Daycare pushing me to bring in more breastmilk...

[Headmeister]

My daughter will be 7 months old on the 17th. Currently we EBF and she gets 3 bottles at daycare. I nurse her within 30 minutes before she goes. She naps, and then they give her the first bottle - 6 ounces with probiotics & cod liver oil - around 3 hours later. She doesn't always take all 6 at once, but most of the time does. If not, they try again in an hour and she finishes it all. 3-3.5 hours after the first time they gave her the bottle, they give her the second bottle - another 6 ounces. So the first bottle is usually around 10:30am, the second usually around 1-2pm. I send a third bottle with about 3-4 ounces and they give her that usually around 4. She gets picked up between 5-53:0 and we're home in literally 2 minutes. The first thing I do is nurse her as soon as we get through the door. She is never, ever starving for food, and most times doesn't even do a full feed at that time.

With my first daughter - also brought to this same daycare (which I love actually), I had massive overproduction and supplied them with gallons of breastmilk. With my DD2 now, I can barely pump what she needs every day for daycare. They think I should be giving them 3-4 bottles, and all should be at least 6 ounces. I was giving them 5 ounces until they requested more a few times, so now she gets 6. But I don't pump enough during the day to give them what THEY want to give her, and she's not demanding it either from what a few of the women there tell me (only a few of the women are requesting more).

At home we nurse on demand and she's a great nurser. My question is, am I really not sending enough for the time she's there?

[PatioGardener]

It sounds like they are over feeding (or want to) to me. kellymom has some great info that they may read/pay attention to.

Do you guys cosleep/nurse through the night?

[cristeen]

They're over feeding her.

She should be taking approx 32 oz in 24 hrs. So if shes at daycare for 8 or 9 hrs, she should not be getting 16 oz, and definitely not more than. Unless she STTN and doesnt eat, which can change things.

I would stop giving them 6 oz bottles. My ff guy didnt start taking 6 oz at a sitting even occassionally until over a year. Give them 4x 4 oz bottles with newborn nipples on them, so she has to work for it. The longer it takes her to eat a bottle, the less likely she is to be overfed. This also keeps them from dumping any unused bm, since 4 oz should be about what she wants in a feeding at that age. Is she getting any solids? Thats another thing you can give them instead of more bm, measured amounts of solids for her to have 1x a day.

HTH

[Headmeister]

Our nursing "schedule" (though I BF on demand while home):

7:30-8:30am: nurse (once during that time)

10-11: first bottle at daycare (6oz)

1-2: 2nd bottle at daycare (6oz)

4-5: 3rd bottle at daycare (3 oz)

5:30-6: nurse once during that time

8-9: nurse once during that time

11-12: nurse once during that time

4-4:30am: nurse once during that time

We do co-sleep

Granted, there are times when she doesn't seem to want to do a full feed, but then again, why would she if she was stuffed all day?

I said to one of the women who watch her that the others wanted her to have more, and I told her that it was either enough or too much already, and she agreed. This morning a different woman questioned my DH (who dropped my girls off) as to why it was that my DD1 got so much more when she was an infant than DD2. This is just false - I provided more because I made boatloads... I always got milk back from them with my DD1. This time I'm giving exactly what I want her to have and I get nothing back, so it's fine.

I did use the kellymom guide as a reference when speaking to this woman about how many ounces she should consume in a day and she was wowed by how much more they're requesting once I mentioned it. I heart Kellymom...lol...

I think I'm going to split it up into 4 bottles - I can't remember but I think that's what I did with my DD! (it was only 2 years ago, you'd think I'd remember...lol). I do give them slow-flow nipples as well.

Oh, and my DD2 is getting *some* solids (broccoli, roasted sweet potato, hummus, yogurt, roasted carrots), though not a ton right now, as I have been so busy and not having a lot of time to focus on it. I'll be working on that more in the next month for sure.

Thanks for the input, I'm really appreciative of your replies :)

[PatioGardener]

Sounds like you're on the ball with this, and your day care provider is just in need of some kind but firm re-direction.

Your girls are gorgeous, btw

[Headmeister]

Thanks Patio Gardener! BTW, I'm an avid gardener and just reading your profile name makes me yearn for spring...lol.

[elus0814]

I've never given any of my kids more than a couple bottle so I'm not sure if that's a normal amount or not but from reading that they sometimes have to coax her to eat more it sounds like she is getting too much. My 22 month old drinks cow's milk and a full 5oz sippy fills him up to the point that he doesn't want to eat much of anything else. He's 27 pounds and average height. To me, it sounds like they feel a full baby is a happy baby and intend to stuff all the kids full so they behave and sleep more. Have you tried bottle feeding for a day at home with pumped milk so you can see how much she needs to be full but not overfull? If it's less than what they're giving her you can tell them that and supply just enough with maybe a couple ounces extra just in case. I think of it this way - if you give a baby cookies or other treat they will eat sick, breastmilk is sweet and tastes good so there is no reason why she won't eat all that's offered but just because she'll eat it doesn't mean she needs it. 

[Headmeister]

I'm sure they aren't over feeding her to keep her sleepy. She isn't a great sleeper with food or without, and they adore her. I just think that these two women in particular, based on my own past experiences with them with my older daughter whom they also watched at that age, that they are set in their ways about what my baby needs. They are both very dogmatic in their approach, but adore her just the same. These are also the only two women that my DD seems to have frequent blowouts with, because they're not following my instruction with the cloth diapers to a T. They leave them too loose, or as one of them did, extended the rise thinking that the more space available in the diaper, more room for the poop. They've had to be reminded many times to not adjust the diaper but to just make the velcro tighter, to no avail. So I'll just have to stand my ground. They can't feed her more than I give them, right? lol...

As for figuring out the bottle amts at home, not possible. If I'm anywhere within speaking distance, she refuses the bottle. She'll also refuse the bottle from anyone other than the daycare women. She's one smart cookie my little one...lol.

[Anna Phor]

I think you are sending enough. My boy got 3x 4oz bottles (so 12oz total) for the 9 hours we were apart, for about 10 months until I stopped pumping, and he stayed right at the same level on the weight charts over the entire time.

[JudiAU]

Sounds like a reasonable amount and within guidelines. Perhaps it is time to show them kellymom style calculations about what she needs.

I'd also consider moving evening out the bottles a lit and moving the last one a little earlier if she doesn't generally finish. I thought I read somewhere that 5 oz was the maximum bottle size recommended for any bf babe., My big nurser 

Does she take any solids? Perhaps that is also a concern of theirs. Sometimes delaying solids really freaks people out and they may think they need to compensate.

My bigger eater took 3 s5 oz with more nursing before and after and my smaller eater takes 3 x 4 oz with less nursing before and after.