap first. Bottle caps vary between brands and sizes, and you are distributing the bleach, so you can know exactly what you are handing out. Fill the cap of the specific bottle you are distributing, empty it into a measuring spoon, and write the result on your instruction label — “this cap holds ___ teaspoons.” Do not assume a cap is a teaspoon. Then teach the number of capfuls that matches your bin size.
The syringe remains the measure to teach whenever one is available. The cap is the fallback for when it is not.
A note on bleach brands
Not all bleach is usable, and the differences matter more than they look. The bleach must be regular, unscented, additive-free, and NOT splash-less or low-splash — splash-less formulations are thickened and are not reliable for sanitizing.
We deliberately do not name a brand. What matters is on the label, not the logo: regular, unscented, additive-free, and not splash-less. Any bleach meeting that description will work, and naming one product would date this guidance and read as an endorsement.
We do have a preference about the bottle, and it is a practical one. Look for the litre bottles sold in dollar stores with a narrow, soda-bottle style neck rather than a wide vented lid. Vented caps leak when a bottle is laid on its side — which is exactly what happens in a car boot, a supply bin, or a box being carried into a site. The soda-bottle neck does not. When you are moving hundreds of kits, that is the difference between a delivery and a ruined load.
What a kit costs, and how to source it
These kits are meant to be cheap to build and easy to repeat. Almost everything in one comes off the shelf at ordinary general-merchandise and dollar stores, and the few remaining pieces can be ordered online. Built this way, a finished kit runs somewhere around $10, depending on what you already have on hand and how much you buy at once.
Buy one bin and buy them all the same. Rather than grabbing whatever totes happen to be on the shelf, pick a single container — one size, one style — and standardize on it. When every bin matches, the lids are interchangeable, they stack and nest the same way, and a shelf of them is far quicker to count, load into a vehicle, and hand out than a mix of odd containers. We were able to find a suitable shoebox-size tote for about a dollar.
Skip the latching lids. The bins with clip-on or side-latching lids cost noticeably more — and the clips are the first thing to fail. Once a tab snaps, the lid no longer holds. The plainer, less expensive bins held up better for us in the field. A lid that fits snugly matters far more than one that latches shut.
The bottle brush is the one real expense. Nearly everything else in the kit is inexpensive; the baby bottle brush with an attached nipple cleaner is the single line that adds up per kit. If you are buying in volume, this is where bulk purchasing saves you the most, so order these in the largest quantity you can manage at once.
Where to buy. We do not endorse any particular store. In practice, kits can be assembled from a mix of general-merchandise stores, dollar stores, and online retailers — buy wherever you can get consistent, matching supplies at the best price near you. The goal is the same supplies every time, not the cheapest single item every time.
These figures are from our own experience building kits in Western North Carolina and are approximate. Prices and what is on the shelf vary by region and over time — treat them as a starting point for your own budget, not a quote.
The handout that goes in the kit
Every kit should go out with a printed handout, because the person receiving it will not remember a verbal explanation given in a car park. Ours shows the components and the cold-sanitation method in pictures, so it works for a caregiver who is exhausted, distracted, or reading in a second language.
Print both and carry both. If your community needs another language, tell us — it is easier to justify a translation when somebody has asked for it.
Checking Donated Kits for Accuracy
Donated kits assembled by other groups often contain items that do not belong in a feeding sanitation kit. Audit every donated kit before distribution.
OK to stay in
- Pump/bottle wipes
- Syringes, 5 mL or 10 mL
Check any handouts included — most will need to be replaced with your team’s booklet.
REMOVE (unless your team decides to include these)
- Paper towels
- Washcloths
- Microwave sterilization bag
- Disinfecting wipes
- Gloves
- Diaper cream
- Anything else
Unusable (unsafe) bleach — MUST REMOVE
- Scented
- No/low splash
- Fabric protectant
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