How long am I "entitled" to pump at work?

[LittleKind]

My son will be one year old in 2 months and I am pumping twice a day at work for him. When asked how long he will breastfeed, I generally say around a year, though I know it will be much longer if that's what  he needs. I don't want to overstep by continuing to pump at work, as I am a teacher and my coworkers have to cover my class for me occasionally when I take longer than I expect.

How long am I legally entitled to pump at work?

How long will he likely need to have bottles of pumped milk in the day? He is 10 months and is not too in to solids yet, but we offer them. He takes about 8-12 oz a day and bedshares and night nurses.

Pumping is a total drag, and I want to get out of it without negatively impacting our nursing relationship!

Thanks in advance for any help and ideas!

[dsb76]

I don't know the answer to the legal side of this question but I don't think there is a time limit.

Are you planning on starting any cow's milk at age 1?  I continued breastfeeding my dd when I was home but I stopped pumping by age 1 when I introduced cow's milk.  In fact I got very little time to pump while actually at work - I rarely take "breaks" period and to take a full 15-20 minutes twice a shift just wasn't working out so I stopped pumping at work at about 6 mo.  I actually learned to pump while driving and would pump to and from work - not that I recommend this but that was how I managed (I was never told I couldn't pump at work it just really wasn't that feasible) so I was very happy to switch over to cow's milk as I was using formula to supplement occasionally and that was ridiculously expensive - plus my car got a little messy.  I continued to nurse my dd until she was about 20 months.

[Anna Phor]

Federal law in the US says you are legally entitled to pump until your child is a year old, I believe.

I pumped until my son was 13 months (would have been 12, but he has a November birthday, so we used the Xmas holidays as a natural break). At ten months, we had pretty much the same pattern as you; 8-10 oz per day,  plus night nursing.

He is now 22 months, we are still nursing and cosleeping, my supply is fine. We offer cow's milk during the day but he is not particularly interested. We also give him yogurt, cottage cheese and cheese.

good luck!

[JudiAU]

More than likely vares by state. I would check your state's laws before drawing a conclusion. Probably, it isn't spelled out.

I pumped until 18m and 2y respectively for my DS and DD with an easy pumping situation in my private office. Probably, no one knew or remembered. My supply really tanked when I stopped pumping at worth with DS and he weaned within a few months. I decided to keep pumping for longer with DD to just maintain my supply. It helped a LOT. Both kids only ever had bottles when I wasn't around and then nursed on demand when I was.

Personally, I wouldn't make a big fuss about LO's first birthday and keep pumping as long as I wanted to. If it came up I'd probably mention something neutral like "he is having a hard time transitioning to milk" rather than saying that "I want to be ebf."

[Super~Single~Mama]

It depends on your states laws.  In NY, a workplace is required to provide a place for mom to pump until the child turns 3yo.  Which I happen to think is AWESOME, b/c if a child has allergies, or a medical condition that requires the child to drink breastmilk longer than average, the mother is protected by law.

I'm sure this varies by state, but you want to look in labor laws for your state to find out.

[One_Girl]

According to Federal Law you have at least one year after the birth.  It may be more if your state has a more generous law in place.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/Sec7rFLSA_btnm.htm

Here is a question and answer fact sheet.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/faqBTNM.htm