daycare suggesting I give five 4oz. bottles of breastmilk for 10 hours???

[sunwise]

Hi all - my DS is about 3.5 months old and has been in daycare since he was 12 weeks. I have always given him 5 bottles for the roughly 10 hours (7:00-4:30) that he is in daycare each day. The bottles are generally 2-3 oz. each, for a total of about 12.5 - 15oz. for the time I am away. (It varies because I just give him whatever I pump the previous day.) Today I got a note suggesting I might want to increase his bottles to 4 oz., which seems crazy to me if he still takes 5 bottles a day. That would be 20oz. of milk for 10 hours!

I don't want to keep my DS from eating if he is truly hungry, but at the same time I really REALLY don't want to supplement with formula if he doesn't need it. But if he needs 20oz. while I'm away, I don't think I can physically pump that much.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Could DS really need that much milk?

Thanks!

[PatioGardener]

I say they are over feeding.

This may help: http://www.kellymom.com/store/freehandouts/bottle_feeding.pdf

and

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html (kellymom is awesome!)

[Marissamom]

yeah, 20 oz. in 10 hours is ridiculously high. 15 is high for most babies. 5 bottles in 10 hours is feeding less than every 2 hours. maybe he needs more milk at a time, less frequently? assuming you nurse right before and right after, 4 bottles would be about every two hours. do they wait until he shows hunger signs, or are they feeding him by the clock? it sounds like they're wanting to feed him the same size bottle they would if he was having formula, but formula is less digestible, so more of it is needed. (by later infancy formala-fed babies will take an 8 oz bottle at a time, I've never seen a bfed baby take more than 6 oz, and that was with DD who would have one bottle the entire time I was at work)

[kanga1622]

My DS is 9 months and takes 4 bottles in the 9 hours we are apart. His bottles are 3 oz. each. Perhaps if you just sent fewer bottles with more in them? I think daycares are used to formula fed babies and don't realize that nursing babies eat less per feeding.

[sunwise]

Thanks for the replies, all. I was hoping I wasn't going crazy in thinking there was no way he could need 20oz. in 10 hours. I used the kellymom website's guidelines for how much milk EBF babies usually take in a day, so I felt fine with what I was sending. My daycare feeds on demand, which is good - but having 5 feedings during 10 hours is definitely more often than we would feed at home. His first day, I sent him with 4 bottles of 3oz. each and a 4oz. bag of frozen milk. I didn't think they'd even need the frozen bag, but sure enough, they used it. That was the last time I gave them any of my freezer stash! Since then, I have been dividing my pumped milk into 5 bottles, and honestly I think he's fine with it. He isn't reverse cycling at all - in fact I've been pleasantly surprised that our nighttime feedings are exactly the same as they were before he entered daycare. So I don't think he comes home hungry everyday! And the daycare ladies are always telling me how little he cries and how well he does everyday. He always seems happy when we pick him up (I've never seen him cry at the end of the day).

I think you're right that they are probably more familiar with formula fed babies. My own mom, who never breastfed me, suggested that if DS always finishes a bottle, that means we should be giving him more. I have a feeling the daycare is making the same assumption. My assumption has always been that he just finds bottle feeding really easy and will guzzle down whatever we give him. That doesn't mean he needs more!
 

I think I will just politely tell the daycare that we have tried giving him 4oz. bottles but find that he doesn't eat that much. (That's only partially a lie - we have given him 4oz. bottles, and he will eat all of it and then inevitably spit a bunch right back up. So I figured that meant he didn't really need the whole 4oz.) I do give him a long nursing session right before and after daycare, so I will continue to do that.

Thanks for the help and reassurance!

[Ellien C]

Just want to echo what everyone else has told. I had the same problem with my day care - they completely blew threw my frozen stash in the first 3 weeks (plus I got sick and was using it). I had a word with the Director and sent fewer but bigger bottles. I told them how often they needed to feed him. We're all fine now - I pump about 9-12 ounces for 10 hours (more like 12 on Mondays and 9.5-10 by Friday). My baby is about 9 months old and also gets 3 containers of table food which he gobbles right up (avocados being a favorite - he can eat at leas 1 whole one at a sitting or one entire bannana).

I would also let them know that he's breastfed (make sure you are using slow flow nipples) and may just need extra cuddling and holding when he is done with the bottle since a bottle feed goes so much quicker than a breasfeed). Can you suggest they offer a pacifier and holding instead of going to the freezer stash? I totally understand because I went through the EXACT same thing with my son. (In my case he had been home with my DH for 8 weeks so I KNEW the bottle schedule was the right thing).

[amyhulen]

Thanks for the links. I am planning to be a BM donor once this baby arrives, the recipient mom and myself were trying to figure out how much milk I needed to pump each day. Now that I know I have a goal to shoot for which will make things so much easier.

[JudiAU]

That is a lot of food. I too think they are overfeeding and I had one super nurser upper supply kind of kid. It might be time to reduce the number of bottles and make them slightly larger.

