Special Considerations for Emergencies

Prepare for an evacuation

What would happen if your family had to evacuate your home due to a hurricane, wildfire, or flood? What if there was a power outage? Different types of emergencies require special considerations for families with young children.

Be prepared for an emergency by using CDC's Emergency Kit Checklist for Kids and Families.

Considerations for families

Plan to continue breastfeeding through emergencies and disasters. This will be your easiest, most convenient, and affordable on-demand way to feed your child.

You may have infant formula or expressed breast milk stored at home in a refrigerator or freezer. If you must leave your home, carefully plan how to transport it.

If your child is starting to eat solid foods, consider how to transport food that needs to be refrigerated. Also, prepare to pack the supplies needed to prepare the food.

Take steps now so you can safely transport the items you need to feed your child in an emergency.

Transporting breast milk and supplies

Get ready

• If you use a breast pump, learn to hand express your milk. Practice in case you are without a pump during an emergency.
• Keep these items on hand to transport breast milk in case you evacuate:
  • Cooler or insulated cooler bag.
  • Ice packs.
  • Disposable cups for feeding in case you are not be able to clean bottles and nipples.

During an emergency

You can carry freshly expressed milk in a cooler or an insulated cooler bag with frozen ice packs for up to 24 hours. Once arriving at your destination, you must use the milk right away, store it in the refrigerator, or freeze it. If it is not used right away, let emergency responders know that you have expressed breast milk that needs to be refrigerated and stored safely.

If you carry frozen milk in a cooler with frozen gel packs or ice, check your milk when you get to your destination.

• If the milk has ice crystals, you can refreeze it.
• Previously frozen milk should be kept cold and used within 24 hours from the time it thaws completely.
  • When milk thaws will depend on the time spent traveling and the temperature of the cooler.
  • If possible, check the milk after a few hours in the cooler to see if it has thawed.

To express breast milk during or after an emergency, hand expression or a manual breast pump will allow you to continue without electricity.

Clean your breast pump kit parts between uses with soap and clean water. Ask emergency responders if there is a clean area where you can pump, a dedicated area to wash your pump parts, and a place to store your expressed breast milk. Be sure to label your milk for storage.

Transporting infant formula and supplies

Get ready

Keep these items on hand to transport infant formula in case you evacuate:

• Ready-to-feed (RTF) infant formula in single serving cans or bottles.
• Bottled water.
• Disposable cups for feeding if you are unable to clean bottles and nipples.

For formula-fed babies, RFT infant formula is safest because it does not need to be mixed with water. Unopened RTF infant formula does not need to be refrigerated. Check your RTF infant formula supply in your emergency kit regularly to make sure it is not expired or not expiring soon.

As babies grow, the amount of infant formula they drink in one day will change. Make sure your emergency kit has enough RTF infant formula to feed your child for several days. Follow all storage directions and expiration dates on the RTF infant formula packaging.

During an emergency

If safe water is unavailable for cleaning bottles and nipples, you can use disposable cups instead of bottles to feed your child.

If RTF infant formula is unavailable and tap water is not safe, use bottled water to prepare powdered or concentrated formula. If evacuating, take bottled water to prepare powdered or concentrated infant formula as needed.

Take a copy of CDC's How to Prepare and Store Powdered Infant Formula During an Emergency with you. Learn more:

• Cup feeding.
• How to clean infant feeding supplies during an emergency.

Transporting solid foods and supplies

Get ready

Keep these items on hand to transport solid foods in case you evacuate:

• Enough non-perishable, store-bought baby food for several days.
• A cooler or insulated cooler bag to hold foods that need to be refrigerated, such as fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy.
• Disposable plates, bowls, cups, and utensils for feeding and preparing foods.

During an emergency

After arriving at your destination, ask where you can store and prepare your child's foods, wash hands and feeding supplies, and feed your child.

Water safety considerations

During an emergency, water may be contaminated with germs. This makes it unsafe to mix with powdered infant formula and to clean infant feeding items and breast pump kit parts. Bottles, nipples, sippy cups, and pacifiers can easily grow germs when they are not cleaned well. These germs can make your baby sick.

Get ready

Have bottled water ready in case you need to use it. When RTF infant formula is unavailable, use bottled water to mix with powdered infant formula. In emergency situations, bottled water is the safest choice for drinking and all other uses.

