How much milk to send to daycare?

[MsSassyBaskets]

How much breastmilk did/do you send to daycare with your babies? I haven't been able to do enough practice runs to get a good idea... From what I can see I think she only eats about an ounce per hour, so 2-3 oz every 2-3 hours. But that seems so low. I know they're all different, but give me a frame of reference?

[alotofyarn]

I started with 3oz every 3-4 hours and slowly increased it as they told me they thought she would drink more. They saved anything she didn't drink for me to take home. I also had 3oz in the freezer there.

[SoonerTexan]

How much milk to send to daycare?

N ate four 5 oz bottles a day. (Which is a ton) J ate about 3, but it differed. Interestingly whenever I had a day of low supply and didn't have enough, each kid seemed to adjust accordingly. My milk doesn't keep well so with J I stopped even keeping a stash.

Check kellymom though--they should have a good reference on what is the norm for his age and weight. And I'm guessing a daycare would be aware, but make sure they realize there is going to be a volume difference between breastfed and formula fed babies



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[SoonerTexan]

Also remember my kids were in the very high percentiles


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[MsSassyBaskets]

We tried bottles during the day today and she only ate 6 oz during "work" hours but it was also a particularly fussy, weird day. I also realized I think she's cluster feeding in the early mornings, waking every hour around 5, 6, and 7, which has been driving me insane. Actually in general she eats best at night and in the morning, and her eating just deteriorates throughout the day until she gets so fussy she refuses a typical feeding time in the early evening and then finally tanks up again right before bed. So she might already be primed to reverse cycle and not eat much at daycare... In which case I built this freezer stash for nothing.

[alotofyarn]

We cluster fed at night for the longest time. Unused freezer stash is better than not having one and needing it!

[civilspouse]

Mine never took bottles well and fed a lot through the night. I would usually take 3-4 bottles with 2-3 oz every day in the beginning. They fed every 2-3 hours. Sometimes my babies would refuse or only take 1 oz so they would just save it. They allowed you to keep 8 oz in the freezer in case they wanted more something got spilled etc.

With DS you could keep as much in the freezer as you wanted so his milk was all frozen. They kept and washed the bottles...so easy. With DD they changed and you had to bring prepared bottles each day. I usually sent what I'd pumped the previous day unless I had stuff in the freezer that needed to be used before it expired.

You will figure out a system. I remember worrying so much about all the little details.


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[scarlett09]

Just wanted to wish you good luck this morning! Sending gentle hugs your way 😊

Is there a BFing support group that you could go to? Doing pre- and post-feed weights helped me determine how much she could take in a bottle. E takes 4-5oz during a feed, 5-6 times a day.

I'm in the same boat as you, going back on Wednesday. Doing a dry run today and I'm already running late haha.


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[oceanchild]

Good luck today!

For a while we were doing 3 5-oz bottles a day. It seemed like a ton, but he drank it. Eventually it shifted to two bigger bottles. And then to formula when I got lazy about pumping around 8 months.

[gem]

It took us a while to figure out the right bottle configuration. My oldest child would take 5 oz at a time, on a very predictable schedule; my youngest rarely more than 2 oz., even when he was a year old, and never on a schedule. So don't think there is a "right" answer! The only tip I have is that it worked better for us to send multiple small bottles rather than fewer big ones. Once a bottle was warmed our daycare could only offer it for an hour before they had to throw it out. I'd check what the policies are with your caregiver. But I'd much rather have them warm a second bottle if he was still eating eagerly at the end of the first rather than have to throw out 5 full ounces of precious pumped milk.

[MsSassyBaskets]

Thanks guys. We did another test run this weekend and she took almost double the day before, so I sent her with 4 3-oz bottles. She's eating more from bottles than I think she typically does from me, so I'm feeling like my supply is low even though it has been totally sufficient for her until now. Hoping it picks up with the extra pumping. Scarlett, big hugs on your transition back to work too.