Overeating at Daycare? Not pumping enough milk!

[sssheri]

Ds is 4 months and started daycare a week ago. She is home with dad 3 days a week and 1/2 days of daycare 2 days. When she is home with dad for 8 hours she eats 8oz at the most. When she is at daycare for only 5 1/2 hours she eats 8oz and the daycare is requesting more! The problem is I only pump about 9oz a day. I pump 1-2oz in the am on the opposite side she is eating. I am a teacher and can only pump 1x during the day, but get about 8oz. 

Should I just tell the daycare tough on the extra milk (knowing that she won't starve and will just cluster feed when I pick her up) or should I pump extra on the weekends to add to the daycare supply?

I am wondering if the daycare staff is feeding her when she isn't hungry, or if she is just soothing herself with milk since she is away from us. 

[by-the-lake]

Look up kellymom.com. Babay really only needs about 1 oz per hour in your absence. It sounds like your husband is doing well with that amount. It sounds like daycare is overfeeding, which I guess is not uncommon. My friend went through this with her DS. The daycare provider informed her baby had 24 oz in 8 hours, in which the provider used 15 oz of formula! My poor friend was irate. She ended up getting a physcian note stating baby only needed 1-2 oz/hr of breastmilk only. So, I would suspect overfeeding. Be firm on your amount and make sure they won't use formula to make up. good luck mama

[PatioGardener]

Here is a good kellymom handout too: http://www.kellymom.com/store/freehandouts/bottle_feeding.pdf

[crystal_buffaloe]

I would really get in there and ask several questions of the daycare provider. Do they have prior experience bottlefeeding another breastfed infant? Are they feeding on a schedule? Are they saving leftover milk for the next feeding or throwing it away? Do they understand that breastfed infants don't increasingly large bottles as they get older?

Is it possible for you to nurse at daycare dropoff and at pickup?

[Laurski]

Oh, I'm so glad someone posted this question!  I'm having similar issues with my daycare provider; DD (almost 5 months) is in daycare 4 days a week for about 4 hours a day, and in the beginning (she started there Jan. 4th) I had been giving them 2 3oz bags of frozen milk each day.  Then they told me she was still hungry some days, so I was providing an extra 2oz bag...so some days she's been eating 8oz in 4 hours, which seemed like a huge amount to me.  I've been panicking about the amount she's been eating, because I don't come close to pumping 8oz while I'm away from her (4oz on a very, very good day) so I've been frantically fitting in any pumping I can on weekdays while she naps at home and on weekends.

I'm new at the whole mom thing (and daycare thing) so I didn't want DD to be unhappy and hungry without me, but I don't want her to be overeating, either.  I think part of the problem is that she's teething, so the staff reads her chewing/sucking on her hand as a cue that she wants to eat after she's finished a 3oz bottle, even though she's just enjoying the feel of her hand in her mouth.  They also keep feeding her as soon as she wakes from a nap, which I don't think is always necessary (i.e. they gave her 5oz one morning around 8:30, then fed her another 3oz around 10:45, after she woke from a nap, which seems like a crazy large amount to me!).

Could someone point me to where on kellymom it says that baby needs 1oz per hour while away from me?  I tried following the milk calculation formula that's on the website but I can never keep track of how many times a day DD eats, especially since we co-sleep and she likes to comfort nurse at night.

Oops...sorry to hijack...I'm just so happy to see that I'm not the only one having issues with daycare over this--I was starting to get paranoid that I was being a bad mom and starving DD by feeling they were feeding her too much....

[sssheri]

I have a feeling, this is pretty common. What we ended up doing was just providing them with 8 oz, which is what I pump while I am away from her. It is still more than she would normally drink when she is home with dh. We gave them a pacifier to give her in case she was just drinking to sooth. The daycare didn't say anything, but I noticed today she only ate 4 oz, which meant I had to throw away 4 oz :(

Laurski, I would only provide them with as much milk as you pump when you are away if it is 4oz or more. She won't be hungry, and may just need to cluster feed when you pick her up. Can you send a pacifier or teething ring with her? Also a blanket that you have slept on might be comforting to her. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laurski 

Oh, I'm so glad someone posted this question!  I'm having similar issues with my daycare provider; DD (almost 5 months) is in daycare 4 days a week for about 4 hours a day, and in the beginning (she started there Jan. 4th) I had been giving them 2 3oz bags of frozen milk each day.  Then they told me she was still hungry some days, so I was providing an extra 2oz bag...so some days she's been eating 8oz in 4 hours, which seemed like a huge amount to me.  I've been panicking about the amount she's been eating, because I don't come close to pumping 8oz while I'm away from her (4oz on a very, very good day) so I've been frantically fitting in any pumping I can on weekdays while she naps at home and on weekends.

I'm new at the whole mom thing (and daycare thing) so I didn't want DD to be unhappy and hungry without me, but I don't want her to be overeating, either.  I think part of the problem is that she's teething, so the staff reads her chewing/sucking on her hand as a cue that she wants to eat after she's finished a 3oz bottle, even though she's just enjoying the feel of her hand in her mouth.  They also keep feeding her as soon as she wakes from a nap, which I don't think is always necessary (i.e. they gave her 5oz one morning around 8:30, then fed her another 3oz around 10:45, after she woke from a nap, which seems like a crazy large amount to me!).

Could someone point me to where on kellymom it says that baby needs 1oz per hour while away from me?  I tried following the milk calculation formula that's on the website but I can never keep track of how many times a day DD eats, especially since we co-sleep and she likes to comfort nurse at night.

Oops...sorry to hijack...I'm just so happy to see that I'm not the only one having issues with daycare over this--I was starting to get paranoid that I was being a bad mom and starving DD by feeling they were feeding her too much....

[mom of B]

I think overfeeding at daycare is really common.

DH always fed way less than anyone else.  I think it was because he knew babies different cries, and didn't shove the bottle in at the first whimper.  He could tell hungry/wet/tired/snuggly, and responded appropriately.

[ewe+lamb]

Bottle feeding a baby AM is completely different from a baby who is breastfeed, the carers are used to holding the bottle upright in a vertical position, the milk pours into babies mouth and really they don't have time to even think about it, a breastfed baby perferrably should really be on a horizontal bottle position; baby not lying down but sitting up and supported at the nuc of the neck if baby is unable, the bottle should be presented by stimulating the upper lip off the baby, letting the baby decide if they need to be fed or not, the bottle should be held horizontally with the milk in the front teat of the bottle but at the rear of the teat i.e. the wider part, should have air in the part at the top so that baby really has to suck harder to get the milk out. i can't find a picture on the net for you but this really is the better way, in my humble opinion, to feed a breastfed baby with the bottle.  Good luck in convincing the day care!!

[sssheri]

What we ended up doing, which seems to be working so far, is giving them 4, 2 oz bottles. It state law for daycare centers that once a baby starts drinking from a bottle and stops, they have to throw out the rest of the milk, so that was wasting some. I also gave them some frozen bm in 2 oz bags to use for emergency and/or growth spurt times.