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Enhancing infant feeding pathways in a tertiary children’s hospital: a sustainability-focused quality improvement project
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A children's hospital ran a project to cut babies' exposure to microplastics from single-use plastic feeding bottles. Staff introduced breastfeeding training and tested reusable glass bottles for babies who could not breastfeed, with parents responding positively though some practical challenges remained.
Infant feeding in hospital settings requires balancing infection prevention and control, clinical complexity and support for families, while increasingly addressing environmental sustainability. This article details a quality improvement project that aimed to reduce infant exposure to microplastics and nanoplastics associated with single-use feeding bottles and reduce reliance on single-use plastics in infant feeding pathways at a tertiary children's hospital. Baseline data were collected on breast milk feeding, procurement of single-use bottles, parent experience and staff knowledge and confidence. Two improvement interventions were implemented: development of a core breastfeeding and expressing training programme; and a pilot of reusable glass feeding bottles where breastfeeding was not possible. Baseline survey findings demonstrated strong parental motivation to breastfeed alongside various practical and system-level barriers to support, while staff reported limited formal training and variable confidence. Glass feeding bottles were viewed positively by parents, with implementation challenges relating primarily to workflow and availability. Sustainability-focused quality improvement can strengthen infant feeding support, enhance patient experience and inform future service design.
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