Nurse on demand and pumped bottles at daycare

[carepear]

If you nurse on demand but send milk to daycare how do you break them up? I typically pump and then split each session in half and put it in two separate milk storage bags.

I end up with bags measuring anywhere from 4 oz to 1.5 oz. Daycare just makes big bottles and gives her whatever she will take at the time. Sometimes it's 3 oz, sometimes it's 1 oz.

Should I break them up into even sized bottles and have them feed on a schedule or just have her eat what she eats? It seems closer to eating on demand this way buy sometimes she will have just had a bottle when I get there and sometimes it's 3 oz or so and then she isn't hungry when I get there or its 1 oz and she nurses like she is starving.

Any thoughts or experiences?

[Altair]

Pumped while working FT for a year--

I don't think you can exactly replicate "on-demand" feeding when you're doing bottles at work and nursing at home, because the demand works differently.  When a baby demands more from the breast, they get a slower stream of fatty hindmilk (then they get full)-- whereas when they demand more from a bottle, it just keeps coming and coming full stream, and they end up eating more than they would have eaten at the breast, potentially.  I know you know all this!  But not over-doing the bottles at work is really key for a lot of women so that there is the right balance of the baby wanting to nurse enough to keep your supply up.

I don't know how old your baby is, but once my baby was a few months old I made the bottles 3.5-4 oz always and sometimes he didn't finish one and it went back in the fridge for the next feeding (Dad watched him so he knew the breastfeeding storage rules).  I'd leave 2-3 of these bottles and most days he only ate 2, but it was nice knowing the 3rd was there just in case.  That way when I came home he was hungry for me and nursed all late afternoon/evening/night/morning.  How much you leave will depend on your hours away.  I was gone 7-8 hours.  A breastfed baby at daycare will often eat and eat and eat and the DCP will ask for more and more milk and then baby doesn't want to nurse as much at home, then supply goes down and you can't keep up with the pumping demand.

Some GREAT articles to print for your DCP on kellymom.com in the pumping section!

[carepear]

Thanks for the response.  It was good to hear a reminder about the difference in "on demand" on bottle vs breast. 

I sometimes think that DC has to work harder on the bottle than the breast because I have super overactive let down.  If she is nursing for food vs comfort she is done in less than 5 minutes however comfort nursing can go on and on.  Sometimes she will unlatch and just keep her mouth open and swallow milk as its pouring down her throat. :)

Luckily daycare has experience with another breastfeeding mom that had supply issues and she did an awesome job in teaching them about breastmilk storage and handling.  They never ever toss milk unless there is a bottle she has already drank out of when I get there since it won't be good for the next day.  And they even ask me for permission first before they do.  They are also really good at not overfeeding her.  She eats 10 - 15 oz a day and I am gone just over 10 hours.  15 oz is rare and usually only happens if she is distracted and doesn't get a good morning nurse. 

I guess my real concern is asking them to feed her on a time schedule and to try to not feed her within 15 min of my arrival.  But withholding food, even for 15 minutes, tends to rub me the wrong way. 

Oh, and she is 5 months old.  I guess its really going pretty good so I'm not sure I want to ask them to feed her on a schedule.  I just can't imagine her consistently eating

[crystal_buffaloe]

You can most certainly ask them not to feed her within 15 minutes of your arrival! DH watches my LO, but we have talked about this -- I would be SO upset if I came home really full and ready to feed her, and she'd just eaten so I have to pump instead. No way! You can even sit and nurse her immediately, at the day care. (If it works with your schedule, it might even help to nurse her at the day care right before you leave for work, too).

I am gone between 4 and 6 hours, and I usually leave a 4-ounce bottle plus a 2-ounce bottle to minimize wastage (though I am okay with him occasionally feeding her a bottle that's she's already started the next day as long as it still looks/smells/tastes okay -- there is a only a tiny amount of research on this). She might take part of the 4-ounce bottle, then finish it an hour or two later and then she may or may not need the small bottle. It's okay to combine pumping sessions to make a bottle -- or to divide it up in smaller portions. 

I do have a freezer stash DH can dip into if needed -- the Lasinoh bags thaw really quickly!