Have disposable cups, plates, bowls, and utensils ready to feed your children safely.

During an emergency

Make sure you're using safe water for preparing powdered infant formula. Safe water is either bottled water or tap water that local authorities say is safe. Read how to prepare and store powdered infant formula safely during an emergency.

Use safe water to clean all infant feeding items. Read how to clean infant feeding items safely during an emergency. If safe water is not available for cleaning, use disposable infant feeding items.

If bottled water is not available:

• Boil water for 1 minute (3 minutes at altitudes above 6,500 feet). Let the water cool before mixing with powdered formula.
• If you do not have access to bottled or boiled water, use disinfected water.

Boiled or disinfected water is safe to mix with powdered infant formula. It is also safe to use for cleaning infant feeding items such as bottles, nipples, and breast pump kit parts. Learn more with CDC's handout on making water safe during an emergency. Similar content is available in Spanish.

Store boiled or disinfected water in clean sanitized containers with tight covers. This water can then be used to mix with powdered infant formula and to clean infant feeding items during an emergency.

When you do not have safe water or cleaning supplies to clean bottles and nipples, feed your baby with disposable cups. These cups should be used once and then thrown away. This will protect your baby from germs that can grow in or on bottles and nipples.

Bottle nipples, pacifiers, and other hard-to-clean items that touch flood water should be thrown away. They cannot be sanitized.

Throw away all food that may have come in contact with flood water or storm water. When in doubt, throw it out.

Learn more: Keep food safe after an emergency and flood.

Power outage considerations

Loss of electricity creates many challenges for families. Prepare to safely store and prepare breast milk, infant formula, and solid foods for infants and young children when there is a power outage.

Get ready

If your baby is fed any amount of infant formula, keep RTF infant formula in single-serving cans or bottles in your emergency supplies. This will be useful if the water is unsafe for mixing with powdered infant formula. Store in a cool, dry place.

If you are warned that power may go out, consider making or purchasing extra ice to keep expressed breast milk and food items cold. Freeze containers of water and gel packs to help keep your food cold during a power outage.

Have an inexpensive, freestanding appliance thermometer to check the temperature in your refrigerator and freezer.

During an emergency

While the power is out, keep the freezer and refrigerator doors closed as much as possible. Freezers will keep food safe for about 48 hours if left closed and full during a power outage. If the freezer is half full and it remains closed, food will stay safe for about 24 hours. When freezers are full, the other frozen items help keep the freezer colder longer. Refrigerators will keep food cold for about 4 hours if they are unopened.

Your refrigerator or cooler should be 40°F or below, and your freezer should be 0°F or below. If your refrigerator/freezer thermostats do not show the temperatures, use a freestanding appliance thermometer. Even if your refrigerator/freezer does show the temperatures, appliance thermometers may be important if you lose power or have mechanical problems.

For breast milk

If you have any breast milk in the freezer, help keep the freezer cold by packing any empty spaces with crumpled newspaper, frozen containers of water, or frozen gel packs. Keep the freezer door closed. This will help prevent the milk from completely thawing.

Your breast milk may still be safe once your power comes back on. However, this depends on how long the power is out and how defrosted or warm the breast milk becomes.

Once the power is back on, check your stored breast milk. Milk is still considered frozen if ice crystals can be seen in it. Frozen breast milk that has started to thaw but still contains ice crystals can be refrozen. If your breast milk has completely thawed but still feels cold, put it in the refrigerator and use it within the next day or throw it away.

Thawed milk cannot be refrozen. After 24 hours, throw out unused, thawed milk. When it comes to safe storage of breast milk, remember "when in doubt, throw it out."

For infant formula

Once the power is back on, check the temperature of your refrigerator. Throw away any opened or prepared formula that was in the refrigerator if your power has been off for 4 hours or more or if the refrigerator temperature is above 40°F.

For solid foods

• Throw away all perishable foods in your refrigerator when the power has been off for 4 hours or more.
• Throw away all perishable foods in your freezer if they have thawed.
• You can safely refreeze or cook food from the freezer if the food still contains ice crystals and feels as cold as if refrigerated.

Learn more

Keep Your Food Safe During Emergencies: Power Outages, Floods & Fires.