Restrict Infant Menu by Name Entry to Infant Meal Service Times
USDA policy memo CACFP-06-2025 states that, "Infant meals must not be disallowed due solely to the fact that they are not served
within the center or day care home’s established mealtime periods."
For some state agencies, this means that infant meals can be recorded at any time during the day. If this is the case for you, then you will want to put all the infants on one roster and mark it as an infant roster. This removes the point of service restrictions for that roster.
Other state agencies have more specific requirements for recording infant meals. The checkbox for "Restrict Infant Menu by Name Entry to Infant Meal Service Times" allows the infant menu by name to be entered during the following time periods:
- For the first meal of the day: from the time the facility opens until the time the second meal service of the day starts
- For every meal: from the time it starts until the next meal service starts
- For the last meal of the day: from the time the last meal service starts until the facility closes
Below is an example of when non-infant and infant meals can be recorded if this checkbox is checked and the center is set to point-of-service meal counts:
| Time | What meal can you record for non-infants? | What meal can you record for infants? |
|---|---|---|
| 6:00-8:00 am - No Meal Served - Facility Opens at 6:00 am | - | Breakfast |
| 8:00-8:30 am Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast |
| 8:30-11:30 am - No Meal Served | - | Breakfast |
| 11:30 am - 12:30 pm - Lunch | Lunch | Lunch |
| 12:30 - 3:00 pm - No Meal Served | - | Lunch |
| 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm - PM Snack | PM Snack | PM Snack |
| 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm - No Meal Served - Facility Closes at 6:00 pm | - | PM Snack |
To restrict infant menu by name entry to infant meal service times:
- Login as a Sponsor Admin User
- Click on Site Details from the main site dashboard
- Scroll to the section titled "Infant Settings"
- Check the box to Restrict infant menu by name entry to infant meal service times
- Scroll to the bottom and click save
You should be sure that Infant Menu Method is set to either
- By Name - All Participants or
- By Name - Based on Meal Attendance.
We recommend By Name - All Participants if you are restricting infant menu by name entry to infant meal service times as it saves the infant teachers an extra step of entering a meal count and then completing the infant menu by name. (The infant menu by name serves as a proxy for the meal count).
If you select the By Name - Based on Meal Attendance then you will also need to group the infants onto a single roster and designate it as an Infant Roster in order to remove the strict point-of-service meal count restrictions.