What to feed 1 year old in daycare cow milk, formula, breastmilk?

[lynx0333]

My DD is currently 9 months old but we are soon approaching the 1 year mark. About the same time I will be graduating from Grad School and entering the workforce again (hopefully!). So far I pump as needed to provide milk for when she is in childcare. We spend 3 full days together a week and she is in childcare for some portion of the time 4 days, it varies between me gone most of the day or just afternoons.

She takes a bottle fine.

My milk supply is fine (for the most part).

She is growing fine.

She likes solids so far.

Obviously things are good, we are blessed/lucky.

I hate pumping and once I am working full-time I don't want to continue to pump. When we are home I will nurse her (mornings, evenings, NIGHTS, weekends) till she wants to wean (or 4 YO whichever comes first).

Do I need to still pump and provide milk? Would I switch to formula? Just send in Cow's milk?

My Dr. is kinda anti Milk (and I don't agree with her on that specific issue) and it seems silly to buy formula after all of this time.

What have others done? My son never took a bottle and never ate solids until he was almost 2, and I was home more or less with him so this is new territory for me.

Thanks!

[annettemarie]

Hi there and welcome to MDC! I am going to move this to our Nutrition forum.

I'm not sure what I would do in your situation. I wouldn't want to give formula, and if I were breastfeeding when I was home I would probably send milk when I wasn't there.

[PatioGardener]

I go back to work soon too . I plan to pump and send breastmilk until DS is 2. If it weren't to be possible (if I don't respond to the pump, or grow to hate it), then I would be comfortable sending whole cow's milk, or even no milk if DS was eating a mix of healthy nutrient rich solids and drinking water, and being prepared for him to reverse cycle and nurse like crazy during the evening and night.

With most of his milk coming from me I would see no reason to introduce any kind of formula.

[ammiga]

If it were me, I would pump during the day because I'd worry about my supply tanking. My second choice would be to pump a freezer stash now to send in bottles and not pump at work, then hope my supply would keep up with the time away from nursing and pumping. I wouldn't do formula, and my third choice would be organic whole milk.

[staceychev]

I went back to work when DD1 was 14 months. I never pumped--she had whole, organic cows' milk at daycare, and mommy milk when she was with me. It never affected my supply: she nursed til age four. I pumped with DD2 until just a couple of weeks ago when she was about 11 months (I went back to work when she was 5 months). I started sending one cup of cows' milk with her a day (I know, I know... no flames please) and she has mommy milk the rest of the time. 

[lynx0333]

Thanks for the feedback.

I am really not worried about my supply. Right now I am gone a couple of days a week from 8-3 and just pump when I get home. I actually do not pump at all while I am gone at school, and just pump at strange off time as needed and when I am full. 

My goal is to follow the advice that breastmilk should be the main diet of a baby through age 2, I just find pumping a pain in the butt. I guess if I do have supply issues I could pump during the day and give her that. At the moment I just pump as needed (only at home) and when I am full (aka I have been gone all day) and that has worked just fine for our current needs. My daughter totally digs food and is interested in pretty much all foods, so I feel confident she will eat food while in childcare but was just unsure if that would be enough. I guess the answer probably depends on how much time she is there and how much she nurses at home though! 

[blessedwithboys]

Prior to the age of 2, if there are times when she will need milk and breastmilk isn't availble, she should be given formula.

After 2, you can start to introduce regular cow milk (or goat or whatever) or you can avoid milk substitutes altogether since the basic nutritional need has been met.

[redvlagrl]

I would just send your DD to daycare without anything but continue to BF in the mornings, afternoons and evenings and more often on days when you're home. Nursing 3 or 4 times a day would be fine. This is exactly what we did with DD (started daycare at 1, self weaned (mainly) at 26 mths or so) and it was fine. I would never give formula unless medically necessary (as it was with both my kids right after birth). I would rather give full fat preferably unhomogenized milk than highly processed formula with synthetic chemicals.

[NannyMcPhee]

If you don't want to pump (which is fine) I would send formula or toddler follow-on. Nutritionally it would be vastly better than the cows milk alone.

[Piglet68]

There is no reason to feed a child formula after 1 year of age. If the child is still nursing 3 - 4 times per day (and this can happen during the evening and/or at night) then they are getting all the "milk" needs that they require. This is also assuming that they are eating solid foods at this point too. If the child is not nursing as often for some reason, the same nutrients can be got from cheese, yogurt, and other dairy foods. Toddler "follow on" is highly processed food and completely unnecessary if the child is still nursing and is eating healthy solid foods. 

I'd send a bottle of breastmilk in if you've got it (you could start building a freezer stash now with little extra effort) but if you don't have that just send in some solid food snacks and have her drink water. 

[bonjourmama]

How about coconut milk? so delicious makes a good one. no need for formula if you are nursing too. but that it just my opinion. nak. 

[mnnice]

I had a huge stash of frozen breast milk from earlier (ds1 refused to take a bottle around 6-7 months) with ds1 that he decided he liked in a sippy around 11 months (that lasted during daycare for 3-4 months).  I nursed him at lunch on work days and whenever he felt like it on non-lunch days.  He did drink some whole cow's milk at breakfast and snack, but not usually at lunch.

I transitioned ds2 to more cow's milk a little earlier because I didn't have the stash I had with ds1.  He started daycare at 6 1/2 month and really never took a bottle.  He'd nurse at lunch, pick-up time and ate solids the rest of the time.

I'd visit at lunch or pump if either of those were feasible.  Otherwise I'd pick the sub (cow's milk, coconut milk ect) you felt most comfortable with and not worry about it too much.

[miche28]

When I went back to work at around a year, I chose not to pump and breastfed just at night and on weekends - most mothers I know did the same (some did pump for a while). Just a warning - the reverse cycling that can often happen when you are away full-time is tough and I have noticed it seems to happen less when a baby is happy to drink breastmilk during the day through a sippy (could be coincidence, but I think I'd trade pumping for sleep!) Either way, whatever non-breastmilk milk she gets during the day should be treated just as a beverage - so whether it's cow's milk, goat's milk, almond milk, it shoudln't make up much of her diet.

There's absolutely no reason for a healthy child to be on formula past a year (probably earlier than a year) - the most critical thing that's in formula that's not in cow's milk at that stage is iron and a healthy child eating solids will do just fine without it. It's a sad commentary on how pervasive commercial food marketing is that most parents don't know that.