Expressing Milk for Day Care - how do I know how much he needs?

[ashleyc]

We start day care in a few weeks and I'm trying to figure out how big to make the bottles?  I kind of assumed that the bigger he got the more he needs, but then I was read on kellysmom.com that their needs don't really change much between 1 and 6 months.  They should be eating 24 ounces a day so you divide that by the number of feeding you generally do and you have an idea of ounces per feed.  

That said, I know that he gets more like 4-5 ounces from me at each feeding (from being weighed before and after at the Lactation Consultant) and I feed about 7 times a day, so that means he's getting more like 30+ ounces a day (not 24 /7 or around 3.5 ounces at each feed).  If that all makes sense - LOL! :)

What have other people done?  Obviously I don't want to put too much milk in and then it get wasted!

[sunwise]

I have given my son anywhere between 12-16 oz. per day for daycare since he was 12 weeks old (he will be one year old next week). He is at daycare for 9.5 hours each day. The only thing I have changed over the months is the number of bottles he gets each day, since as he has gotten older, he is more content to go longer between feedings (and he is also eating a good amount of solids). For the first few months, he got 5 bottles - the first 4 had 3-4 oz. each, and the last one was a small 2 oz. bottle to give him a "snack" before he came home (we would nurse right after we got home). Then we dropped down to four 4-oz. bottles. Now we are doing three 5 oz. bottles.

One thing I will warn you about is that daycare providers tend to assume that when babies fuss, they are hungry (because it couldn't *possibly* be anything else!). Mine started pressuring me for more milk when he was probably 4-5 months old, and although I initially resisted, I eventually caved in and started providing 16 oz. per day, every day. (I don't think he actually needed that much, but I was able to pump it, so I was OK with doing it.) So be on the lookout for potential overfeeding!

[ashleyc]

Sunwise, thanks for this.  We *kind of* have LO on a schedule of eating every 3-4 hours (he happily goes this long) so I am going to be sure to let the day care know that.  Also, I don't pump much so I don't want them burning through my breastmilk every time he whimpers.  Just to get an idea of a schedule, could you tell me roughly what times you fed him during the day?

This is kind of how I see our schedule playing out - I'm thinking he will get up and I will feed him around 7:30, then to day care by 8:30, bottle at 10:30 and 1:30 and 4:30 (he usually has a long nap between 12/1 and 3/4/5), but maybe that 4:30 could be a bit smaller so I could nurse him when I get home around 6:00pm and then again around 7:30pm for bedtime.  So that looks like 3 bottles - two would have around 4 ounces and one would have maybe 2-3?  I hope I can pump that much.  Does this seem reasonable.  I know it's good for them to have a little extra just in case and they will store my frozen breast milk there if I want to have surplus on site.

[sunwise]

Here is how our schedule goes currently - we (usually) nurse when DS wakes up, sometime between 6:00-6:30. Then to daycare around 7:00. He gets bottles at roughly 9:00, 12:00, and 4:00. (This can vary depending on naps and when he gets solids - he gets breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack.) He comes home around 4:30. We no longer nurse after he gets home from daycare, but he eats dinner with us. Then we nurse to sleep around 7:00. (And he also nurses overnight, but that is more for comfort than food.)

The amounts you mention sound reasonable  - I know that kellymom.com says that 1oz. to 1.5oz. per hour is generally enough. It sounds like you are thinking of providing about 10-11oz. for a 9.5 hour time at daycare, so it should work. See how it goes - ask the daycare provider how your son seems to be doing, and then re-assess if you want to provide more.

My daycare also offered to store frozen milk "just in case." But then they used a 4 oz. bag the very first day I took Max to daycare, so I vowed that they would never get any of my freezer stash again! (I figured they would use it up *way* too quickly, so I just decided that he would get what I pumped. My freezer stash took time to build and I needed it for work travel as well.)

Oh, and coming back to something that you mentioned in your first post - my DS also used to get easily over 30oz. per day of breastmilk. I only know this from a few overnight trips I took where I left DH in charge. He would use somewhere around 32-34oz. per day for feedings. So your DS is not alone in how much he eats!