[sunwise]

To be honest, I'm not even sure he has any problem with the bottle feedings other than that he drinks them FAST. But DH and I have both watched the providers give DS bottles - he is very calm and does not get fussy when he's done. I'm pretty sure that they are basing their recommendation entirely on the fact that he can finish 3oz. pretty quickly. (And we are using the slowest flow nipples - in fact I have no plans to change that!)

At least now I feel pretty confident that I'm not starving him!

[msmiranda]

You've gotten some great advice here.  I had the exact same problem when my first son was in day care.  It is simply attributable to the fact that day care providers are used to formula fed babies, so to them, the bottles of breast milk  you are sending look like "too little."  The providers at the day care my son was in were not hostile to BF at all, they just did not have the knowledge about breast milk and how it differs from formula that we do.  I was worried because I was only leaving 10-11 oz. per day for my son and I would see these huge gargantuan bottles of formula that the other  mothers would bring in (some would bring 4 8-oz. bottles -- 32 ounces of formula and this was for a baby who was also eating solids!  So yeah, my 10 oz. was going to seem puny next to that).  Then I got on kellymom -- god bless her for that site, how many breastfeeding relationships has she saved, I wonder -- and calculated the total amount he was getting per day and it was FINE.  I actually brought in a bottle of formula for a while to use at the end of the day if he was still hungry but -- ha ha! -- he wouldn't drink it.   

[poorlittlefish]

hi there,

I didn't have time to read all the replies but I have one skinny, didn't drink much kid but not I have super eater baby!  I have found that with this baby, she wants to be full.  She will not be satisfied with small bottles like my other DD did.  She does drink a couple oz more per day but sh would prefer fewer, larger bottles.  Maybe try that? In 11 hours away from my, my ODD took 12oz and this baby takes 15 just in larger bottles. Good luck!

[JudiAU]

FYI- A lot of mom have luck with the kellymom chart and explaining that bm is more calorie dense than formula with little waste in the tummy. Bottles ARE smaller and time to finish a bottle doesn't mean anything. 

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by Marissamom (by later infancy formala-fed babies will take an 8 oz bottle at a time, I've never seen a bfed baby take more than 6 oz, and that was with DD who would have one bottle the entire time I was at work)

Actually, that really has nothing to do w formula vs bm and everything to do with scheduling and expectations. My ff toddler takes 3-4 oz at a feeding most of the time.

OP, i would definitely talk to the DCPs. Finishing a bottle calmly is not an indicator of a need for bigger bottles. If he were finishing them and getting ticked that there wasn't more, that'd be another matter entirely. I would also make sure they're not throwing any away. Most daycares function on the 1 hr rule for bottles, but bm doesnt go bad that quickly.

[Marissamom]

Originally Posted by cristeen 



Actually, that really has nothing to do w formula vs bm and everything to do with scheduling and expectations. My ff toddler takes 3-4 oz at a feeding most of the time. OP, i would definitely talk to the DCPs. Finishing a bottle calmly is not an indicator of a need for bigger bottles. If he were finishing them and getting ticked that there wasn't more, that'd be another matter entirely. I would also make sure they're not throwing any away. Most daycares function on the 1 hr rule for bottles, but bm doesnt go bad that quickly.

you're right, I meant "A lot of Formula-Fed babies" not all.

[MamaKickyPants]

Originally Posted by sunwise 

To be honest, I'm not even sure he has any problem with the bottle feedings other than that he drinks them FAST. But DH and I have both watched the providers give DS bottles - he is very calm and does not get fussy when he's done. I'm pretty sure that they are basing their recommendation entirely on the fact that he can finish 3oz. pretty quickly. (And we are using the slowest flow nipples - in fact I have no plans to change that!)

At least now I feel pretty confident that I'm not starving him!

Have you looked at the guidelines on kellymom for how to pace a feeding? I think they hav a handout on there that is aimed at DCPs on how to bottlefeed a breastfed baby. It basically involves giving your LO a few sucks and then taking the bottle away for a couple seconds, then a few more sucks, etc. It's meant to more cloesely simulate the way the milk flows from the breast. I don't know how it would work with a babe who is used to eating the other way, though - ight make them frustrated!

[Beltane]

Just thought I would pipe in to let you know that I had the same problem with my daycare.  I had been pumping daily before I went back to work at 7 weeks PP and they used up my entire freezer stash in just two weeks.  I was able to find Kellymom and showed her the links, but she almost didn't want to believe that she was over feeding.  She was giving my 8 week old baby 6oz of milk per feeding and then asking me to bring more extra clothes and diaper covers because she was spitting up so much and had such large poops.    I think we've gotten past it for the most part, but I think it is still a point on contention some days.  I think I'm still sending more milk than she needs, because when I pump on the weekends I pump almost just as much as I would have if I had gone to work and wasn't nursing DD.  Sending warms hugs your way - it's tough to EBF when so many babies have formula.