Daycare worries, part 2

[KKsMomma]

I posted earlier asking a lot of questions about day care and my 10 month old son having a very different routine at daycare vs. at home. I found everyone's responses really helpful and I am feeling much more hopeful about daycare now. We have ironed a lot of things out and I feel really good about everything (even the separation, which we practiced a few times already; now down to only 2 minutes of crying and mostly having a ton of fun and kissing other babies) . . . everything except drinking milk and eating. As I mentioned before, he is breastfed and doesn't take a bottle or cup well at all. The daycare providers suggested that DH offer him a bottle each day in the days preceding our start time. Well, that's not going very well! He just pushes it away and cries. Unfortunately, I bought a lot of bottles, too .

We are thinking of trying to see if he will take the milk from a sippy cup  or even a regular cup when he is eating a snack. He likes to do what we do, so I don't know if a special kid cup will even work. I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts about whether a 10 month old who eats solids like a champ could make it 9 hours without milk from a bottle or a cup. I guess they could mix some milk with baby cereal and offer sips with snacks. All in all, it wouldn't be much milk.

Anyway, at first I was feeling pretty relaxed about the food aspect of the situation, but after visiting the daycare and talking with the providers again, it seemed like they were a little nervous dealing with a baby who didn't take a bottle. Of course, in the same conversation, one of them mentioned that a 12 month old they were watching didn't eat the day before and ate well today, so maybe that means they won't add too much anxiety to the mix. I, on the other hand, might.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Even a suggestion to chill out? Do you know a baby the age of ours who eats all day at daycare and nurses before and after?

[nextcommercial]

Well, at 10 months, if he's eating solids, he should be fine, and he can certainly manage a cup.  He might not take to a cup right this week, but he will eventually take to a cup.  Or a water bottle or something.  If he takes no milk at all during the day, that will be fine too.  He will make up for it when he's with you.

I have a daycare, and I have an 11 month old who has been hard to feed from day one.  HARD.   I actually lost sleep over it for a while.   But, somehow, he's a happy, healthy chubby baby.  He drinks out of a Rubbermade straw juice box, and has been drinking from a regular unlidded cup for five months.  He doesn't take milk here, but he's a champ at drinking water.  http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Tot-Training-Green-Ounce/dp/B0038JDUDE/ref=pd_sim_ba_36

http://www.amazon.com/Kinderville-Little-Bites-Cups-Four/dp/B002LZEJ90/ref=pd_sim_ba_37

I hold the unlidded cups for him, and he makes a mess,but, he's hydrated.

Another trick that works well, is he LOVESSSSS to eat from those rubber frozen yogurt pouch things.  (they look like reusable gogurt things)  Anyway, if I want him to eat milk, I mix it in the yogurt, and he'll inhale that.  

It's all about learning the tricks, and it always works in the end.  By 12 months, most kids are sitting at the table with bigger kids and eating off a plate...so, he's getting close to being one of the "big kids".

[emilysmama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KKsMomma 

We are thinking of trying to see if he will take the milk from a sippy cup  or even a regular cup when he is eating a snack. He likes to do what we do, so I don't know if a special kid cup will even work. I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts about whether a 10 month old who eats solids like a champ could make it 9 hours without milk from a bottle or a cup. I guess they could mix some milk with baby cereal and offer sips with snacks. All in all, it wouldn't be much milk.

Anyway, at first I was feeling pretty relaxed about the food aspect of the situation, but after visiting the daycare and talking with the providers again, it seemed like they were a little nervous dealing with a baby who didn't take a bottle.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Even a suggestion to chill out? Do you know a baby the age of ours who eats all day at daycare and nurses before and after?

My daughter did.  There are a couple differences between your child and mine.

When my dd was 9 months old, my dd went 3 days a week, 15 hours a stretch, without any thing at daycare or at home, in spite of day care and dad's best efforts. (I worked both days and nights three times a week, and days the rest of the week.)  At that time, she wasn't even interested in solids until 12 months, so she didn't even have that.  The daycare providers said that when they offered the breastmilk, she just turned her head away from it.  (I threw away three freezer-fulls of expired pumped milk because of this.)

When dd entered daycare at 6 months old, we had already unsuccessfully tried her with the bottle, but she never figured out the bottle.

Instead, at 6 months old, we taught the day care providers to feed dd with a very small plastic cup, the kind that comes with cough syrup.  We would send the milk in these little plastic containers (http://www.mothersmilkmate.com/), and the day care provider would pour the milk into the tiny cup and feed it to dd. She didn't drink nearly as much as the bottle fed children.  She drank very little, in fact, and just barely enough for her to get by.  For the first month or so, dd drank from the tiny cup that way, but after a couple months, she started to refuse the breastmilk entirely.

BUT, and this is important, the day care providers reported that she was perfectly cheerful all day and did not cry.  She just refused to drink.

Instead, dd reverse cycled.  I'd come home 15 hours later at midnight, when everyone including dd was fast asleep.  I tumbled into bed, and dd would wake up and breastfeed while I was sleeping.  (I don't remember much of that, because I was asleep.)  We co-sleep, so it was easy to manage.  The next morning, when we dropped dd off at daycare at 6am, she was perfectly contented.

Dd was fine on the growth charts at the time, and very healthy.  I was reassured because I counted wet diapers every day, and they were fine.

I did have to reassure the daycare providers not to worry.  If she had been crying while refusing the breastmilk, I would have wanted to know, but if she was other wise happy, I saw no need for concern. I told the day care providers to keep offering every 2 hours, but not to worry if she refused.

The breast milk containers weren't a waste of money however, because at 12 months, dd started to drink directly from the containers, as one would from a cup.

[KKsMomma]

Thank you both! We just went in for another visit to the doctor and she said that she had no concerns, so that helps (and it should help reassure his daycare providers). I am expecting some reverse cycling, but we also co-sleep after he wakes up for the first time after I go to sleep. It's good to know that even a baby who refused all day could be happy and growing well. Thank you again!